bier9999

A month ago, I posted a reply in a thread about the Scion brake recall. This morning on the news covered a story about Runaway Toyota's.

Basically, there are reports of Toyota and Lexus vehicles alike that suddenly accelerate without warning and the engine would not respond to either brakes or the handbrake. There are more and more people filing class action lawsuits against Toyota regarding this matter. Toyota corporate says that it is the floor mat that is the issue and did a floor mat recall a few years ago but new cases are still arising. One couple testified that she was driving her Prius and it went up to ~100 (Yes, One Hundred mph from an electric box). Unusually, she claims never to have floor mats installed in her car and had both feet on the brakes with no effect. She's a paraplegic now.

What do you think?

Is it possible if this brake recall has anything related to this issue. Given that the average demographic of this forum is 16-25 yrs. old and loves to leadfoot, I sense troubling things to come.

Google 'Runaway Toyota" and you will see what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y1al...eature=related

ack154

iTrader: (7)

The brake recall has absolutely nothing to do with the floormat thing. The reason they were "runaways" is because of a glitch in the Toyota system that would not activate the brakes when the throttle is wide open (or something similar to that).

The xD brake recall is ONLY a cold weather thing.

Jan06xB

Vacuum power boosting brakes need vacuum to work and WOT has no vacuum - if you try the brakes more than once or twice you loose the vacuum in the reservoir. Glad my 1st Gen xB does NOT have drive by wire throttle but you all in the xD, tC and 2nd Gen xB have to be worring a little. They also say not to turn the ignition off or you will loose power steering but if the engine is still turning over the power steering should still be working even in an automatic. Shifting an automatic into neutral will result in a very fast reving engine and I hope the rev limiter still works in that case but if the Throttle By Wire is the REV Limiter control then good luck with that (BOOM) . . . hopefully the injectors shut down and the ignition spark. You might try turning the ignition off then on again to just reset the ECU.

SLODEANIS

Just turn the key off. It's really simple. So what if you don't have power steering. Cars didn't have power steering for years!

ScionXD01

Yep, agree just turn the engine off.

mcbrew

This is my 4th car/truck with drive-by-wire and I haven't had any problems. When I used to drive an old Mercedes, I had a case where the "throttle" linkage seized up and I had to reach down (at highway speed) and pull the pedal off and manually pull on the rod that attaches to the linkage.

On the VW, if you press the brake for more than a few seconds, it cuts the throttle down to a low idle. You can only overcome this by letting off the throttle (while still holding the brake) and then apply throttle again. This really annoys people who like to heel-toe.

draxcaliber

uhm...actually you guys, when the accident that sparked the recall was investigated, the problem was caused by the dealership installing the WRONG FLOOR MATS into the the car. the car itself was a LOANER CAR from the dealership. the car was a loaner from the dealership while the now dead driver was having his actual car worked on.

the car was a lexus ES350, BUT the floor mats were from a lexus LS400h, and further more, they were the heavy duty rubber all weather mats. so there was absolutely no way to properly mount and install these into the car to begin with.

so this was the fault of a stupid dealership in new jersey (is anything in jersey not stupid?) and NOT TOYOTA'S!

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/26/n...oyota-floorma/

TheJonas53

To me the electric throttle is a very bad idea. I have heard about issues with electric throttles acting erraticly. I dont trust the system and im hoping that I dont run into an issue with mine.

draxcaliber

5 years on my drive by wire system, never a single problem with it. are the xD's, drive by wire? i never checked. i know the last gen xa/xb were drive by cable.

TscionO

seriously, this is scary, i heard they have electronic throttle bodies that go crazy or sumthing. in a emergency like this, what would be the best suggestion. Shutting the car down? Handbrake? keep dodging cars till your car runs out of gas??? hahah

Garage1217

iTrader: (5)

Tons of options..
- Turn the key off
- Put it in neutral if you have an auto
- Push the clutch in, put it in neutral and hit the brakes

Garage1217

iTrader: (5)

Yes you will loose ps, but you can still turn the wheel just fine without it, especially at speed. Also a rev limiter will still work in any situation were the motor is at full throttle such as shifting to neutral

All in all, crap happens but I think this is a little blown out of proportion. Anyone that has time to realize that the throttle is stuck, should have the brainpower to shut the car off, drop it in neutral or other. The other odd fact is, the only time I see a complaint about this, the car and driver were in an accident. Not anyone saying "my car just did this but I shut it down". That leads me to believe "some" people are looking for an excuse as to why they were driving retarded. Or a ton of people would be complaining about this at random.

On another note, your brakes will still work without vacuum. That is just an assist. Should still be plenty of breaking power left to stop a car even with it at full throttle. Especially on any of our scions Give it a try sometime, Floor it and slam the brakes at the same time, you will stop haha.

Reminds me of when they tried to blame Chrysler for a similar situation. Turned out they proved the drivers just got the gas and brake mixed up as the pedals were close together *LOL*

JJGeneral1

did the first two when my concorde peddle got stuck to the floor... shifted to neutral, braked, rev limiter cut it at 4,000... pulled peddle out...

it was getting stuck on my all weather rubber mat that slid up enough to catch the bottom of the peddle.

thank god i knew what to do... never panicked... just neutral and pulled over, let engine rev at 4 K...

Jan06xB

I am not weak in the arms by any means but this is my first power steering car and I can tell you that turning off the engine and trying to steer is not as easy as you think in the xB anyway. I coasted with the engine off into a parking space once and WOW talk about no steering. The brake is the same thing - once the vacuum runs out that brake pedal gets hard as a rock and does very little and if you grab the hand brake at about 30mph and up it really doesn't do too much either. Turning the key off seems like the only good solution . . . hope that is possible with a push button ignition like in the Prius and the other hybrids.

ChelsDS

Well, right there you just posted two separate issues: floor mats and brakes.

mcbrew

Yeah... floor mats and the brake recall are about as related as Iraq and 9/11.

WellesleyScion

I hate reading about this. Accidents shouldnt occur because of this issue unless the driver doesnt know what the f*ck they are doing... The issue is floormat related, which is why toyota recalled the floormats... the rest is just stupid drivers who dont understand how to put a car into neutral... If you are accelerating without control, who cares if the car blows up cause its revving in neutral? Its like people who dont know how to drive in the snow... they think that brake checking every couple of seconds to ensure they have traction is a good idea... or even better, "I started to slide so I slammed on the brakes and let go of the steering wheel" are you kidding me?

Its unfortunate that we need to create new technology to keep the roads safe against stupid drivers... Antilock Brake System, traction control, brake assist, Electronic Brake Distribution, Power steering, run flat tires, flat tire indicator lights, headlight reminder chimes, seatbelt warning lights, back up camera, back up chimes, automatic headlights, daytime running lights, rev limiters, speed governors... all ____ that was added to cars to make the roads safe from bad drivers... I digress...

mcbrew

You're right about that. It's sad... but amazing at the same time... that they had the time to call 911 and describe what was happening... but nobody in the car came up with an idea like putting it in neutral or turning the key off. They just kept on going.

uskrewed

lol.... of course power steering is hard at <5mph, but these people were speeding out of control and when you're going >15mph not much effort is needed to steer so it shouldn't be a worry. Like McBrew said, brakes still work it's just harder - I'm sure all the adrenaline from the fear will help you push harder. The floor mat thing is a bit dangerous though. One time my rubber mats slipped onto my clutch as I was getting onto the highway and I had to pull over or get rear ended.

Davestoaster

Smells fishy.

Never owned or known of a car that could overpower the brakes.

Especially a 1.5 liter Prius.