Kamikaze Kars

...blowing the engine. Still, having a piston and rod with chunks of a head blasting through the hood might be preferable. Even if that worst scenario from a free wheeling engine in full race mode didn't occur, the resulting carnage in the engine wouldn't be pretty. Better to blow the engine than kill yourself and others.

I was thinking maybe a downshift, but most automatics today won't do it until the speed drops to make it safe on the engine, so that probably wouldn't accomplish anything on these cars.

the computer will cut fuel/ignition and limit rpm to just over 7K.The safest thing to do is put it in neutral and pull over.

It is hard to fathom though,how a CHP officer who's trained in high speed pursuit would fail to take action before the car reached triple digits and vaulted a Lexus 100ft through the air?

The driver said in the 911 call he had no brakes,forensics showed that he heated the brakes up so bad that the flex lines from the calipers to the frame's hard lines actually melted.When you add to that the fact the driver was having heavy duty marital problems,it gives rise to a scenario that sickens me.Don't ask how I know,I won't comment any further on that incident.

The current recall is due to gas pedal assemblies manufactured by an American company and installed on American made Toyotas,*** Toyotas are not involved.

If I buy a Chrysler product with a Mitsubishi engine in it, and it's an interference engine in which the timing belt breaks before warranty expires or before time for it to be changed, I don't blame Mitsubishi, I blame Chrysler. It's Chrysler I will be holding responsible for it. Just because some parts in a car may come from various sources, doesn't remove the responsibility of the badge it wears to insure the viability of those parts.

Furthermore, there's 3 possible problems going on which all seem similar. Some problems were mat related, some gas pedal related, but there's also allegations there may be some software related problem too, all leading to similar consequences.

It's good Toyota has a limiter built on for engine rpm. Hopefully it would continue to work in these situations, allowing at least the engine to be saved after high rpm during neutral, till the car can be shut off.

Hopefully this was not intentional due to marital problems as you imply, I suspect it's not.

Here's a look at the crash.
http://www.momlogic.com/2009/09/911_call_released_in_stuck_accelerator_crash.php

Here's a look at the pedals involved.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8730525

I wonder why they didn't just attach the pedals at the bottom which would keep the pads from getting up under them? It looks to me like any sort of mat could get caught up under it!

Here's some poor guy in England been on the hook for blame over his Toyota accelerating out of control. I hope he gets all the legal complications from it straightened out now.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8488377.stm

I wonder how many other drivers are carrying points on their license from this sort of thing which they don't deserve?

seems the brakes were burnt up, so likely emergency cable wouldn't have done much good by then. Also Toyota has admitted brakes alone won't stop the engine at full throttle. Throwing into park, if it can be done while moving (some cars may have lockout against that) will only result in shearing off the pin or keeper. This particular model of car has some sort of start button that to turn off car must be held down for 3 seconds. Three seconds at 100mph is a long time. Maybe the driver did push the button and nothing happened because he didn't hold it long enough. The car was a "loaner" so the mats in it were there from the dealer who loaned him the car. Motortrend has a timeline on the whole Toyota problem and they claim in this particular case it's proven the mats were jammed with the pedal. I've not been able to find any info on internet about marital problems with this couple.

...was due to a "problem"associated with the location of the pedals in relationship to each other, NOT to a defective control.

The Audi 5000 model to which you refer had the two (or three in the case of a manual transmissioned car) pedals in the same vertical plane; IOW, it was very easy to slide one's foot from the brake to the throttle for sporty driving; it also made it easy for an inattentive driver to depress both the throttle and brake pedals simultaneously and then compound the error by sliding onto the throttle alone. When Audi redesigned the pedal cluster to place the throttle lower than the brake, the "problem" went away. There never was a mechanical issue with the Audi. Interestingly, the Land Rover Discovery had exactly the same issue a couple of years ago; I remember our company telling our service techs to exercise great caution with those vehicles.

The warning we received about the Toyota models in question mentioned all the steps that an attentive driver should take: Place the car in neutral, step FIRMLY on the brake (no pumping the brakes) and steer to the side of the road. We were also told that turning the engine off is an option.

In the case of Toyota, however, I smell a coverup. Toyota insists that vehicles whose Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) begin with "J" - meaning cars made in Japan - are not at issue, the fact remains that the Lexus that was cited earlier in this thread is Japan made - as are all Lexus cars and trucks.

Toyota also decided to hint that their American supplier had somehow failed to make the throttle assemblies correctly, until the supplier noted that it used Toyota's materials, Toyota's designs and produced the parts to the letter of Toyota's instructions.

When all is said and done, I think that Toyota will take a massive PR and financial hit from all this - if only because they have decided to try to tapdance around the truth.

Toyota insists that vehicles whose Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) begin with "J" - meaning cars made in Japan - are not at issue,

Because they used a different throttle mechanism?

The Latest Info for Owners and Shoppers

By reading the VIN, you might be able to see if your vehicle is not affected by the current recall. If your vehicle's VIN starts with the letter "J" (signifying that the vehicle was built in Japan with the Denso part), it is not affected by the recall. However, it is still a good idea to call the dealership to confirm that the recall does not affect you.

While misplaced floor mats can, in some cases, hold down the accelerator pedal, the most recent recall has stemmed from a gas pedal mechanism found in some Toyota models. This part is made by CTS (based in Elkhart, Indiana), and, in some instances, has been found to increasingly stick as it wears. Time, temperature and humidity conditions are thought to affect the problem, which is still being investigated.

Not all of the gas pedals in the affected models are problematic, because the mechanism is supplied by more than one vendor. In general, Denso of Japan supplies throttle pedal assemblies for vehicles built in Japan (hence, Japanese-built Scion and Lexus are not included in the recall) and CTS supplies parts for vehicles built in the U.S. and Canada. A visual inspection can easily distinguish the two assemblies.

"until the supplier noted that it used Toyota's materials, Toyota's designs and produced the parts to the letter of Toyota's instructions."

If the pedal assemblies made by CTS(USA) used Toyota's materials,design and specs,why then would the Denso pedals on Japanese vehicles which are also made to the same specs not be affected? The answer lies with CTS.

Above that,I can't say anymore because I work for Toyota and I'm privy to info the media and general public is not.Let's say Toyota bit the bullet and took responsibility for the whole mess.

We're already seeing other auto manufacturer's trying to cash in though many of those have had their own PR issues in the past...most of which relate to suspect quality issues. It took a long time for Honda, Toyota, etc. to develop a reputation for reliability and durability because, quite frankly, their early entries into the American market were just awful. But, they learned better what buyers really wanted than did Detroit....that being automobiles that outlived payment books. Some improvements have been made in US manufacturing and the quality perceived quality gap is closing. I'd hope they'd continue to focus on their own product quality. This could easily be one of them getting negative media attention.

If the CTS was supposed to be an exact copy of the Denso pedal, it sure doesn't look it from these images. I'd guess that CTS was given different engineering designs than was used in the Denso pedal.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/exclusive-ttac-takes-apart-both-toyota-gas-pedals/

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/toyota-gas-pedal-fix-explained-with-exclusive-photos/

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/toyota-gas-pedal-fix-simulated-friction-reduced-but-by-too-much/

Over a decade to recover?! Surely it won't take that long for Toyota to restore confidence? I'm surprised it had such a long effect. One lawsuit has been ongoing for 23 years?

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-04/audi-1980s-scare-may-mean-lost-generation-for-toyota-sales.html

Volkswagen AG?s Audi luxury brand spent 15 years rebuilding U.S. sales after sudden-acceleration incidents in the 1980s almost wiped out demand, a possible sign of the difficult times Toyota Motor Corp. faces.

Audi?s U.S. deliveries plunged 83 percent by 1991 from their peak in 1985, following recalls of the German automaker?s 5000 sedan. A class-action lawsuit filed in 1987 by Audi owners seeking compensation is still being fought.

Who knows, maybe it is. I would urge anyone with a cellphone to turn it completely off while driving. You can always check for messages later, when stoppped. Just in case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qV00petZ0Y

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/18/national/main5248949.shtml

A high revving engine will be producing some serious electrical current from the alternator and if that's enough to override the regulator, or fuse the DC converting diodes, there could be high voltage, ripple current from unregulated AC coming across the lines, causing computer glitches and even arcing in the power off button, keeping it from shutting down the vehicle.

I had two motherboards a few years back with those defective capacitors and experienced the intermittent type glitches caused by improperly regulated electrical current. I had a hard time discovering what was causing it, thinking it was software related at first. Only after hearing other stories that were similar involving the bad caps, pulling my mobos and looking carefully did I discover the cause was the improper electrical current causing all the problems.

The problem in that Lexus crash with the CHP officer and family was tracked down by NHTSA to the floor mats installed by Toyota dealer from whom the car was a loaner. Easy to do since the mats were fused to the accelerator pedal in the heat of the crash. Yet, there we find there is now another identified problem in the pedal assembly. Meanwhile there are others who say that CAN'T be what caused their problem, like that Jeffrey person, although he could be wrong if the spring isn't directly attached to the pedal. If it was then pulling back on the pedal would have solved a pedal problem, if it wasn't attached but just pushed against by the pedal, then the return spring could bind while he pulled the pedal forward and that have no effect on the throttle being stuck open.

They were probably scared ****less going 100 mph, and 3 seconds would be like an eternity.

Put it in Neutral, THEN push/HOLD the button

Kamikazie makes it sound like, you think they did it on purpose, both the driver and Toyota.

"Divine Wind". Pnuema in Greek is a word for "spirit" which means "air". In the NT the Holy Spirit is described by Jesus as "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

Of course in alternate use it's come to mean some contraption you are trapped in speeding to it's doom, taking you along with it. Seemed an apt description.

Kamikazie Pilots were "trapped"?

I thought they went willingly, knowing what their objective was.

The end result is the same. That's what it points to.

and neither does Kamikazi.

You chose that word because the cars were made in Japan and/or made in North America by a Japanese manufacturer.

made a good headline for National Enquirer.

thought so.

We chose the 2005 Buick LeSabre instead of the 2007 Toyota Camry. Buick was at a dealer's lot the Toyota would have been from a fleet sale. Both were used and both had about 25K at the time. The Buick was also less expensive by a few thousand due to the fuel prices at the time.

Hopefully we've moved along further from those days. I drove a Corvair as a service vehicle at a garage. Great little car, very peppy, fun to drive. It did have a tendency to want to fishtail on a curve though. Too bad GM didn't fix the problem and keep it, that car was ahead of it's time. Air cooled and only one fan belt which was easy to replace. Easy maintenance on it.

When VW and Toyota started making inroads into the American market, three things sold them--- price (before a high tariff), great gas mileage, and overall quality.

Through the years, except for a period of time for VW, the quality continued. After Honda entered the market, it also held its standards, For whatever reasons, American car companies could not reach their level.

Yes, the Corvair example was 50 years n the past. Over that time
Detroit didn't match the attention to detail and quality until much more recently.

(I think the car you drove was a Corvette, as I think you are too young for the Corvair.????)

it hasn't been that long ago that GM ordered all EV1 cars to be destroyed. Ridiculous!!!

http://www.ev1.org/

Angeline