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Stuck Toyota accelerators

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IamSmooth

Thu Mar 11 2010, 02:34AM

Registered Member #190 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 12:00AM
Location:
Posts: 1567

Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me...

if I was driving on the highway and accelerating out of control I would move to the shoulder if possible and turn off the ignition or throw the transmission into neutral, coasting to a stop. Why isn't this being recommended? Am I missing something?

FireBird

Thu Mar 11 2010, 02:40AM

Registered Member #1104 Joined: Tue Nov 06 2007, 07:38PM
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Posts: 34

If you were to turn off the ignition you would lose your power steering so that would probably be a bad idea until your car is stopped ... however shifting the car in to neutral would probably be the thing I would do ... Iâ€™m not sure why that isn't recommended.

Hon1nbo

Thu Mar 11 2010, 03:06AM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1040

personally, if that happened to me I would get into a lane adjacent to the shoulder and then shift to neutral, and coast onto the shoulder

but from what I understand (and I may be wrong), they recommend to use the brakes firmly, not pumping, and once you get to a low enough speed get to a point where you can shut the engine off

-Jimmy

Thu Mar 11 2010, 04:05AM

Registered Member #2372 Joined:
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Posts: 62

Not having power steering is irrelevant when the car is moving and you arent making tight turns. The lack of power brakes might be an issue, but it should be better than fighting against the engine no matter what. I think you have to hold a button down for some amount of seconds in order to turn the car off. This is unnatural to most people in a panic situation whereas turning a key off is quite obvious.

Dave Marshall

Thu Mar 11 2010, 02:26PM

Registered Member #16 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 02:22PM
Location: New Wilmington, PA
Posts: 554

I've lost power everything at near-highway speed before (engine seized at 45mph) It wasn't pleasant, but I was perfectly able to negotiate a gentle curve, slow in a controlled manner, and navigate a hard right turn into a parking lot. People *did* drive cars once upon a time without it. This was in a fairly large sedan, ironically a Toyota Camry.

I can't speak regarding the Prius, as it has a bizarre transmission setup inside the car, and it also isn't quite the same mechanism causing its acceleration, but I tried it the other day in my Tundra. A quick bump of the shifter and I was in neutral, slowing in a very steady and controlled . My engine probably wouldn't be happy if I did that at highway speeds with the accelerator pressed (it would find the rev limiter in a hurry) but who cares?

You don't need to brake with the engine in gear, you don't need to turn the car off at 75mph. Every car I've ever driven can be shifted into neutral with a quick bump (Again, *maybe* not the Prius. It's weird, and I don't recall exactly how my Granddad's prius worked).

-Dave

HV Enthusiast

Thu Mar 11 2010, 04:23PM

Registered Member #15 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068

The Prius still has a mechanical transmission (not drive by wire), so shifting to neutral would work everytime.

Sounds to me like a conspiracy theory . . . ha!

Renesis

Thu Mar 11 2010, 05:36PM

Registered Member #2028 Joined: Mon Mar 16 2009, 08:13PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 319

I cant speak on behalf of all the super-duper fancy advanced transmission and engine setups out there, which hopefully i'll never have to lay my hands on, so i'll speak on behalf of the more old-fashioned cars. Even if you switch off the ignition, the engine will still be turning as long as the wheels are turning. This means that power steering and brakes will still be functioning fine while you are in high speed. Power steering will eventually fail as the speed drops, but you should still be able to maneuver the car. Power braking is usually a vacum system, so if you keep the pressure on the brake pedal constant you will not lose its effect.

Leaving the engine engaged and turning at full power sounds like a very stupid thing to do, for if/when your brakes get hot and lose their effect you got nothing. Im not stating that this is a conspiracy by Toyota, but if you disengage the engine and just let it rev at full speed, it could damage the engine and thus increase Toyotas repair bill.

As for me, i'll never buy a car without a clutch pedal. No way.

IntraWinding

Thu Mar 11 2010, 09:20PM

Registered Member #2261 Joined: Mon Aug 03 2009, 01:19AM
Location: London, UK
Posts: 581

I can't understand why these people didn't just turn the ignition key off.

Nik

Fri Mar 12 2010, 02:48AM

Registered Member #53 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638

Funny thing I have heard about the hybrids (all makes) is that the brakes are physically smaller then the non hybrid model because the regenerative breaking makes up for the smaller discs/pads. In hybrids that suffer from the stuck throttle the brakes are too small to slow the car down at all, the will just make the fuel economy worse

That said, turning the car off should work and I too have no idea why people don't do it.

Dave Marshall

Fri Mar 12 2010, 04:11AM

Registered Member #16 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 02:22PM
Location: New Wilmington, PA
Posts: 554

I should point out that "People don't do it" is a bit of an over-reaching generalization here.

Out of the hundreds of reports of uncontrolled acceleration, even government experts, auto industry reps, and consumer psychologists acknowledge that there is only evidence to support the claims of about 30 of these incidents. Most everybody else is just too stupid to realize (or unwilling to admit) that they hit the wrong pedal.

It should also be noted, that out of those ~30 incidents that are legitimate, only 4 or 5 are known to have caused injury at all. Sounds to me like people ARE just turning the car off or shifting to neutral.

As I said in the last Toyota thread. This isn't some terrifying epidemic. It isn't even a significant statistical bump in the graph of traffic deaths, and its even less meaningful when the non-fatal incidences are considered. This is classic mass hysteria, born and bred by your friendly local media scum peddler. It's both sad and terrifying just how good they are at manipulating the collective psyche.

-Dave

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