Opinions on "Stuck Accellerator"

+1 -- they should get a ticket for not knowing how to operate a motor vehicle

 

A friend of mine had his accelerator become stuck whilst bashing around on some b roads in the UK. He was in his 200sx (240sx for the 'Mericans), car was fairly highly modified with a big ass turbo and 2 bar of boost. He came onto a straight and only realised his throttle was stuck when he had to brake for a sharp 90 degree turn.

It all happened too fast and didn't think of turning of the engine or using his clutch; car went through a metal gate, jumped over a river and came to rest a few hundred meters in.

He was shaken and his chassis bent upwards (banana style). Luckily chassis are cheap in the UK so he bought one for £500 and spend a weekend throwing parts over.

But in general, I don't buy it either. The whole prius situation a while ago where just people laughing their way to a law suit. A prius could never get up to serious speed .

 

You're right that step one is panic. At that point it seems you can't count on anyone taking the reasonable steps, nor possibly even being able to do simple things when instructed. At least with many people.

I saw a guy at an autocross some years ago blast down half a mile of runway before hitting some objects at the end without shifting the automatic into neutral. That should have been a more relaxed atmosphere to assess the situation without worrying about other cars, etc but didn't happen.

I'm incredulous that her car was such a POS that the accelerator stuck, the transmission wouldn't shift into neutral and the engine wouldn't shut off all at the same time! I think the 911 operator needed to work to calm her down and get someone to google the type of car she was driving and see what kind of shifter it had and talk her slowly into getting it into neutral. Of course, I haven't listened to the whole half hour tape, maybe that wasn't effective, either.

 

Back in the 90's I owned a 911Targa. I,m driving straight thru from Michigan to Florida. Just outside Talahasee about 2AM. I slowly hit the brakes as I'm approaching a set of toll booths with cement abuttments seperating each one. But my cruise control will not disengage and my foot goes to the floor. So I'm traveling at about 85 mph living on coffee and twinkies for about 18hrs. Its 2 am and I have no brakes. I pick a toll booth that does not have its wood barrier down and no cars in front of it and thread the needle..Once I'm thru it occurs to me to just shut the car off.....Which i promptly did and when I had recovered from my possible near death experience. I restarted the car which drove normally without the use of cruise control. When i eventually got back home I took the car to the dealer and related my experience. Officially, i was told tht an air bubble may have gotten inside the brake line causing the brakes to malfunction. Unofficially, the look on the service managers face told mr that this wasn,t the first time he had heard a story like mine. All i know is that i never used the cruise control again as long as i owned the car. More importantly, cruise control was unavaiable the next couple of years on newer 911's

 

Claims of unintended acceleration did a lot of harm to Toyota recently and to Audi back in the 1980s. In both cases,the problem turned out to be driver error.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TqhBatmvxY[/ame]

I think we need a video of some one shift into reverse, for added breaking of course.

 

I was curious about all the reports. And I haven't done this with a very high powered car but for curiosity purposes I took a Prius and a Camry. Going about 75 mph on the highway I planted my foot on the accelerator then eased my other foot on the brake applying more pressure steadily. On both cars the brakes easily overpowered the engine. Easily. I suggest people try it themselves.

I had a throttle spring brake years ago on my motorcycle so it was stuck wide open. There was a moment of panic, but then I just got onto the brakes,was able to overpower the engine, the rpms were drug down and I killed the engine when I was down to about 15 mph. It's never a fun experience. Given a highway circumstance I think the first suggestion would be to take all feet off pedals to make sure the throttle is indeed stuck. On my M/C the second instinct was to push in the clutch and that caused the engine to rev too high so I let clutch back out and did as below.

 

I have experienced pedals getting stuck by loose floor mats, other crap tossed about in the car, and really frayed cables in my life. I watched a driver in a car I was passenger in press the gas pedal harder and harder wondering why it would not stop. I reached over and turned the key off to save my own neck in addition to theirs. Being young at that time we both laughed.

In each of those cases there is a logical explanation and a solution such as better maintenance, anchoring things, or turning off the key.

There are probably stories that fit what the media presents out there, but they have to be rare. Driving a car is complex in some situations. I suspect confusion is the explanation in most cases--but being open minded facts of the specifics could lead to other explanations.

-sc

 

It's bogus.

My oldest friend has worked at Chrysler for ~25 years, started in the brake department. He told me something, and then demonstrated it for me: put your car in first gear, for maximum torque at the wheels. Floor the accelerator. Then stand on the brake. Which one wins?

The answer as i understand it, and have experienced it: Brakes win. Always.

So ... anyone claiming that the accelerator stuck, and the brakes didn't stop the car, is claiming that two, independent systems on the car failed at the same time. The odds of this are ridiculously low. So i don't buy it.

This, in addition to everything else that's been stated about shutting off the car, putting it in neutral, etc etc

 

Finally found you. Please send a check for $0.75 immediately to the Florida Toll Authority. Don't forget the 20 years of interest, too. Thanks for driving the Florida Highways!

 

This is my favorite instructional video ever.

Warning, for watching at work: Lots and lots of F'words!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ4PtafRB9c[/ame]

 

"Hello YouTube. If you've clicked on this link, it must mean you're a f**king retard!"

Funniest thing I'v seen all week. Sadly though, many people actually don't know the first thing about how cars work these days. I'm 22 and I know SEVERAL people (not to sound sexist, but mostly woman) that have no clue what "neutral" is to begin with.

 

Happen to a friend of mine last year on his gas gas during an offroad race. Instead of turning the bike off, holding in the clutch or just brake....he flung himself of the bike. He got a lot of stick for that one....haha!