Toyota Suspends Sales of 8 Models After Accelerator Pedals Keep Sticking

[h2o]

Jack, your avatar is scaring the crap outa me!

Sorry, now back to the thread.

h

[Guest jackdm3]

Animated Avatars gif Pictures collection #1

[peejman]

Putting the car in neutral with the throttle wide open won't hurt anything for several minutes. Most any car less than 15 years old (ie, with electronic ignition) has a rev limiter. It'll just bounce off the limiter until it over-heats.

Remember the recent clunker trade-ins where the dealers had to destroy the cars? Most drained the oil and put a brick on the gas pedal until it blew up. Some cars ran out of gas and had to be re-filled before they let go.

As stated, I'd much rather spend $3000 on a new engine instead of spending it on a casket.

[Tempest455]

Several wrecks have been caused when people tried to use the brakes to avoid an accident with a stuck accelerator. Unless your car has oversized brakes and an undersized engine, your brakes will fail before you can get the car stopped.

Shift to neutral is the answer, I guess too many folks panic or are worried more about their engine than their lives...

Disagree just a little on the above comment. I may not be as much of gun expert as some but I am somewhat of a car expert.

No car will have the ability to out power the brakes entirely. They are designed this way on purpose. Yes, rear wheel drive cars will out power the brakes and spin the tires. However, the car will remain stationary, unless the braking system is flawed or not in proper working order. Front wheel drive cars may creep when applying both. But when you are in motion under power, the brakes will stop the car. Also, for most newer cars, keep in mind; we are generally talking about 300 HP or less automobiles here.

A good example: A number of years ago, I was making a pass in my drag car at the track. The throttle stuck wide-open around 115 MPH as I was nearing the traps. Do the math on how many feet per second I was traveling. Your first instinct is to hit the brakes, which I did. I slowed down considerably, which gave me time to think next, kill fuel pump and ignition. This was in a 600 HP car and I slowed just find under power.

My point is, Toyota “may†have a problem w/ the accelerator. However, all the nonsense of people crashing etc. is idiot drivers and driver error. Accelerator stick, hit the brakes HARD and kill the ignition. Problem solved.

[G27]

Disagree just a little on the above comment. I may not be as much of gun expert as some but I am somewhat of a car expert.

No car will have the ability to out power the brakes entirely. They are designed this way on purpose. Yes, rear wheel drive cars will out power the brakes and spin the tires. However, the car will remain stationary, unless the braking system is flawed or not in proper working order. Front wheel drive cars may creep when applying both. But when you are in motion under power, the brakes will stop the car. Also, for most newer cars, keep in mind; we are generally talking about 300 HP or less automobiles here.

A good example: A number of years ago, I was making a pass in my drag car at the track. The throttle stuck wide-open around 115 MPH as I was nearing the traps. Do the math on how many feet per second I was traveling. Your first instinct is to hit the brakes, which I did. I slowed down considerably, which gave me time to think next, kill fuel pump and ignition. This was in a 600 HP car and I slowed just find under power.

My point is, Toyota “may” have a problem w/ the accelerator. However, all the nonsense of people crashing etc. is idiot drivers and driver error. Accelerator stick, hit the brakes HARD and kill the ignition. Problem solved.

I'm no expert on guns or cars, and I'll defer to your judgment here, but there's more than one example of people being killed when their car's brakes weren't able to stop them due to overheating while trying to stop the car with a stuck accelerator. You can hear the actual 911 calls on Youtube and such.

[Guest jackdm3]

13 BILLION DOLLAR RECALL! Another million units recalled since noon today.

[Guest jackdm3]

Owners are told to park them.

U.S. official: Park recalled Toyotas - MarketWatch

[Guest db99wj]

Owners are told to park them.

U.S. official: Park recalled Toyotas - MarketWatch

I saw that too! Wow!

I was out for a little while today and flinched/puckered up every time I saw a camry.. so basically I was flinched/puckered up the whole time I was out. There are a bunch of those little bastards out there, lots of old people drive them, they are the new Buick.

The argument on brake/engine and which one wins out, I don't care, the majority of people that drive them, will freak out and run into something.

[Guest jackdm3]

"so basically I was flinched/puckered up the whole time I was out"

You makes me giggle!

[Guest db99wj]

"so basically I was flinched/puckered up the whole time I was out"

You makes me giggle!

You live in Memphis, come out east, near Perkins, Poplar, Walnut Grove, White Station.....those Blue haired camry drivers, they heard up going down the street at 10 under the speed limit.

[Guest jackdm3]

The funny thing is that my wife entered that category in high school (early '90s) and now drives a '98 Park Avenue that I would love to see get gone.

[peejman]

The irony of that statement is this... has anyone here personally experienced one of these catastrophic failures? No? How about seen one? Didn't think so. In the grand scheme of things, it's exceedingly rare. Mr. LaHood has waffled on this topic several times... clearly he (or whoever's putting words in his mouth) doesn't have a clue. I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota sued for libel.

[oldogy]

The same folks who can not figure out how to kick a car into neutral, or how to press on the brakes HARD AND STEADY are the same ones who should never touch a gun or any mechanical device for that matter. The brakes will overpower the engine on any modern automobile if the brakes are used correctly. In the event the brakes are "played with or toyed with" in a half a$$ed effort to stop the vehicle they will heat and may not stop the vehicle when you finally decide to get serious. Also consider that if the engine is running wide open there will be very little manifold vacuum and you will have one or two shots only at power assist to the brakes.

oldogy

Edited February 4, 2010 by oldogy

[FUJIMO]

That's kind of the same thing I am thinking oldogy. I am sitting here thinking the cars they are talking about are equipped with anti-lock brakes so to over heat they must just be pu**y-footing around with them and when they finally realize to step on them like they're a rattlesnake in the floorboard the rotors are smoking. I've heard the calls about the brakes not stopping them so I know that much is true. But at the same time I am putting myself in that situation. Neutral and emergency brake. Funny they named that brake that isn't it ? Screw the engine and anything else it blows up in the process.

We had 2 taurus SHO's (89 and 90) and both had the tendency to allow the floormat to hang the pedal up so you would have to lay the mat toward the seat to keep it from getting caught. But the couple times it happened neither me or my dad went in to panic mode.

I have to agree with my father-in-law which has been screaming BS since the beginning of this. He thinks they have a major issue that they're not letting out to the public. Something bad enough to do exactly what they are doing.

[Guest jackdm3]

Mat hooks may become mandatory.

[Guest db99wj]

Mat hooks may become mandatory.

My 99 and 09 Jeep has hooks. Have heard of aftermarket mats can cause the jamming issue.

Oh and the brake thing, that in most accidents, it is found that only like half of the braking capacity was used in the panic situation. Moral is, when you stomp on the brakes, put them to the floor to get maximum braking.

I was behind a Camry on the way home tonight, I wouldn't get in front of him, I was afraid he would run me over! No pucker factor happening on the way home tonight!

Edited February 4, 2010 by db99wj

[Mike.357]

have I missed it in this thread?

How many Toyota's have had their accelerator pedals stick open? Are we talking 10? 100? 2500? 25,000? 500,000?

Is this thing overblown?

[G27]

have I missed it in this thread?

How many Toyota's have had their accelerator pedals stick open? Are we talking 10? 100? 2500? 25,000? 500,000?

Is this thing overblown?

Not sure of the actual vehicle numbers, but several accidents have been blamed on the pedal where people died.

Now Toyota is admitting a software problem with the Prius's brakes, not really sure what's going o at Toyota...

{edit}

From October, 2009:

The safety glitch we told you about yesterday killed no less than four people in the United States. At least, this is the only accident we heard about at this time, although preliminary reports are claiming more than 100 incidents occurred in either Toyota or Lexus models.

[Guest db99wj]

Not sure of the actual vehicle numbers, but several accidents have been blamed on the pedal where people died.

Now Toyota is admitting a software problem with the Prius's brakes, not really sure what's going o at Toyota...

The brake thing was talked about this morning, it has been fixed for ones built January 2010 to today, but the others have an issue of a delayed (1 second) response on when you put on the brakes and they start working. They were saying this will probably not be a recall but a TSB of sorts that needs to be fixed.

[enfield]

Not overblown but normal for safety recalls. Neither the companies nor the government can afford to ignore a safety problem of any size, due to tort lawyers, generous juries, newspapers and elections.

Even recalls/fixes for conditions that aren't really a problem but are perceived by the customer as undesirable are unpleasant to participate in. I've participated in a few from the engineering end.

[JReedEsq]

have I missed it in this thread?

How many Toyota's have had their accelerator pedals stick open? Are we talking 10? 100? 2500? 25,000? 500,000?

Is this thing overblown?

There may actually be lots more occurances that haven't been reported because the drivers were able to put the car in nuetral or otherwise disengage the engine. Just a thought.

[ttocswob]

1. Big Gov't takes over GM & Chrysler.

2. Big Gov't initiates measures to eliminate the competition.

[FUJIMO]

I heard talk today of some kind of "override" they are thinking about implicating so if this issue were to happen again there would be like an emergency KILL ALL. I didn't catch the whole story but what I took from it was we are probably looking at something down the road to be installed on ALL cars just like what they are talking about for toyota. Personally I don't want something like that but I guess it's not up to me. Just like when I asked a dealer about buying a new car without airbags. It should be my choice if I want the da*n things or not. It wouldn't affect anyone else's life but my own. But that's another story (end rant)

[deerslayer]

Thank goodness my Tacoma has the Japanese gas pedal, and not the American one.

[Guest Jcochran88]

Toyota moving forward even if you don't want to!