Cleaning throttle pedal and throttle body pots

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One of the most often occurring problem with electronic throttle (pedals and throttle bodies) is the potentiometers wearing out. Worn pots will not give a smooth output signal (they may be scratchy), which will cause the car to feel jerky at the often used lower portion of the pedal. Although the ECU can filter the noise out of the signal to some extent, the faulty sensor has to be replaced or fixed! In most of the cases the conductive elements in the potentiometers are intact, they are just oxidized or contaminated with their own material (which has worn out during use), therefore a simple cleaning can make the throttle pedal and throttle body to work perfect again. If the car feels jerky at partial throttle (while trying to maintain a constant speed), the first thing to check is the signal of the throttle pedal position sensor!

The two logs below (autolog at 10hz sample rate) show the same car with the same throttle pedal, before and after cleaning pots. You can see it on the first picture, that the (red) signal of the throttle pedal position is not smooth (though the driver is holding the pedal steady). The (orange) signal of the throttle position sensor (throttle body) is also irregular, but that is just following the faulty signals of the pedal, so always begin with cleaning the throttle pedal pots first! If the signal of the throttle pedal is smooth, but the signal of the throttle body is spiky then the pots in the throttle body have to be cleaned!


Autolog: contaminated, scratchy pedal pots. Before cleaning.

Autolog: perfect pedal pots. Same pedal after cleaning.
The cleaning can be carried out after dismantling the units, using plain brake cleaner, electrical contact cleaner and cotton ear sticks!

These screws hold the cover on the pedal, unscrew them!	The resistive elements can be found on the back of the cover. These have to be cleaned!
The resistive elements look similar in the throttle body, too. These have to be cleaned!	DO NOT TOUCH the brushes in the pedal and in the throttle body! Spray them with contact cleaner only!