Posted on 02/03/2010 8:06:20 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Transportation Secy: Don't Drive Recalled Toyotas WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advises owners of recalled Toyotas to stop driving them and seek repair.
Federal safety officials meanwhile widened their investigation of Toyota's sticky gas pedals Wednesday to see if the same problem could exist for other automakers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sent a letter to CTS, the Indiana company that made the pedals behind Toyota's recall of millions of vehicles.
The safety agency wants to know more about pedals that CTS made for other auto companies.
CTS says it makes pedals for companies like Honda, Nissan and a small number of Ford vehicles in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcbstv.com ...
I agree with you on that. I will never buy another Gov Motors car or the new Chrysler-Fiat. I am a fleet buyer and will now only by Toyota, Honda and Ford.
I have never owned a vehicle with an automatic where the engine wouldn't shut off in drive or reverse. You cannot start the vehicle without it being in park or neutral, but you can certainly shut off the engine.
It must depend on the vehicle, but I've managed to pop mine into neutral from drive at 65 mph.
Also, AFAIK, nothing stops you from shifting to neutral, no matter the speed. In fact, there was a link to an ABCNEWS.com video here yesterday that specifically told viewers that was the immediate corrective action.
Anyone know if the pedal sticking or is the car accelerating uncontrollably (independent of pedal input?)Big difference. If it is a mechanical obstruction of the pedal, the car would reach a max speed for that pedal position. Otherwise, "exceeding 120 MPH" sounds like a run away acceleration to me. That would bring into it things like the cruise control actuator, wheel speed sensors, software, electrical, grounding problem.
One would think that if this were *only* a mechanical obstruction of the pedal, it would be fixed by now. As an Engineer, that it occurs in many models over many model years and the description suggest runaway acceleration would not have me looking at floor mats and shims for the pedal.
Drove the stock price down big time. Same thing happened to the banks after zero’s “special tax” announcement. The government is trying to knock Toyota out of the game since they are the proud new owners of GM
But not unexpected - at least by me.
I know several car makes that cut fuel when the brake and gas pedals are pressed at the same time. Does Toyota not do this?
Or step on the brake, or put the car in neutral?
Good info. Thank you.
Right. I don’t understand the concept that you can’t put it into neutral while at high speed. I actually have done that on various cars for a variety of reasons (for example, to isolate a strange noise at high speed to see if it was the engine or drive train)
In my current car, a Subaru, I put it into neutral by accident just by accidentally hitting the shift with my hand reaching for something.
Stop driving your cars, because since 1999, 275 accidents have been caused by a gas pedal problem, out of (my guesstimate) 10 million cars on the road?
I always check my carpet (we actually have two toyotas, and we bought new clips for our one carpet a few months ago because the clips fell off and the carpet slipped).
I’ve experienced no unexplained acceleration (I own a Prius, so some would argue I don’t experience any explained acceleration either :-)). And if I did, I’d just hit the brakes.
Of course, I will send my cars to the shop at some point for the recall, but I’m not abandoning my car in the meantime.
“Isn’t it a conflict of interest when the government who owns two car companies bad mouths a competitor? is there an agenda here?”
To paraphrase a popular TV ad, Does Charlie
Daniels play a mean fiddle?
Or hit the brakes, which are designed to overcome the engine power. Or put the car in neutral.
I wonder how they figured out the accelerator was stuck if they were all dead? I presume they found the carpet stuck up in the accelerator. But 120 mph and the guy didn’t hit the brakes or put the car in neutral? And he was a trained police officer?
Apparently not. Of course, neither do either of my newer Hyundais. There was a story on here a few weeks back that made me curious as to how my cars would respond with sudden acceleration and hard braking. I'm not worried about my elantra, as that car has a standard tranny, but the Entourage I took up to 45 and mashed the pedal and hit the brakes. The engine slowed as the brakes stopped the car, but it didn't sound and feel like power was cut to the engine (no let off).
I also tried slamming the shifter into neutral at speed (45 - 65 MPH with and without cruise on). No problems. With the cruise, the engine maintained its speed, but it didn't cut off the cruise - seemed odd. I'm fully confident both vehicles will come to a stop using only the brakes and shifting into neutral.
Both cars will allow the engine to shut off regardless of shifter position, as well. However, the auto will only allow me to get the key out if it's in park or neutral. A safety override prevents the key from rotating all the way to the key removal and steering wheel lock position if the car is not in park or neutral. I've only owned a few automatics, but my folks have owned several brands. None of them ever let me turn the key all the way to the point of removal/steering lock with the car not in park/neutral, at least none of them from the late 80s forward.
I posted this on another Toyota link this morning.
Some Toyotas’ have a laser controlled device in their cruise control that will automatically decelerate if overtaking a slower moving vehicle, then automatically accelerate when you change to a clear lane. I have such a vehicle and the first time it happened to me I was startled.
Also, I believe Toyota was one of the companies that derived the most from the “Cash for Clunkers” program which probably painted a target in it’s back, placed there by Government Motors.
I spelled it wrong, It’s an Aveo and it is made by Daewoo in Korea. From what I read Chvy is supposed to star making it here, I guess under contract with Daewoo.
That was a strange one. The car was a loaner, and had the wrong carpet in it, and the carpet got stuck. “One of the family members called police about a minute before the crash to report the vehicle had no brakes and the accelerator was stuck.”
There is no rational failure mode that would stick the accelerator AND disable the brakes. The brakes are not fly-by-wire, if you stomp them it will apply the brakes. You can also lock the emergency brake if necessary.
Also, these push-button cars still let you put the car in neutral, although with a stuck accelerator that could overrev the engine.
Turning off a car while driving can be a problem, since it could lock the steering wheel. Toyota said “put it in accessory power”, but with these pushbutton cars, you have to power them off and then power them into accessory, which requires that you take your foot off the brake or it just turns the car back on.
In the Prius, the gas pedal is not only “fly-by-wire”, it doesn’t even directly control gas to the engine, because the car will only turn the gas engine on if it neeeds additional acceleration.
You are supposed to be able to stop a car without the power brake unit, since that unit could fail during operation and isn’t redundant.
The problem with powering off (and holding down the ignition button will power it off, like a force off on your computer) is that it locks the steering. You need to put the power back into accessory to fix that, but if you have your foot on the brake turning the car on turns it on completely.
This is too rare for them to have cared so far, but I’d love to have a kill switch that turned off engine ignition but kept all other systems operational.
But your brake should always be able to overcome full acceleration. You can try this out. Hold your brake down hard, and then floor the car, and see if it moves.
Probably your emergency brake would hold your car as well, although it sometimes only applies to two of the wheels. But it’s a hard linkage, so it’s always there.
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