Erratic Throttle Behaviour

[Hyphen]

Hi,

My wife replaced her much loved 1995 Rav4 with a 2005 model recently.

Great car if it would drive properly!

The throttle has a mind of it’s own, when you de-clutch and take your foot off the throttle the engine speed rises by up to 1500 revs and hangs there for a second before dropping back and when taking off if we try to move off gently at quite low revs the clutch engages with a bang and often stalls, nightmare in rush hour traffic. The whole setup feels wrong.

The dealer tells me this is normal for recent rav4s, twitchy throttle and aggressive clutch, but has replaced some throttle parts anyway whidh has not helped at all.

We have both been driving for more than 30 years so don’t think It’s us not able to drive.

Does anybody have similar experience or have any suggestions as to the cause, the dealer seams unable to help.

Thanks.

[three5]

Hi,

My wife replaced her much loved 1995 Rav4 with a 2005 model recently.

Great car if it would drive properly!

The throttle has a mind of it’s own, when you de-clutch and take your foot off the throttle the engine speed rises by up to 1500 revs and hangs there for a second before dropping back and when taking off if we try to move off gently at quite low revs the clutch engages with a bang and often stalls, nightmare in rush hour traffic. The whole setup feels wrong.

The dealer tells me this is normal for recent rav4s, twitchy throttle and aggressive clutch, but has replaced some throttle parts anyway whidh has not helped at all.

We have both been driving for more than 30 years so don’t think It’s us not able to drive.

Does anybody have similar experience or have any suggestions as to the cause, the dealer seams unable to help.

Thanks.

Hi Hyphen and welcome to the forum. So that some of our more knowledgeable members can get a bettert idea of what the problem may be, can you add some further details to your profile, specifically, exactly which model of RAV you have and the engine type please?

Do you know if the On Board Computer ( OBC ) is producing any error codes and what they are?

[Hoovie]

Hi,

My wife replaced her much loved 1995 Rav4 with a 2005 model recently.

Great car if it would drive properly!

The throttle has a mind of it's own, when you de-clutch and take your foot off the throttle the engine speed rises by up to 1500 revs and hangs there for a second before dropping back and when taking off if we try to move off gently at quite low revs the clutch engages with a bang and often stalls, nightmare in rush hour traffic. The whole setup feels wrong.

The dealer tells me this is normal for recent rav4s, twitchy throttle and aggressive clutch, but has replaced some throttle parts anyway whidh has not helped at all.

We have both been driving for more than 30 years so don't think It's us not able to drive.

Does anybody have similar experience or have any suggestions as to the cause, the dealer seams unable to help.

Thanks.

I have a 2005 RAV4 and mine does not do that in normal driving.

I CAN get a similar effect to what you describe if I have the cruise control engaged (so throttle engaged automatically) and depress the clutch to change gear - the engine revs will increase until the clutch switch engages, so it sounds to me like your RAVs throttle - which is a drive-by-wire one, not mechanical, is not disengaging correctly when your foot is taken off.

Does the car immediately slow when the foot is removed from the throttle in normal driving?

[Hyphen]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies,

1st reg Sept 05, model XT-R VVT-I ,manual transmission, cruise control,

The engine responds to the throttle correctly, if a little jumpy/twitchy when in gear

The dealer tells me that the diagnostics checked out fine, I presume with no error codes, but I begin to wonder if the information I am getting from them is correct.

N.

[bothwell_buyer]

Hi - I read your first post but didn't pick up that your in Argyll and Bute - the land of landrovers and Cummins diesel gennys !! :)

I've said before in a few other post topics that the dealers mechanics tend, from my experience, not be too trained up in the foibles of the electronics of cars. So if its not in the A-Z manual, then its a "replace it until we find the cause" job. When it comes to this, I found that using an engine tuning specialist is more efficient...and a Jap car specialist tends to be that bit better again.

Hoovies explanation seems logical.

Knowing the original 4.1 series RAV well, then its a bit of a let-down to get a more recent version and have probs. I don't know of any places up your way, but there must be some....are you down Glasgow way much at all??

[Hyphen]

Hi - I read your first post but didn't pick up that your in Argyll and Bute - the land of landrovers and Cummins diesel gennys !! :)

I've said before in a few other post topics that the dealers mechanics tend, from my experience, not be too trained up in the foibles of the electronics of cars. So if its not in the A-Z manual, then its a "replace it until we find the cause" job. When it comes to this, I found that using an engine tuning specialist is more efficient...and a Jap car specialist tends to be that bit better again.

Hoovies explanation seems logical.

Knowing the original 4.1 series RAV well, then its a bit of a let-down to get a more recent version and have probs. I don't know of any places up your way, but there must be some....are you down Glasgow way much at all??

Hi bothwell Buyer,

Funny you should comment, my own car is a 110CSW and I love it. The wife gets to drive it occasionally.

The old RAV4 was great fun to drive, and still is, we still have it. The fun seems to have been removed from the new ones but the wife wanted a new rav so now we've got a problem.

I do know a tuneing guy who is very good but would like to see Toyota dealer sort it at his own cost.

Although in time she might get used to it's odd habit, as I only use it occasionally it will always annoy me. I can live with the hangning but when the revs shoot up at every gear change, thats something else.

Cheers,

N.

[anchorman]

Oh no not two Land Rover owners!!! You two will get on like a house on fire!

There was a phase of Toyota setting petrols up to hold on to revs when changing gear. The idea was that it would actually smooth up gear changing and it has been proven that it works. However, it can prove a bit of a culture shock if you are not used to it. Just check there are no air leaks around the inlet manifold. When the engine is warm enough that the temp gauge has started to rise and the engine will idle normally at about 800-950rpm, just squirt a little bit of WD40 or similar around the inlet manifold and pipes. If there is a leak the vacuum will suck it in and the revs will rise. You can then home in on the leak. If that proves nothing then it is probably behaving as designed.

All I can say is you will get used to it so just persevere.