I have a terribly unnerving issue where my '01 F150's engine will race, up to a few grand when in neutral. It will also pull you down the road at a pretty rapid pace, with foot off of the gas pedal. The engine acts as if the throttle linkage is stuck. However, when the pedal is slapped, the issue is not corrected. I looked under the hood during more than one instance of this and the throttle linkage was resting on the idle screw, just as if the throttle linkage was totally relaxed. This has only ocurred when it is cold outside. The past few days it has been -15 or so. When the engine compartment is warm, the sysmptoms go away. After driving down the road for a few miles, they return. I disconnected the cruise control linkage, and the problem persists. I put a code reader on it, and it tells me nothing. Has anyone else out there experienced similar problems?

 

sure has...my 90 f250 and my 97 150..both times it was cold out and both trucks had a CAI installed...same thing, had to ride the brakes in the 97..butterfly in the throttlebody stuck open. i figgured that some snow got sucked thru the CAI and warmed up long enough to melt/freeze the butterfly. got slowed down and got some heat in the engine bay and all was good. temp was probably in -45C range.

 

Today I got a code out of it P1506 Idle Air Control Overspeed Error

 

Replaced the IAC, so far so good

 

i had a similar issue where the tb cable from the cruise control box broke and raced the load and held it.

this was not on a f150 but on a ford

 

WOW scary thing...hope you got it solved. The only time I had that happen was on my old Bronco the throttle linkage heims joint got stuck on Holley lever and went wide open....quick thinking reached for the ignition switch...shut it off. You bet the next thing I did was make another throttle linkage.

 

No . Was it an 85? I had the same problem on mine with the Holly 850.

To the OP glad you got it handled, that could have been bad to say the least.