Accelerator pedal sticking

My vote is with the floor mats.

The other story about the guy who claimed everything failed seems bogus, at least that's the opinion around here. Accelerator stuck, service brakes failed, parking brake failed. Sure.

And he got off the freeway and headed toward a gas station? Sounds like too many excuses to me.

 

How long have you had the car?
Do you mats have the hooks to keep them in place?

An odd first post... and rather suspicious if past experience on these forums is any guide.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(loopy @ Mar 20 2007, 05:58 PM) [snapback]409220[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(KTPhil @ Mar 20 2007, 07:00 PM) [snapback]409258[/snapback]</div>

I do not want to sound like one of the suspicious Prius people who will not believe anything that isn't good about their car. However, what surprises me about your post is that you say that you are putting the gas pedal to the floor. Apparently you often do this? Did I read/comprehend that correctly?

I have never come close. Of course, I am not an 18-year-old, nor am I ever in that much of a hurry where I would be inclined to take that kind of chance with my own and others' lives. Why is there ever a reason to floor any car?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jendbbay @ Mar 20 2007, 11:29 PM) [snapback]409357[/snapback]</div>

Not trying to start an argument but when I get on the freeway by my house I floor it. there is this long stretch of on ramp with a nice little twist at the end and it is fun to hit that at high-speed.

I had a Mini Cooper S so I like twist and turns and this is really the one place around here I can safely do this. I am safe about this as with this on ramp you have complete visibility of the freeway and the on ramp. it is just fun.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IAO @ Mar 20 2007, 09:48 PM) [snapback]409367[/snapback]</div>

DIDO B) except no Mini

 

Take all the trash out of your car:

http://tinyurl.com/2jqp3t

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(adam1991 @ Mar 21 2007, 08:03 AM) [snapback]409472[/snapback]</div>

Wow I thought my car was bad because I haven’t vacuumed it in like 6 months. There is nothing in the car but the floor looks bad. That is ridiculously stupid that cant be real. Can you imagine the smell?

 

uh

 

I had a stuck accelerator pedal twice. Both times I thought it was my extra floormat. Not sure though.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jendbbay @ Mar 20 2007, 11:29 PM) [snapback]409357[/snapback]</div>

Wow, I'm taking huge chances with my life and the lives of others by flooring it up a steep freeway on-ramp so that I can be at an appropriate merging speed when it's time to merge? I'm glad you told me. Now I will make sure to always merge into fast-moving traffic while going 25 for fear of using the capabilities carefully engineered into the car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wyounger @ Mar 24 2007, 01:51 PM) [snapback]411545[/snapback]</div>

Huh?

I said all of this?

All I asked was why the OP so frequently finds themselves in a position of having to floor their car. Even when getting on a freeway, you get plenty of speed without flooring it. I am not actually criticizing, because maybe there are circumstances I am not thinking about -- though getting on a freeway certainly isn't one of them.

Obviously it isn't good for the accelerator to stick, so I am concerned about that. I have driven manual transmission Hondas for the past 20 years, and have never ever floored either of these cars, even though I have hated the lack of power in the 1998. However, flooring it really wouldn't help, since it is the rate of increase in speed that I hate, and that isn't improved by flooring the car.

Anyway, I don't know why you have such a negative reaction to what I said. Why are there only two choices? Either go 25 or floor it? This is really a bogus argument. I think if you put your mind to it, you could manage to merge with freeway traffic at an appropriate speed without needing to floor your car, regardless of what kind of car it is.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wyounger @ Mar 24 2007, 02:51 PM) [snapback]411545[/snapback]</div>

hee hee hee hee hee!

 

The closest I've ever come to a stuck pedal was during a warm-up period in the dead of winter.

I had the block heater on all night and went to start my car. It was maybe -20 outside and the windows were compeltely iced-over.

I started the car and commenced scraping after enabling the defrosters. Once it was all scraped off, I found I had significant ice buildup on the inside of the windshield. Since it's a pain to go back upstairs and sit around inside while the car wamrs, I simply floor the accelerator (the oil is warm and the engine is quiet, mind you....but there's not much heat yet). The RPMs rise to maybe 3500 RPM.

After letting off the pedal, the RPMs didn't drop. I was surprised. The pedal was all the way off the floor, because I could feel it rub my foot as I released it. I enabled the parking brake "just in case" and put my foot on teh brake pedal pertty hard. Still didn't change. I then shifted to reverse and the RPMs dropped like a rock back to idle.

Weird. Hasn't happened since.

The cold has also made the Prius perform a slightly jerky motion immediately after startup, like it's not quite in neutral and wants to inch forward, but the parking pawl won't let it. It subsided quickly and only did that one time as well.

Of course, I've experienced the surging at extremely cold temps, too. Cold does weird stuff to good cars.

 

In a different thread, Ken from Japan said how to keep the ICE running until the battery is completely charged:

Perhaps you "discovered" this technique on your own.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Mar 25 2007, 02:49 AM) [snapback]411799[/snapback]</div>

Ken's instructions sound suspicious, for the sole reason that N means the battery is never charging.

 

But you might have your foot on the brake and shift from N to D to N when the ICE kicked in and mistake the ICE ON condition for a stuck accelerator pedal, the topic of this thread.

 

Er - should be easy to test...

Just take the floor mats out for a couple weeks and see if it happens anymore... (put paper/cardboard/towel down in the meantime).