Thought I'd post this since my beetle was behaving like it was demon possessed, and nothing I found online described the problem. Just in case your dub gets possessed by the same demon...
The last couple of days, every time I'd change into first it was like someone else had control of the accelerator. Let the clutch out and she'd surge forwards with really high revs and keep accelerating even after I had my foot off the pedal.
Pedal wasn't sticking, the accelerator cable wasn't binding, and the return spring on the throttle lever was working fine. But it was like I was flooring it. Quite frightening. Really noticable in first, to the point that I'd only spend a split second in gear before changing up. Second was bad, but nowhere near as much. Third was back to normal.
Anyhow, I'd reached the end of my diagnostic skills, so she went to the mechanic. Took him a while, but he sorted it. Turns out the gearbox mount was invisibly cracked. You couldn't see it until you let the clutch out, then the gearbox would move up and push on the accelerator cable for a while (so I'm told) and become the demon taking control of the accelerator.
So I thought that was bizarre as hell and wanted to share it with someone. My friends aren't interested in cars, so I'm telling the forum instead. In case one day some other poor bugger tries googling for an answer to this problem 馃檪
bluebus 路