A spring return throttle actuator including: an electric, plural-coil DC motor having an output shaft, a throttle return spring, a gear transmission connected to the output shaft, a control unit adapted to control power supply to the DC motor, wherein the spring return throttle actuator has a movement range between closed throttle and opened throttle. The control unit is arranged to short-circuit at least two DC motor coils in order to create a DC motor return resist torque, and the control unit includes a movement monitoring circuit being arranged to monitor actuator movement forced by the throttle return spring and resisted by the DC motor return resist torque. The invention also relates to a method and a throttle assembly.