Hi. I'm not quite sure how to describe exactly what happened here, but I will try. I was driving my 96 Civic (manual transmission). I was in second gear and went to shift into third. As I pushed in the clutch, and went to shift, the car revved like a mother (insanely high, like I've never seen/heard before), and this was before I had even let the clutch out. So, I immediately shifted into neutral, but it was still revving like crazy, so I hit the brakes, stopped the car and turned off the engine. At this point, I could smell SOMETHING burning, and saw what may have been smoke, or perhaps just steam (I was freaking out at this point and not taking much notice). I waited a minute, and then tried starting the car again. Immediately, it revved right back up (probably to the rev limiter) without me even touching the gas. So, I turned it off and left it for about 5 minutes. I then tried to start it again (as I was kind of in the middle of the road and had to move it) and it was running fine. I drove it home and everything seemed fine. No burning smell, shifting fine, engine sounds healthy. I'm not sure exactly how high it revved, as I do not have a tach...What the hell just happened? Was it some sort of mis-shift? Did the throttle get pinned? What damage could have been done? Thanks for any help!

EDIT: I just wanted to add that the temperature gauge did not twitch, if that has any relevance.

 

Remove the air intake tube and inspect the butterfly on the throttle body. Check to see if it's stuck open, and check the spot where the throttle cable attaches to the throttle body. If I remember correctly, the throttle body has some sort of spring on it (on the part the cable attaches to), maybe that is not working correctly.

 

Okay, thanks for the info. The previous owner had installed a Short-Ram Air Intake...Could that have something to do with this problem?

 

nope, shouldn't have anything to do with it

 

you need to check your throttle position sensor on the throttle body. im about 95% sure that is your problem. Thats the only thing that will cause your engine to rev like that without you stepping on the gas. You might as well clean your throttle body while you have it off. Good luck

 

Start with having a friend step on the accelerator pedal without the motor running, and you watch to see if the cable or throttle body sticks wide open. Good luck!

 

when i replaced my valve cover, i forgot to attatch the cable to it and when i started it up, it did that.. bolted the cable to the vc and it was good. check that cable, mighta had too much slack or something