Daemione, yes, that's exactly it. In every other car I've ever had, you always had to actively push the pedal down to get it to move, not just rest your foot on it. I have yet to take a look at the mechanism, but if it's as simple as a spring, then I'll let you know how it goes.

 

It's a self-contained box. I want to take it apart and install a stiffer spring as well but I was concerned about wearing out bushings. It's really terrible on my GD- just leaning my steel-toed work boot on it pushes it down halfway when I'm not even wearing it.

So glad I got cruise control. Last year that 400+ mile trip to the family reunion after working a 10 hour day would have been very painful without it.

 

I've actually gone as far as pulling the pedal mechanism from the car to take a closer look - it's not tricky at all, only two 12mm nuts and a wire harness at the top . . . but to actually take apart the piece & get access to the spring you need some special 5 point star bits. My local autoparts store looked at me like I was insane when I asked if they carried them.

But I found the bits online & ordered them a little while back. When I get them in and have a chance to pull the accelerator assembly again, I'll be taking another look.

 

5-point star bits...hmmm. Like a Torx screw with one less point?

 

sit up stright,try moving the seat forward until both wrist's overlap the steering wheel, at the top.

 

Yup. pentacle vs. star of david.

I'm already sitting as far back as possible (which is the way I like it - get me as far away from that airbag as possible). Any farther back and my left leg isn't long enough to disengage the clutch fully. Then from there I adjust the seat back until my right arm full extends to hit 5th gear - which, coincidentally, matches up with the wrists overlapping the wheel measurement.

The closer you get to the pedals, the closer to vertical your lower leg slopes, and the more it exacerbates the issue.

I think it should be noted - even with just the first short test drive I figured this would happen. So it's obviously not an omgwtf deal breaking issue for me, or I wouldn't have bought the car. And after about 5 months of owning the car, it has improved a little bit as the appropriate muscles toughened up . . . but it's still something worth fixing, in my opinion. I remember a snow-storm drive - 6 hours of careful throttle control had me hobbling around for days afterward.

 

I felt the resistance on the gas pedal was a little light as well. However I have gotten used to it. I help control it usually by resting the side of my foot on the panel next to the pedal. I change positions a lot which is normal for me. Other times I turn my foot so that the side is practically laying on the floor. Sound weird but is comfortable for me.

Honestly my bigger issue is that I like my seat all the way back to stretch my legs. But I am under 6 foot which means I have to fully extend my arms to rest them on the wheel. I wish the steering column telescoped just another inch, that would be perfect. The Fit just doesn't have much leg room under the dash but that is obviously because it is a smaller car.

 

I am 6'2" and I sit 2 notches from the back with the seat reclined way back but still comfortable steering, and my legs are totally comfortable. the only thing i need is lumbar.

knee pad is key.

 

Agreed on all counts (except for that "practically laying on the floor" bit). I do tend to rest my shin on the center console as well.

Agreed on the lack of lumbar support too...but I remedied that with a seat swap.

 

Double post...
Sorry mods, I didn't think my first post made it in.

 

Have you tried putting a thin walled rubber ball between the pedal and the floor? Guess you could also use a spring from hardware store.that might be easier to hold in place.

The syndicate took a look at your 'problem' and we found a ballon did the trick nicely. Yes, a simple toy ballon taped in place. We didn't try long term reliability but it seemed to work well. Tape protected the pedal from breaking the balloon.

 

re: Rubber ball -- I did think of putting spring or something under the pedal, but the more I thought about it, the more dangerous it sounded. I still might try something like that though.

I also did notice that the "laying your foot almost sideways on the floor" kind of works, but since I have the MT, it is sort of awkward to shift from that position. And is it just me, or do I miss the shift more in this car than others? I think it's because I move the seat back so my legs aren't straight up and down and I end up almost-but-not-quite pressing the clutch pedal in enough. I've done it maybe half a dozen times over the course of a year, but still. Every time I do it, I feel like a giant moron because I haven't ground the gears on a manual tranny in about 20 years! . I drove my 94 miata today because it was nice out, and while shifting the tranny feels like you're pushing a steel pipe through a bucket of marbles compared to the honda, I still love the gas pedal and steering wheel placement.

 

Got my pentacle bits in . . . Here's what it looks like inside the throttle assembly.



So I went to Home Depot - selection wasn't great there, but I found a compression spring that will fit inside the 2 existing springs to supplement them . . . It might make a difference, it might not - I'll find out.

I'll probably start a new thread down in Fit Trix, but it may not be until Sunday night until I get to it. I'm traveling all weekend - leaving first thing tomorrow.

 

Cool, let us know what happens Daemione.

I don't have the DBW throttle like you guys do though...mine's still cable-actuated.

 

I wonder why they put in two springs? Thats kind of odd, no? Thanks for posting the pic.

 

Well if it was one spring and it broke, that would not be fun.

Those springs looks fairly beefy. Hard to believe the pedal is that soft.

I'm toying with the idea of a tension spring at the top of the post (still outside the box).

 

A slinky looks pretty beefy too..

 

Don't be sad about that. It's been quite a few years now since dbw started showing up in cars . . . and I'm still trying to figure out the advantage.

As best I can measure, only 8 or 9 pounds of force on the pedal to compress it all the way.

 

Nah, I'm just a little bummed that I can't follow your progress on stiffening up the spring on the throttle pedal.

 

Well I for one am super happy you took it apart. I would be more leery of putting on an external spring if it had been a recoil spring around the shaft but since the bushings are already designed to take some force at a right angle to the axis of rotation a tension spring shouldn't add enough to that to wear the unit out.

Time to get out the measuring tape.