WTF toyota?

Anyone have the inside skinny on this recall deal with toyota? I have been trying to get the throttle to stick on my toyota for months now with no luck.

I think I read that you have to squish the floormat up under it to get it stuck under the floormat.

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Grant Hughes

NoCoast Wrote:
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> I think I read that you have to squish the
> floormat up under it to get it stuck under the
> floormat.


Explain this then...

http://www.leftlanenews.com/toyota-avalon-displays-unintended-acceleration-without-floor-mat.html

http://jalopnik.com/5459053/timeline-toyotas-floor-mat-and-gas-pedal-recall-nightmare

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SteveL
This is the point in the killing spree when you really should turn the gun on yourself

Do these cars have throttle by wire? I don't even know. If so then I could see it happening. If not then I smell a whole BS unintended acceleration debacle (ala Audi) in the works where it's really the driver's fault. In either case you're not going to be able to overpower the brakes (especially in a Toyota Avalon) so it's still the driver's fault if they crash, IMO.
If the whole Audi smear campaign from the '80s is any lesson (where stupid people were pressing the throttle when they thought they were pressing the brake, and 60 Minutes rigged a car to further propagate the UA myth) then it doesn't matter if it's real or not, Toyota is going to take a big hit for this.

Yeah, they're all throttle by wire.
I read one report where someone had the throttle go wide open on them and they were able to drive it to the dealer with the problem still happening. Floormats were in the trunk. Dealer techs verified the gas pedal was not stuck. Oh gee, must be a problem with that fancy mind-of-its-own throttle body...

Must have been quite a scene pulling in, popping it into neutral and having it bouncing off the limiter at WOT.

Heres the article: http://www.leftlanenews.com/toyota-avalon-displays-unintended-acceleration-without-floor-mat.html

One time the throttle froze open in my old jetta in the winter. I pulled over and closed it with my hand.

Ford was using the same vendor in China for their full size Transit vans, so they shut down production until a different vendor is found.

Brian
III

Un-fuckin'-believable...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/lawyers-ask-court-to-stop-toyota-from-fixing-cars/#more-343609

No comment about ass-hat lawyers from me...

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SteveL
This is the point in the killing spree when you really should turn the gun on yourself

Lemme get this straight. There is someone out there with the presence of mind to calmly and easily control an Avalon with a stuck throttle, and this obviously semi-level-headed person bought an Avalon in the first place? Does not compute.

-Dave

Yeah, the idea of calling on the cell phone instead of pressing on the brake pedal just makes me wanna slap someone.

eyesoreracing Wrote:
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> Lemme get this straight. There is someone out
> there with the presence of mind to calmly and
> easily control an Avalon with a stuck throttle,
> and this obviously semi-level-headed person bought
> an Avalon in the first place? Does not compute.
>
> -Dave


Their HOAs don't allow American cars, so the Buick Park Avenue isn't an option.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

alkun Wrote:
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> Yeah, the idea of calling on the cell phone
> instead of pressing on the brake pedal just makes
> me wanna slap someone.

The car has how many Horses corralled under the hood?

How much more power is in the brakes?

Any POS car can and will operate the ABS Brakes from 100MPH and this shit persists!

This is a Witchhunt.

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JohnLane

Overkill is consistently more fun

On the one hand, yes, this absolutely is a witch hunt.

On the other hand, imagine what happens if the throttle sicks open on a 300-hp luxo-barge and you have the good sense to try and control the speed with the brakes and get the car to the right shoulder or next exit instead of just slamming on the brakes in the middle of a busy freeway. (that's what I would expect a seasoned CHP officer to do.)

Modulating the brakes with the throttle wide open will drain the booster in few seconds, and riding the brakes at that speed, and against that much power, with those shitty low-squeal, low-dust Lexus brake pads will get you every version of brake fade you can imagine (green fade, since the brakes have never been used hard, fluid boiling, and good, old-fashioned too hot for your shitty street pads fade). Now you have no power assist and your brakes are on fire.

Turning the car off doesn't work. The pushbutton problem is well understood now.

I have no idea what's up with the Lexus shifter. Does it have a lockout button you have to push before it goes into neutral, like Ford does? Does it have a manual mode gate that you might accidentally slip into, so you have to move it left or right into the main gate before pushing forward to get to neural? If so, you won't see this, because I'm pretty sure they have a boot over the shifter, not an open gate. In a loaner car, you might just keep pushing forward, which just keeps upshifting. I think Toyota manual shift logic still automatically upshifts at redline and downshifts and WOT, so even though you keep upshifting, it will keep downshifting.

The more I think about it, the more I understand how the stackup of a lot of very minor design decisions can make his accident possible. Those designs are in no way unique to Toyota and they in no way represent a danger worthy of Congressional hearings, but I think I can sympathize with the 911 call now.

-Dave

I get a kick out of how we simply MUST HAVE all the Disney that goes into current cars.

A throttle cable or other manner of mechanical linkage (mostly) worked just fine up to how many years ago?

How many dollars are spent so that OZ controls the throttle plate so that we can have emissions that are .2% cleaner under XYZ conditions? Give me a break!

I look at 'Traction control' as being rediculous in most cases. Of course I do not live where we have that Fourth season. By design; I live where I do. When it does snow up here I have the tractor to scrape the driveway with. The tractor has active lockable diffs, a cab and heater. Bwahaha!!

A mechanical link between the shifter and transmission worked just fine up to this age of electronics running the whole show with the input of the driver being a vague request that is sent off to OZ, who will decide for us IF we really want to shift......

Sure seems to me as though with all of today's electronics that there would be some manner of fail-safe that would instantly cut the excitement if the driver were to apply brakes or select Neutral.

I'd be just fine with the car turning off cell phones in most cases. lol

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JohnLane

Overkill is consistently more fun

Government Motors and the UAW would not be pushing the investagation, nah!

Brian
III

eyesoreracing Wrote:

>
> I have no idea what's up with the Lexus shifter.
> Does it have a lockout button you have to push
> before it goes into neutral, like Ford does? Does
> it have a manual mode gate that you might
> accidentally slip into, so you have to move it
> left or right into the main gate before pushing
> forward to get to neural?

No vehicle I am aware of will require you to push a button or navigate a gate to shift from Drive to Neutral.

That said.

I am told that these particular Toyotas do not have a mechanical linkage between the shifter and the transmission. 100% electronic. The shifter is just a request switch, like every other switch in a modern car.

That's not the good part.

The good part is, presumably as an anti-abuse feature, the computer will not permit a shift to Neutral over 50mph. Dave, I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that...

VW, on the other hand, will cut the engine down to idle if you apply the brake or the handbrake. They won't even let the wipers move if it thinks the hood is open.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2010 09:18PM by Pete.