I have a 2001 protege es and I noticed the rocking and jerking when in a parking lot or rush hour traffic, or with the cruse control but it finally got annoying enuff to fix it.
(this is not a permanent fix but since the cost for most people will be 0$ )

anyway the problem is that the throttle tip in is to fast, so to fix that you must change how it behaves.

on the throttle body there is a round channel that the throttle cable wraps around. the fix is to make this a bit oblong, what I did is take a pen eraser cut it in half and then cut alittle off of the sides and stick it it the slot about a cm from the end, this the throttle valve open slower when you push lightly on the gas and a lot less jerking. this may make the throttle cable a little to tight so you may have to bend the stop behind the pedel a few mm.

anyway works good for me so far.

 

I often wondered why the factory or some aftermarket didn't design them like that (oblong). Ever see the elderly take off from a red light, It's like 0mph to thier max 45mph in ½ sec. Ok, I'm not picking on the elderly, compared to some here I am elderly

 

Actually, the idea is sound and there are aftermarket ones out there...for other cars or aftermarket fuel inj. setups. Somebody need to make one for our cars. If I ever get that Smithy 3 angle machining station....

 

Thanks Traveler, I have read your posts with great interest, and did the same kind of stuff as you when I was much younger...
I have some friends in Spokane, and I would like to see your ride sometime if I ever drive over the pass and visit them..

 

I think I can envision what you are talking about, but can you post a pic to clarify?

Thanks,
Eric

 

I can take pics, but
how do I post them, it says I cannot post attachments ?

 

it'd be great if anyone could let us know how to upload the pictures, cause i'd like to try this over the weekend.
could be way off, but i'm guessing the rubber is about 4 x 4 x 10 MM in size, wedged in between 6 and 7 oclock on the disc and that you had to take the disc off the throttle body to insert the wedge? is this close? thanks

 

well, I got a pen with an eraser, pulled the eraser out of the pen it looked like this

O:::::O


Then I cut it in half so it looked like this O::O then I shaved a very little off each side so it looked like this 0::0 and fit very tightly in the slot that the throttle cable winds in.

have someone push your gas pedel all of the way down or you can reach in and do it yourself, at WOT you will see at the end of the slot at about 11:00
reach in holding the throttle open and jam the eraser in tightly at about 10:00 and you are done.
on mine it is a little less than a cm from the end of the slot.

the eraser piece I used was 6mm long about 4mm wide and 6mm high

this should take less than 5 minutes total time and no taking anything apart

 

i'd like to hear if this works for others, but unfortunately it didn't really work for me.

for me, the jerking went away, but it was cause the rubber wedge raised the idle up to about 1500 RPM, maybe cause the throttle cable was pulled too tight. i cut the height of the wedge several times, down to about 3 mm, which lowered the idle, but it was still too high (down from 1800 to 1400 RPM). i've got an 02 p5, and i couldn't see any way of slacking the throttle cable behind the gas peddle.

like suggested, a hard ink eraser is a good idea (cause a pencil eraser is too soft).

if anyone can suggest how to get a few mm slack in the throttle cable, i'll give it another try.

 

I noted in the first post that there does not seem to be any easy to find adjustment on the throttle cable, however if you look behind your gas pedel you will see a piece of metal with a rubber thing on it which stops the pedel from coming forward. that you can bend a few mm , or maybe just remove the rubber thing
my car idled high for a few minutes also, but after I drove it for a few miles it settled down and is now happy at about 600 rpm,

 

altering the shape of the throttle disk, using a rubber wedge, has fixed the jerk about 90%. i'm still paying with the size and location of the eraser to improve it a bit more.

i made about 1/4 " slack in the gas cable, doing what wilmit said. i removed the gas peddle, removed the rubber stop behind the gas peddle (about 3/16 "), bent the metal tab that the stop was fixed to (about 1/8") and then added back a thin rubber disk to replace the original rubber stop (about 1/16")....so in total made about 1/4" slack. (maybe this can be done without removing the gas peddle from the car.)

then i inserted the rubber wedge into the throttle disk as suggested. the idle is fine.

i've experimented over the last few weeks with the size and location of the wedge. it's not 100%, but it's a LOT better than it was. (the jerk seems to be gone for the most part in slow traffic, but if the car is coasting and almost stopped and the engine drops right down to idle, it's still there when putting the foot on the gas.)

thanks wilmit for the idea. tell your family you're a genius!!!

 

Info for posting pictures is below. I followed the instructions and they worked perfectly.


http://www.protegeclub.com/forum/sho...&threadid=2419

 

I think you can get some slack in the cable , by adjusting
the nut at the cruise control unit. (2000 Protege ES)