The death of Heel-Toe??

[ChuckG]

All because people are too distracted and unfamiliar with their cars to know how to throw one in Neutral??

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/busin ... ta.html?hp

Anyone who ever drove a clunker with a carb knows how to deal with a stuck throttle!

[negusm]

page not found.

I can understand where a stuck throttle would cause a fender bender or two.

I call BS on the lady who claims her car ran up to 100MPH before she could stop it. There isn't a car made that had an engine that would outperform the braking system. The most powerful engine is no match for even the smallest brakes.

You got 4 choices. Stomp the brakes. Throw the tranny into "N" (N means "no-more-go" for the automotive illiterate). Turn off the car. Work the e-brake.

-Mike

[ChuckG]

I fixed the link.

You mean hang up the phone, put down the coffee, stop messing with the radio/GPS/climate control, stop driving with a knee, and take responsibility for operating a 4000lb car capable of 140MPH in a safe manner?

You must be some kinda fascist .

I think it's Darwin poking his head out in many cases. Too bad it's not in isolation and we're all put at risk being on the road with twits--in all makes of cars.

BTW Don't shut off the car. It will kill the PS AND the wheel will lock.

[ChuckG]

Oh, lest we forget: responsible driving seldom allows one to sue.

[negusm]

Shutting the car off won't lock the wheel unless you put the shifter into park or somehow remove the key completely out of the cylinder.

The power steering might get stiff but at any decent speed, you can still steer the car easily enough without PS.

-Mike

[ChuckG]

The power steering might get stiff but at any decent speed, you can still steer the car easily enough without PS.

-Mike

Yet GM is claiming Toyota supplier-related crashes of their cars for PS failures. Must be all old ladies, because you're right: steering gets stiffer, but not unmanageable at any speed.

Just more government punishing opponents for things all the Big Three have done--save being non-union and non-government owned.

[ChuckG]

Shutting the car off won't lock the wheel unless you put the shifter into park or somehow remove the key completely out of the cylinder.

-Mike

My car locks when the key is any position but On or Accessory.

I wouldn't trust people unfamiliar with the brake pedal to try this delicate maneuver. Even asking them to throw the car in Neutral seems to be beyond their skill set.

[negusm]

My car locks when the key is any position but On or Accessory.

Yes but you have to have the car in Park (most people have autos) to get it out of ACC and ON (maybe not all cars are the same?). With a stick shift...well you deserve what you get if you can figure out how to disengage a runaway engine.

With push button start cars....I don't know how that is set up. Haven't had one yet.

-Mike

[Kentennis]

I had a push button start car. It was a 1949 Chevy. The push button start is NOT something new, except to the Japanese, who in 1949, had to push start their rickshaws.

[capri50asc]

On my '86 Capri 5.0 Liter last summer my gas pedal was held down to the floor by the floor mat when I shifted in to 2nd gear. The engine RED LINED to 7 RPMS!! With in 1 second, I shut down the little 302 engine before I dropped a valve! ( I just turned the key off)

Please note this My 1986 Capri 5.0 Liter has a curved gas pedel 5-Speed
My 1986 Capri 5.0 Liter McLaren Convet has a straight
pedal Automatic

Who has a curved pedal or a straight pedal ??????

If you have a curved pedal, make sure you DO NOT HAVE A THICK FLOOR MAT with a 5-Speed car.

Chris

[negusm]

Curved?

I thought the only difference in pedals between the manual vs automatic in the Capris is the brake pedal. Wider if an auto and narrower if a manual.

Are the gas pedals different too?

-Mike

[RareFox]

Interesting to come across this thread. Naturally with the whole current Toyota debacle front and center on the nations lips it's a timely subject at the moment. Reminds me of 1986 all over again with the Audi 5000's and their 'unintended acceleration'... thanks to huge amounts of media attention and plenty of opportunistic owners out there, the whole scenario nearly bankrupted poor Audi. Try Googling it.

Anyhow, ironically this does strike a very recent chord... just so happens on the initial test drive of this '88 that recently followed me home, before forking over one solitary dime I most definitely wanted to be certain the car made good power without any clutch slip, misfires, bogs, etc. To make what could be a long story short... I picked a nice straight road nearby and momentarily laid into it. The gas pedal immediately stuck wide open in 2nd gear! What a treat. Mind you, this was an unfamiliar relatively narrow residential area with snow on the ground everywhere. At night to boot. No, I don't have a death wish, and yes I have plenty of high-performance driving experience including 20+ years as an accomplished drag racer, for whatever that's worth.

No need for panic, but I'll admit it certainly did catch me off-guard. The car had been sitting for quite a while with little use so in retrospect I suppose it shouldn't have been all that shocking to have it occur. Fortunately having been in similar scenarios on rare occasion over the years, instinct took over. I quickly applied moderate pressure to the brake pedal with my left foot while simultaneously tapping the accelerator rapidly with my right... and in a second or two it fortunately released itself. Definitely not the floor mat at fault here. Next step if that didn't work would've been to turn the key back one position which would've killed the engine without locking the steering and coast to a stop. In this case I pulled over immediately afterward, shut the engine off, and slowly cycled the throttle through its full range of travel... sure enough, it was just sticky enough to do it again.

No harm done in this case, but I can imagine where it could've gotten ugly very fast for an inexperienced driver or someone who had never been put in that position. Mental note: Take a deep breath, and on the drive home avoid full throttle until full inspection of the throttle body and cable assembly can be performed. Sure enough, days later after carefully cleaning and lubricating both the pedal assembly and the throttle shaft and some additional drive time on the car, it hasn't happened since. Just thought I'd share the experience. Perhaps one day it could benefit someone else out there.

[n20capri]

Remember the Audi's back in the day had a similar gas pedal/brake pedal confusion problem? I believe they were the main reason for the safety lock on automatic shifters today. Ya know how you HAVE to depress the brake pedal before the shifter will let you move it?

I agree about the old lady and some of the other stories I'm hearing but I guess there are way too many cases of it happening for it to be simply user error! lol.

[n20capri]

Oh and yeah my pedal got stuck under the floormat once at the track! THAT was scary! But yea I just turned the car off and everything was fine. Now I take the floormat out before I go to the track!

Another time it happened in a 5-speed Ford Tempo I was driving...Same deal just turned the car off...

[negusm]

Remember the Audi's back in the day had a similar gas pedal/brake pedal confusion problem? I believe they were the main reason for the safety lock on automatic shifters today. Ya know how you HAVE to depress the brake pedal before the shifter will let you move it?

I agree about the old lady and some of the other stories I'm hearing but I guess there are way too many cases of it happening for it to be simply user error! lol.

I don't discount the possibility that the accelerator stuck. I call BS on the whole "I couldn't stop the car" song and dance. Honeslty, Darwin has to win one once and a while.

-Mike