I just bought my 2005 Tribute in May and love it but I have had to take it in 3 times for a throttle problem. I have the manual transmission and when I push in the clutch the engine sometimes revs up to 3 or 4,000 RPMs and just stays there. Sometimes "rebooting" the engine fixes it but not always. It also isn't a constant problem which has made it very hard for the dealer to track down. I just got it back after the 3rd attempted fix. The first time they plugged their diagnostic computer into the engine and said "everything looks fine". The second time they replaced the throttle cable. Evidently it had a small bend in it. This time they said it was the cruise control throttle cable causing problems. The model with the manual transmission doesn't come with cruise control so I had the dealer add an after-market one for me. The thing is I'm relatively sure this problem started before the cruise was installed.

Has anyone else had throttle problems with the Tribute? I read a customer review before I bought it that mentioned a problem like this but I can't seem to find it anymore. I don't see any recalls about it for the 2005s.

As I said I just picked it up so we will see if whatever they did to the cruise throttle cable fixed it I guess... I believe according to Kansas law they have 1 more chance to fix it before I can demand that they replace it under lemon laws. I would really rather not do that though and I immagine it probably isn't as easy as it sounds.

Other than this one problem, I love the vehicle. Cargo space galore when you need it but still handles nicely (actually much better than the 88 Buick I had before) and gets halfway decent gas mileage (lower than the EPA estimates but I guess that shouldn't surprise me). If this throttle problem will just go away, I will be a happy Mazda owner

 

I am assuming you have a 4 cylinder since you said manual transmission. First thing I would try would be to disconnect the cruise control cable completly from the throttle body for a week and see if the problem goes away. If it does then the cruise would obviously be the problem.

 

Well it looks like the dealership may have finally fixed it. Every once in a while it still seems like it is a little sluggish coming down from high RPMs but it does come down. This certainly didn't help my confidence in the dealership but on the bright side they DID give me a complimentary car wash before they gave it back to me the 3rd time