Help Diagnosing Unintended/Uncommanded Acceleration Issue

Ah ................. how about the "driver"?

Nah - let's keep blaming the car. You know, the generation that been out since 2004? It's suddenly gone bad don't you know!

Or, is it simply propaganda from the competition and from those vested in litigation that have forced Toyota's hand in terms of this "recall"?

This whole situation sounds a bit too familiar. Does anyone remember this EXACT same situation with Audi in the 80s? Of course, all claims were fully proven to be false, but the damage was already done to Audi.

For those who still think it's the car, I do have some advice for you. The brake is on the left, and the gas is on the right.

Problem solved without involving even 1 lawyer!

-Brad

 

It could be crucially helpful if anyone experiencing unintended acceleration immediately drove to a dealer or to their insurance adjuster to have the car's event data recorder read. Physical evidence of acceleration without gas pedal or acceleration during braking would get everyone's attention.

 

I think the problem of the combination of very low failure rate + intermittent problem is going to make it extremely difficult to find the actual root cause. Even if Toyota engineering has the car with the problem, they have to figure out the combination of events that will replicate the failure.

 

Ahh - yes, a closed mind is a terrible thing to waste, so keep it up!

 

Take heart, all ye priuschatters, an interim remedy is at hand. Go to Stop Sudden Acceleration and spend a few $. No, I'm not the inventor nor the seller, but this thing could save your bacon or even your family until Toyota comes up with a better fix! Floor mats, indeed! What rubbish.:cheer2:

A thousand apologies, the blue link above now works also. I guess it is best to alias the true website to avoid legal or whatever problems.

 

Ah, what a country. Always someone ready to step in and make a buck. :madgrin:

I remain skeptical of this device. Also, some of the info on that site is just plain wrong as applied to the Prius.


I will save my money and if I somehow beat the overwhelming odds and have a "sudden acceleration" I will shift to N, or if somehow that fails, hold the Power button for 3 seconds. Both of those thing work on my car, I have tested it.

 

Agreed. I'll put my faith in my ability to shift into neutral before I spend money on a device that has much less reliability than my right arm.......

 

Dogfriend, I also remain skeptical of it. But if a friend or someone else in your family happens to be driving, it might be good to have a backup cutoff that is automatic. But you're right: Caveat Emptor.

 

It is easy for some of us to get defensive about the Prius and assume that people are just stupid, which in many cases the are or just act stupidly at a particular moment, but you are right. We should not assume that the Prius is infallible and if there really is a mechanical/electrical problem then we will be doing ourselves a disservice by ignoring these claims. Thank you for your post.

 

Understood. Having more data always helps, and data recorder readouts are hard to argue with. It might also give pause to those who in the backs of their minds wonder whether they were not in fact stomping on the gas, or maybe didn't have the carpet hooks in place.

 

If I had been racing and jammed the pedal down so hard it stuck into the carpet (the floor mats are hooked to the floor and cut out around the pedal), and I was so inept as not to know what "N" or "off" does, and I crashed into someone, and was facing a jail sentence and loss of everything, I may at that moment be tempted to blame something other than myself.

I have no loyalty to the Prius at all, it's just a machine I bought, but the mats and pedal are fine, and I am not having anyone mess with it.

 

Good for you, I feel the same way. But on second thought, I wondered what would happen if I did have an accident and when the police or the insurance co. examined my car and the gas pedal had not been modified, the insurance may have an excuse to not pay because my car didn't have the latest 'safety' update.

 

The issue comes from it being sometimes difficult to distinguish from (new user) trolls that come here time to time, posting bogus info and stories vs. long term users who have a (positive) reputation, esp. those who have lots of technical knowledge about the Prius.

If you've been here long enough, (WAY before Toyota issued the floor mat and accelerator pedal recalls) every now and then we get single post count users who claim they've had some catastrophic problem: brakes failed, unintended acceleration, etc. Yet, when questioned about floor mats, codes, dealer diagnosis, etc. They're never to be heard from again or give useless replies.

At the time, I believe the OP had few posts and IIRC, the subject line was inflammatory and something like "Help! My Prius tried to kill me!", and IIRC, the subject got changed by the mods to what it is now. So, there were all sorts of red flags since we didn't do much about the user.

To give examples: If I or people like the mods, galaxee, bwilson4web, Patrick Wong, ken1784, Mike Dimmick, patsparks, and TheForce, to name a few, were to actually encounter the issue and post about it (and go through proper troubleshooting), I think we'd all lend a lot more credence to the claims than newbie, unknown posters.

 

I thought the event data recorder was triggered by airbag deployment, no?

 

The site is one week old. I don't see the part where Mr. Cook explains who he is or what it does, or what makes him qualified to modify my car. How exactly does it know if I want to accelerate or if the car is doing it without me?

 

+1:thumb:

 

Yes, there is--I have one.

 

I have a 2006 package #7. The #8 is the same package, but with leather.

Tom

 

Has there been any link between the acelleration problems and the anti-slip function on the touring package?

(I cant remember the name of this feature, but it sucks in winter when you are stuck and the torque shuts off automatically when the wheels, aren't catching)

 

You are thinking of traction control. All Prius have traction control, not just the touring models. Early Gen II Prius were particularly bad about this. The 2006 and later Gen II have improved traction control. It's not as sensitive, but still can be a problem, especially with bad tires.

The Gen III Prius (2010) have a new traction control system that also includes individual brake application to slipping wheels. This system works very well.

None of the traction control issues are related to acceleration problems. At present, the only documented acceleration problems with the Prius relate to all weather mats getting stuck on the accelerator pedal.

Tom