I've seen this posted before but previous OP's haven't had exactly the same parameters as me so wanted to ask again.

I am having an issue with my throttle sticking. 2003 TL was in Arizona the time I had it so it rarely got below freezing. Move to Virginia and as we get into winter I notice after it's parked for a period of hours either overnight or while at work the throttle gets stuck. The pedal would not want to go down at all, so I would have to put serious weight on it and it would "break free".

Then one time I had go put more weight on it than ever before to break free and although the pedal went back to its up position, the throttle was stuck and the engine was bouncing off 6000 rpms shaking the entire car. Press down on the pedal and barely any tension on it whatsoever, just the tension of the spring none of the cable. After turning it off and then turning it on a few times over a period of 10 minutes it un sticks itself and I'm able to get to work.

This happens once more and im able to get it to stop and drive it to dealer. Dealer says can't reproduce the problem and cleans the throttle body. I have no issues after that.

Fast forward to now we just had our first sub 20 degree days and nights notice it's a little sticky over the past 2 days but nothing major. Go out to my car tonight and have to put serious weight on the pedal again as it will not go down as if something is stuck behind it, but there's nothing there. It breaks free and sure enough goes right back to red line status. I turn the car off and look at the pedal and see the end of the cable and the three what look to be oversized rubber washers hanging limp through the end of pedal and there is no tension on the cable. After a few tries of on and off it just suddenly stopped red lining again and I was able to drive home.

So long story short, pedal stuck, put serious weight on pedal, it breaks free. But then it appears that the cable is stuck in the pulled position because the engine is redlining and there is no tension on the pedal. Any ideas?

 

Thats a serious safety issue, Sounds to me like its the throttle cable thats broken on the inside however you need to check a few things first.
Go under the hood and locate the throttle, With the engine off try to manually move the throttle if it does not move the problem is on the throttle body.
You can remove the cable from the throttle body and move it back and forth to check for smooth operation.
Could also be the cleaning of the throttle body was not done correctly.

 

You have 5 obvious parts that could be hanging up. Isolate them and check for free play or lack of. You're looking for smoothness, anything out of the ordinary. You may need to duplicate the same temps if needed.

1. Gas pedal.
2. Gas pedal cable.
3. Throttle body.
4. Cruise control cable.
5. Cruise control unit.

Check the cables for fraying; some kind of interference; corrosion, etc.

 

First check the linkage where the cable attaches to the throttle body and make sure they are on correctly (make sure the cruise control cable wheel isnt broken, its only made out of plastic.

If all looks good there, take off your intake tube, manually open the throttle body and look for carbon deposits. Take a old tooth brush and some carb cleaner and spray the butterfly and throttle body where it closes and scrub them clean. See if you still have the sticking after that. If so its something in your cable.

 

A little late to the party on my response, but I ended up resolving this. I had to have the throttle body replaced. The TB was warped and the flap was getting stuck open. The cold weather was causing the throttle body itself to contract to tightly around the flap, causing it to stay open. It was intermittent because engine heat and/or warmer temps caused it to expand to where it worked again.

 

I find it hard to believe it warped unless there was a fire in the throttle body. More likely carbon buildup, a little polishing would have taken care that.

 

THis

 

Yep. I had the same problem. Remove the TB and thoroughly clean both the bore and flapper. No problems since.