How to deal with unintended acceleration

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ezmobee

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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.

Gotta agree with skargo on this one (and I really hate to do that :p) 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.
 

Bob_VT

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

Many people are just not aware of how systems work and even the operation of their daily vehicle......

Many cars use engine vacuum to assist the brakes and turning off the motor kills that assist.......

I too have had linkage stick wide open....... I had a 340 Duster that I snapped the return spring off when I jumped on it..... pretty exciting for a moment..... I shut down and pulled over. I also had an older BMW that lost it's air cleaner and it fell into the linkage.
 

arks

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

I guess I've gotta defend my actions during the incident.

First, sure the BMW has great brakes, but let me tell you, that car was NOT coming to a stop with the throttle stuck wide open and in gear- no matter HOW hard I pushed!!!

Next, even though I had previously read the car owners manual, I didn't even think about a rev-limiter. I just wanted to stop the car without causing damage. I doubt it was even mentioned in the manual IMHO. FWIW at the time, that car had high mileage and the engine might not have survived high revs- even below the limiter.

Roscoe is correct in that the key can absolutely be turned to the 'number 1' position and still maintain steering. But I was making instantanious decisions to save myself from a wreck, and didn't really have a lot of time to thoroughly think it through. SORRY Roscoe- I'm sure you would've done things 100% right. Geez, cut me a break.:rolleyes:
 

lowkee

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

Maybe the states can supplement their income by selling Toyota ads on these:

rockies_truck_ramp.jpg
 

skargo

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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.
 

skargo

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

Maybe the states can supplement their income by selling Toyota ads on these:

rockies_truck_ramp.jpg

Wow, so you want this thread closed, bashing Toyota yet again??? :confused:
 

roscoe

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

Never said turning the car off was the first action to take.
But it is far from the last resort.
Of course you should try shifting to neutral.
Then holding the brakes to the floor.

But I will be turning off the ignition before:

accelerating more than 25 mph faster
hitting pedestrians
hitting other cars
hitting a bridge abutment
driving off a cliff

You people all act as if the world will come to an end without power brakes and steering.
It used to be that way you know. PB and PS were options on new cars, not all new cars, just the most expensive.

I am certainly not going to fiddle with floor mats, or continually turn the engine on and off so that I can have PB and steering. All wasting valuable time that you could have been used to stop the car. We have one guy saying how easy it would be to lock your steering ? so never turn it off. And another guy saying just keep turning it on when you need steering, then turn it off, then on, then off.... ??

In the end, it comes down to if you can't stop your vehicle, you make a choice to either hit something, or turn off the key, or just scream like a little girl. You decide.
 

rjlipscomb

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

I think some of you are missing the purpose of power steering. It's for low speeds not high speeds. Turning off the engine at highway speeds does not limit your ability to handle the vehicle. Brakes, well that's a different story. But, your 100 lb daughter can stop a car without the power brakes. It's a requirement of the vehicle design. Otherwise, imagine what would happen when the car runs out of gas or engine dies while driving at highway speeds???
 

rjlipscomb

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

And, for me, I'm turning off the key if faced with this problem. Just don't lock the steering wheel. :eek:
 

rjlipscomb

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

I'm sure if anyone remembers the days of the Audi problems. As I recall, most of the accidents and damages were caused when the drivers panicked and stomped on the gas instead of the brakes. The engines raced up from an idle or near idle, not while driving at highway speeds.
 

Tim Frank

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Re: How to deal with unintended acceleration

Wow, you need to lighten up.

I'd say that as the OP he was just trying to keep the thread on track as he had requested.
Yours is the only post that completely avoids the thread topic just to get in a shot at Toyota, and the MODS have had a hair-trigger lately when these auto threads take a wrong turn.

The Devil must have made you do it....;):D
 
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