Foot to the Floor - Hidden Power?!

anelson2000 · Post by **anelson2000** » 04 Jun 2005, 02:23

<font face="Tahoma">Hello again!
My "trusty" ZX is suffering from a mysterious feature..
Being a 1.9D forward motion is usually attained by having foot welded to the floor, but, recently I have noticed that if I stamp hard on the accelerator pedal (ie pushed right into the carpet) then I seem to get more power! It's a bit weird, but knowing nothing of how the accelerator side of things work I'm in need of advice..
Is there some sort of cable that can become slack, reducing the ammount of momentum on the pedal?!
Cheers in advance for any ideas..
Adrian</font id="Tahoma">

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 04 Jun 2005, 03:55

Yup [:)]
The ZX has an enormeus power hidden in the carpets - you just have to hit the floor right !
In more popular terms I'd suggest you take a real sharp look at your accelerator cable linkage in the engine bay at the diesel pump [;)]
- was (is ? ) a common problem on BX diesels.

adamskibx · Post by **adamskibx** » 04 Jun 2005, 05:09

I noticed my BX lost power on the way to Brighton the other day- Turned out the accelerator pedal had bent to one side where the floor starts to slope upwards. Think it had been deliberately bent to the right before to make the pedals more central which I can understand. BX pedals are off to the left like a lot of citroen pedals are which can give back touble. I just bent it back but deliberately only as much as I could get away with.

sooty · Post by **sooty** » 04 Jun 2005, 16:15

Yes, as Anders says you best check your linkage.
Get someone to sit in the car and push the throttle pedal to the floor and you check to see if the throttle lever on the pump is touching the Max. throttle stop. If not, while the pedal is held down. Where the cable comes through a bracket, you should see a wire type 'Cir clip', pull this off and pull the outer cable away from the bracket to remove any slack in the cable connected to the throttle lever, till the lever touches the stop, then put the clip back on the cable against the bracket. And recheck the throttle again against the floor.

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 04 Jun 2005, 17:23

i have known lever on pump to partly seize,so even with cable adjusted corectly it still didnt get full throtle,i also find zxs sometimes slugish compaired to bxs,i think they have diferant gearing regards malcolm

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 04 Jun 2005, 20:10

Being a Citroen Driver for many years I find all other cars off-set to the right!
However I have never thought the pedal in a single seater are offset to the right as they are right in front of you feet and feel normal. This makes me think that the pedals in Citroens are in the right place (i.e. right in front of you) and that other cars are genuinely offset.

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 04 Jun 2005, 20:14

Hmmm. Let me clarify that.
When I drove my sisters Merc yesterday I put my foot on what I thought was the throttle and thought there wasn't much movement in the throttle on this car. Then I quickly realised I was pressing the brake!
This never happens in single seaters so I think that Citroen pedals are central and other cars are offset.
I remember driving a Clio one day and when I got back in the old AX thought my clutch had managed to fail whilst parked. The pedal had apparently gone rock hard. Obviously this time I was pressing the brake!

adamskibx · Post by **adamskibx** » 05 Jun 2005, 01:17

Umm thats interesting- I do always feel like im twisting to the left though- recently drove a P reg Polo 1.9 D and that felt normal in comparison, and I know that the motoring press complain about the Saxo pedals being off to the left all the time.

rossnunn · Post by **rossnunn** » 05 Jun 2005, 05:01

Farthers old BX TD estate had a brokoen pedal box, (we always just thought it was sluggish) the pedal moved so far out one day it would go about 25mph. We got so pissed off the old man stopped, gave the pedal a shove over & then we found the turbo & the thing felt like it had a afterburner strapped on the back!! lol
He killed that changing the clutch cable & knocked off the bottom inlet turbo pipe six weeks later that turbo sucked in one to many stones! lol he didn't mind cos the thing was a shed!

JohnT · Post by **JohnT** » 06 Jun 2005, 18:18

I have just had the same problem with a Xantia. It was working fine then I changed the idle setting as it was idling at 1000rpm. I then found after I had loosened the stop adjustment it created exactly the same problems as you have. 0-60 in an eternity, (no problems withe cable). Have now gone back to the original setting and is now OK. If after trying all these suggestions from the posts try this. Can anyone help by suggesting what causes this fuel delivery problem when altering the idle????

Oscar Too · Post by **Oscar Too** » 06 Jun 2005, 18:26

A friend of mine had a Xant that ran like a fat boy with asthma - it was so bad I got out to open the bonnet and see whether there really was a turbo in the engine bay or whether the badge had been superglued on. Then one day he hoovered the carpet, and it went like a rocket afterwards. Reason? The carpet had bunched up under the accelerator pedal and was fouling it, stopping it working properly.
This is a true story.

bikeboyz · Post by **bikeboyz** » 06 Jun 2005, 20:06

I found this problem on the 504 too, I simply placed a heavy weight on the accelerator holding down as far as it would go. Then under the bonnet looked at the fuel pump. I could still manually move the pump lever open more. Adjustment on my Roto Diesel pump (same as lucas), is to pull off the R clip from the plastic adjustor, slide the adjustor along until lever fully open, replace clip. Start it up and check tick over is ok. Certainly pull like a tank now, must be getting the full 70bhp (thats all !), from it.

anelson2000 · Post by **anelson2000** » 07 Jun 2005, 00:20

Nice one,
As always a quick and effective response! It's raining now else I'd go outside and have a look at the bits mentioned (yeah I'm not a REAL citroen driver, the rain does keep me away...)
Thanks guys.

JohnT · Post by **JohnT** » 07 Jun 2005, 03:40

You did not get a really helpful diagnosis did you? Intersting problem..take the advice and let us know the outcome.

anelson2000 · Post by **anelson2000** » 11 Jun 2005, 04:26

Hiya,
As suggested I've had a look at the throttle lever on the pump, and it's about 3-5 mils off touching the max throttle stop, not enough to spend too much time worrying now but I will take a look when time allows! Thanks for everyone's suggestions and help!
Cheers, Adrian.