So the car didn't feel right to me, I rarely drive it these days (Wife has it) so I thought maybe it was in my mind but I kept feeling like I was hitting the throttle stop early and generally the car wasn't pulling very hard.

It had only just been serviced so I thought maybe something had happened or not been done up properly...

Anyway, last night I took it for a bit of a run to my parents place on some roads I know well to see how it went and it confirmed my thoughts that there was definitely something wrong, there's a stretch of hill that I know how the car would pull usually and this time it was nowhere near as good.

On arrival at my parents I went and got a torch and a small slim screw driver to see if I could see anything behind the pedal as it definitely felt like restricted movement. I pulled the mat out and cleaned away any loose bits of dirt and stones and couldn't see anything obvious.

I pushed the pedal down and it was definitely hitting a stop but didn't seem to have a huge amount of movement.....

I then managed to lie down with my legs out of the car and head right in the footwell with my torch where I discovered a perfectly shaped stone wedged in the throttle pedal assembly restricting the throw of the pedal by about 2-3cm! So much that I could actually get my whole hand behind the back of the pedal and the actual stop! I hooked it out with a small screw driver and took it out again, lots of expletives and grins later the car now felt like a rocket.

I was starting to convince myself I was imagining the issue with the pedal as the stop felt so solid, not like there was any give at all so I thought there must be something developing...

Such a nice feeling to find something so simple that has made such a huge difference!!!!

At least I know my Wife doesn't drive it too hard though as she said she hadn't noticed it at all!! The pedal now seems to go on forever :-)

Well done, love it when an issue is resolved in this manner

Sounds like nature's own economy mod

I had something very similar many years ago on a Calibra. Ever since I've always ensured that the floor mats haven't ridden up behind the accelerator.

When we bought our second Fabia i was sure that the performance was stunted and the throttle travel seemed short.

A bit of investigation later and yes when pressing the throttle down it was hitting the inside wheel arch.

Funny it doesn't do that on the other car; had it had a knock? Had the arch been crumpled in? Had the throttle pedal been bent?

Once i got down there I found that someone had actually stuffed a piece of wood in behind the floor carpet which covered the wheel arch, which stopped the pedal being pressed right down.

Cheapo restrictor i guess

Sounds like nature's own economy mod

To be honest that was one thing that did surprise me, I found I was getting around 25-26mpg instead of the usual 28-30 as I was having to put my foot down so much more to compensate for it, I know that sounds daft but I felt like i had to accelerate a lot quicker to try and get it moving in each gear, it felt really odd.... Probably the fact I was playing around testing it didn't help :-)

Actually, the accelerator is a really super-easy thing to take off completely; only a couple of star bolts and a connector to unplug and can be cleaned thoroughly. When I stripped my interior after a leak, I did this and the amount af crap accumulated in and around it that you'll never see unless you DO take it off was unreal!

Definitely worth a removal and clean every once in a while if you like a tidy car.

Almost a free remap!

Fine work that man!

When we bought our second Fabia i was sure that the performance was stunted and the throttle travel seemed short.

A bit of investigation later and yes when pressing the throttle down it was hitting the inside wheel arch.

Funny it doesn't do that on the other car; had it had a knock? Had the arch been crumpled in? Had the throttle pedal been bent?

Once i got down there I found that someone had actually stuffed a piece of wood in behind the floor carpet which covered the wheel arch, which stopped the pedal being pressed right down.

Cheapo restrictor i guess

When we were at school, (in Dagenham) but just old enough to drive (6th form) my mate had use of his dad's Vauxhall Velox, and to save on petrol he put some kind of small cushion-like pad under the throttle......well, times were hard and it was a long drive to Brands Hatch !!!