Why has no one come up with a kit to switch from drive by wire to the old style cable and spring? Leave the TPS side of it alone and fabricate some custom parts using an old system? Is this even possible?

 

I think you'd have to get rid of the fuel injection system... oh and then get a distributor... and good luck getting it smog certified

 

And you want to do this because????????????????

 

That would be sweet .... a friend a work has a Suburu WRX STI which is also drive by wire .... and they sell a cable kit for it to improve throttle response.

 

The throttle servo has a feedback mechanism on this car. You can't just remove it becasue the ECU needs bidrectional communication with the servo.

I'm sure it would be possible under the right circumstances, but it would be a major undertaking!

There's really no point though. If you want a "cable" throttle, just get a tuner and have your tune writer put your ECU into "pedal follower" mode. This disables the "smart" feature of the drive-by-wire setup and instead operates the throttle body blades as if they were directly coupled to the pedal.

 

Also you would not have cruise control anymore ,because the throtle motor is also the cruise control servo.

 

How does the servo communicate with the ECM? I thought the wires going to the servo just supplied it power to operate and the TPS did and the calculations,

 

The TPS servo has multiple components inside. It has a motor which actually moves the throttle blades, and then it also has a sensor which measures the postion of the motor shaft. This is how the ECU controls the motor. It sends it a "signal" to move...but it's not just a blind command. It applies power to the motor and then monitors the position. When the proper position is reached, it then shuts off power to the motor. The problem is that if you remove it, the ECU will not be reciving the position signal.

..and no, you can't "spoof" it by leaving the position sensor in place somehow, becasue the computer checks to see if the motion commands being sent are being properly recived. As part of the on-board diagnostics (OBD-II), every once in a while the ECU will test various functions to make sure the various sensors and actuators on the car are working. For example, it might "blip" the throttle just to make sure the position sensor responds correctly. Or it might run a cylinder extra-rich for a second just so it can see if the O2 sensor responds correctly.

 

i guess my big question of the day is WHY wouldnt they come like this from the factory? i really, really, really dont get it? is there a valid reason that im just missing here?

 

Emissions and fuel economy, I would imagine.

The biggest factor that contributes to fuel economy is how you drive. By "modifying" what actually happens to the throttle blades when you accelerate, Ford can improve the fuel economy of the car as well as decrease emissions. We do get amazing fuel economy in these cars given the engine size, weight, and power.

Also, the electronic throttle makes other things very simple. For example, as another poster mentioned earlier, cruise control becomes very simple, as does idle air control, though these things are retained in "pedal follower" mode.