Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration
Its in several owners manuals that I have read, including the recalled Toyotas.
It works, its safe, it should be practiced, all part of controlling your vehicle in an emergency.
Read again, my wife's 4runner's manual says no such thing.
Why would you want to lose power steering and power brakes, when you most need them????
Makes no sense whatsoever, in fact most respected automotive sites recommend my way.
Do you realize how easy, in a high stress, dangerous situation, it would be to turn the ign key TOO far back and lock the steering?
Sorry, you will never get me to say that turning the ign off is the way to go.
From here,
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/driving/articles/122660/article.html
Emergency #3: Stuck Throttle
Thanks to things like loose floor mats and a poorly placed racecar throttle cable, I have experienced stuck throttles. Although this will be a rare occurrence for most drivers, if your engine starts racing away uncontrollably, it must be stopped immediately.
Take these actions:
* If the engine started racing when you pushed the brake, release the brake. If the engine stops racing, you were actually pushing the gas by mistake.
*
Put the transmission in Neutral (and/or push in the clutch). Don't worry about the engine when you shift into Neutral: Engine speed limiters on modern cars will prevent damage. And it's OK if you get Reverse: The engine will either stall or act as if it were in Neutral.
* If you can't get Neutral, switch off the ignition as a
last resort. Today's cars don't allow the key to turn to the locked position if the car is not in Park, and the car will be much harder to steer once the engine is off since the power-assist will not be working. Fortunately, with the engine off, there's still plenty of reserve braking power to stop the car. Of course, if the car is equipped with a newfangled keyless ignition, getting Neutral may be your only hope.
If you're a passenger in this situation and the driver fails to act, you can reach over and put the car in Neutral or switch off the engine. But to have any hope of acting properly with a stuck throttle, both driver and passenger must practice first. Find a training partner and an empty parking lot. First practice with the car stopped, just to make sure you know the drill. Move the shift lever from Drive to Neutral. Then turn the key off. Next, restart the car and accelerate to no more than 10 mph, then push the gas pedal to the floor (to simulate a stuck throttle) and hold it there through the rest of the exercise. Immediately, put the car in Neutral and switch off the key. Repeat the process but with the passenger working the shifter and key while you're still in the driver seat. Then, swap seats and repeat.
) I don't see how it could be better to give up your power steering and power-assisted brakes in this scenario than just popping it in neutral, getting pulled over and stopped, and then shutting the car off.
