Two problems related to speed control linkage have been reported for the 2003 Ford Taurus. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Ford Taurus based on all problems reported for the 2003 Taurus.
Throttle sticks at the top of the pedal. The 'barrel' going from the air cleaner to the carburetor has a butterfly in it, when the butterfly returns, it gets stuck, there appears to be some kind of seal material. To throttle up sometimes means excessive pressure on the throttle, when the butterfly breaks loose, the car will lunge forward.
On my 2003 Ford Taurus sel the throttle body sticks causing an unusually high amount of gas pedal pressure to release it and once it releases the high pedal pressure applied causes a rapid, dangerous acceleration of the vehicle. This is the 2nd time this problem has occurred with this vehicle the first repair was done by the Ford dealer on January 15, 2005 and now it is occurring again. This appears to be a common problem with Ford vehicles and there are websites devoted to discussing this. In every occurrence the throttle body must be replaced.