Intermittent overly sensitive Accelerator

My girlfriend has 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe

Most of the time the accelerator behaves normally, but periodically it
over-accelerates when you barely touch the pedal causing the car to
lurch forward, pulling your foot off he gas! This is an automatic by
the way. She’s been informed by the dealership it’s got an electronic
throttle, and there are no cable problems, and just she just needs to
be careful with the pedal. We find that answer unacceptable.

It has been a ongoing problem for about the last year or two, the
first two years she owned the Santa Fe it didn’t display this
problem. It can occur several times in one day irrespective of the
engine being hot or cold, and then not again for weeks or months.

Any advice, suggestions, or thoughts, other than “Just be sensitive
with the pedal and live with it” would be appreciated!

Thanks in Advance,

-Brian and Erica

 

You sure its a 2004? Not sure for the SF but the electronic throttle didn't
start on the Sonata until 2006. Every engine for the 2004 SF that I looked
at on hmaservice shows a cable. sounds like a loose
connector/bracket/clamp.

My girlfriend has 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe

Most of the time the accelerator behaves normally, but periodically it
over-accelerates when you barely touch the pedal causing the car to
lurch forward, pulling your foot off he gas! This is an automatic by
the way. She’s been informed by the dealership it’s got an electronic
throttle, and there are no cable problems, and just she just needs to
be careful with the pedal. We find that answer unacceptable.

It has been a ongoing problem for about the last year or two, the
first two years she owned the Santa Fe it didn’t display this
problem. It can occur several times in one day irrespective of the
engine being hot or cold, and then not again for weeks or months.

Any advice, suggestions, or thoughts, other than “Just be sensitive
with the pedal and live with it” would be appreciated!

Thanks in Advance,

-Brian and Erica

 

I'm not disagreeing with you but what is the way that a loose clamp can
cause a touchy pedal? Could this funny behavior also be caused by a bad
engine mount? Thanks.

 

OOps. Girlfriend reports it's actually an 06.

Sorry about that.

-Brian

 

Sorry everyone, it IS an 2006.

Please re-tune your answers to reflect that piece of information.

-Brian

 

This may sound strange, but the first thing I would try is a bottle of fuel
system cleaner with your next fill. It is amazing what doing that does.
And you won't hurt your car if that is not the answer.


Sorry everyone, it IS an 2006.

Please re-tune your answers to reflect that piece of information.

-Brian

 

There's a reprogram to provide a more linear throttle response on
2003-2006 Santa Fes. It bugs me that you say the problem is
intermittent; that could suggest a different problem. Also, the
reprogram may have already been done.

 

That's interesting. I didn't know that. I have a 2004 Santa Fe 3.5L and I
think that's exactly what it needs. What it has now, and has had ever since
I bought it a few years ago, is a non-linear response when starting out from
a complete stop. If I am not VERY careful, it tends to do nothing at first
while depressing the gas pedal and then suddenly lurches forward. I have
mostly learned to start out very carefully to reduce or prevent that, but
that doesn't always work.

I'm the person that posted before about deciding to get the timing belt
replaced etc. and I think I am probably going to go ahead and do that next
week. If I do, I'll ask them about the possible reprogramming option. My
warranty expired about 8,000 miles and 9 months ago, so I'll have to ask
them if the reprogramming is covered anyway since it was apparently a
defect.

 

This should be covered under the 8/80 emissions warranty, as the
defective component would be the ECM.

You might also try to re-initialize the throttle. To do this, turn
the ignition on then immediately off and wait ten seconds. Then, turn
on, wait ten seconds, turn off and immediately back on, and wait ten
seconds. This will cause the ECM to do a sweep of the throttle plate
and recalibrate the throttle plate motor to the throttle position
sensor.

 

Amazing. I tried that a few days ago. Maybe just it's my imagination, but
it seems to have worked! Since trying the fix, I haven't been able to
reproduce the problem I was having where I would depress the gas pedal and
nothing would happen and then the vehicle would suddenly lurch forward.

A friend of mine has a 2002 Hyundai XG350L and he has had the same problem.
I had him try the fix you suggested and he said it worked and the problem is
gone. I am not sure if the same fix was supposed to work with his vehicle,
but he is certain that it did. In looking up his 2002 Hyundai XG350L
online, I found a link that suggests a similar type of "reboot" sequence:
http://www.search-autoparts.com/sea...estandard//motorage/162005/156229/article.pdf .
In that website, it says the system initializes itself by turning the
ignition on then off in less than 1 second and then waiting 20 seconds.

 

I had the same problem with my '08 Elantra very smooth now, thanks for the
tip.

 

The site is probably correct except that you only need to wait 20
seconds. I think both of us were being conservative. The website
added time, and I couldn't recall whether the procedure was off-then-
on or on-then-off. We just both set it up to cover our bases.