Toyota can't always get it right

It appears that the majority of the problems have been a sticking accelerator which probably would not effect Right Hand Drive units as the peddle is not stuck in next to the transmission tunnel.

Some of the models effected are fully imported from Japan so it's not just USA manufacture.

There have been numerous reports of the pedal sticking but most were played down to driver error until a few weeks ago a Highway Patrol Officer was driving his personal car when it happened on a freeway near to where I am located, the car accelerated to 120 mph + and finally crashed killing all four people on board. The chilling thing was the mobile phone conversation with Emergency services describing what was happening to the final crash and dead phone.

The call described that the brakes had no effect and the auto transmission would not move into neutral.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens,

Bruce

The Report says they are USA manuafctured models. here is a quote:

"According to some reports, the cars with problems were built in Toyota’s US plants."

Cheers

It would make you wonder why they wouldn't just turn off the ignition unless it was one of those new fangled push to start thingo's with a proximity key.

Might be a good reason to keep an ignition key system??

With all the electronics in vehicles these days it might be like that bloke in Melbourne with his Ford Explorer last month, because there is a fault in the system, you can't turn it off while it is moving, gear selector is immoveable or has no effect even if it does move, brakes quickly fade into oblivion fighting the engine.
Might be a need for a "Microsoft" switch on the dash (Cntrl, Alt Del) ;-)))

Notso - will the engine stop if you throw the proximity key out the window, or just required to start the engine?

Ozhumvee - it seems one of the biggest problems in this type of situation is that people just use the brakes to control the vehicle speed and end up overheating them as you've said. While I've never been in such a situation, I can't for the life of me wonder why you wouldn't just brake hard and bring the car to a complete stop quickly so you could investigate the problem ie. don't, as many seem to do, just slow the vehicle to a more reasonable speed and try to keep driving!

Hey, I hadn't thought of that?

Maaate you are a deep thinker, we need more like you in this country??

On a more serious note, you would think that applying the brakes whilst the thing was in top gear would just about brink it to a stop. But being an Auto, maybe it'd just change down a gear and try harder, thinking it was going up a steep hill.

Anyhow I reckon they should have a kill switch somewhere, whether it's turning of the ignition or pressing a button, or perhaps even throwing the proximity key out the window.

Sure throwing the key out the window would not work in a Yota, We have a presara at work with this System and I am sure once the engine is going it makes no Diff.
Big problem with auto as it would keep going for a lower gear and fighting the brakes.
Cheers Pete

Pete, I figured that would be the case. You could probably just leave the key on the garage bench and drive off without it?! You'd have to walk home though! LOL :-)

And yes, I'd expect the auto would just labour and drop into a lower gear, but I'd still expect (without having experienced it myself) that you should be able to bring the car to a stop - though you'd want to do it in one short application of the brakes so as not to let them heat up.

You'd also expect that knocking it into neutral or turning the car off would solve the problem but there seem to be a few people that have been in a run-away car and said they'd tried those things..?

knocking it into neutral may work but turning the car off at the ingition I don't think so - can you imagine ripping down the highway at 100 + with the steering lock on
Kev

I thought all Toyota's had a design floor in that the brakes seam to be always stuck on.




Or maybe that's just the way Toyota drivers drive them

:-)

Geoff

I know my vehicle steering lock doesn't come on till I actually pull the key out of the lock, just another safety device to stop the Darwin award candidates from killing themselves.

I done a test with the Presara at work this afternoon, started then got out and took the key with me. Walked appox 20 m away and the engine still run. Personally I think it is technogly for the sake of it, and something we can do with out.
Cheers Pete

Initially it was thought that it was caused by the pedal getting stuck under the floormat, Toyota initially recalled some 2,000,000 plus cars and trucks to fix the problem and urged people to remove the floormats but someone in Texas was killed with his mats in the boot, hence the current situation.

The CHP officer which was killed in San Diego along with his family was driving a Lexus ES350 which is an imported car.

One would think that a CHP Officer with his experience would have be able to avoid crashing. My neighbor has a similar car and we tried it the other day and it was as simple as flicking the Auto into neutral with no problem.

Bruce

Bruce, I thought there were too issues - the first one being the floor mats a few months back (which I thought they'd solved) - I think this was one of the earlier recalls that the article referred to. I was reading the other day about a more recent problem with sticking accelerators and it seemed to indicate part of the mechanism was thought to be seizing.

I've found the other article I was reading - see the 4th paragraph in this link.

Timbo,

From what I've heard today on news reports the problem appears to have have been isolated to the seizing cables as you mentions and has possibly been isolated to one outsourced manufacturer, (BTW this manufacturer also supplies some manufacturing plants overseas in Asia and Europe)

It must be a design flaw as it effects new cars and trucks as well as models up to 4 years old.

It has caused a huge ripple effect over here in the USA as Toyota has been forced to pull all their ads from TV throughout the USA.

The NTSB is now involved and is investigating fatal accidents for all the Toyota models mentioned. There was one in Texas on Boxing Day where a 2008 Avalon appears to have accellerated, left the road, hit a tree and ended up in a frozen pond with 4 people killed.

Hope they get it sorted out soon.

Bruce