Anyone know what that white thingy does at the base of the pedal? I noticed recently when I pressed hard the pedal felt notchy so I took it off and found that white thing. When pressed hard it pushes the white piece into the black plastic and gives the pedal about another 1/8" of travel.

 

So I took my obd reader and looked at the throttle position. When pressed to the white "button thingy" the throttle percentage is 80% when the button thingy is pushed in throttle position increases to 90%. Not sure how to get to 100%

 

Kickdown trigger? But I don't understand why it would be only 90% throttle at full gas.

 

It's probably a dummy (electrically) to give the right mechanical feel.

The PCM calibrates the accel pedal so the percentages don't much matter as it figures them out. You won't see 0% for no pedal, either.

Many cars have done this for a couple of decades and it just works.

 

You are correct, after some scientific testing on the highway if you floor it in 6th gear it will not downshift and the throttle only reads 80% if you activate the kickdown trigger it drops a few gears and the throttle position reads 90%.

 

Yep it's a kickdown switch. Also the pid your looking at is a absolute throttle pid of the exact location. The manufacturer doesn't make this 100% accessible, unless its the calculated position. They will use anything above X% and any thing below Y% to trigger a fault with the throttle pedal range.. Regardless anything above 80% whether it be absolute/relative/calculated is going to be full throttle