Toyota stops sales of 8 models of cars

Crosley.In.AZ · January 27, 2010, 07:39:54 AM

Toyota stopped the sales of cars over this gas pedal sticking problem.

This will be interesting on how long this lasts

Danimal · January 27, 2010, 08:41:08 AM

What, it ISN'T the floor mat???

Say it ain't so. All the Yuppies must be in tears.

Danimal · January 27, 2010, 08:44:00 AM

Seriously, though. It must be a major issue if they've stopped sales. That tells me the engineers have been busting their asses to develop a fix and it hasn't come to light yet.

I worked at Evenflo in the late 90s and we did that once. The fix we had went through EVERYTHING and at the last moment (after we were tooled) it was canned. Instead of a small pair of "T"s that should have worked, we went with an entire car seat base (infant) change. It only takes one little issue to derail the whole thing and it looks as if Toyota is off those tracks.

58 Yeoman · January 27, 2010, 09:13:42 AM

They've also stopped production, closing down a few plants in the US. The news also said that it wasn't the floor mats causing the problem, that cars w/o mats could stick also.

Charlie Chops 1940 · January 27, 2010, 10:09:39 AM

The accelerator must be a wired device to interface with the computer which in turn tells the injection system how much fuel to feed or not feed. I couldn't begin to guess how much redundancy must be in the system. Whatever they find you can bet the consumer will never know the real cause.

That's not gonna just buff out. Interesting.

Charlie

wayne petty · January 27, 2010, 11:08:35 AM

other toyotas have been found with similar problems...

including prius models..

it is really really important... that everybody teach their family members who drive... to practice shifting the transmission into neutral if the engine runs away... thats all it takes .......

shift to neutral... shift to neutral.. practice it ... show you family members how to do it..

the engine will just run up against the rev limiter.. it should not blow up... but it sure is better than crashing into something..

i sent a note to the governator... mentioning that somebody needs to add a card to the 911 operators manual... run away car... shift to neutral ... should be the first thing that is said as an answer...

the 911 call from the offduty CHP officer that crashed with his family.. took too long.. the operator only had a few seconds before they crashed..

stepping down and back to real life...

Leon · January 27, 2010, 01:04:18 PM

I thought it was strange that a CHP officer wouldn't know how to handle that. I also heard that the model he was driving had the push button start that doesn't allow shutdown of the car while in motion......
give me a key that I can turn off! My new Mustang will allow me to turn off the engine without locking the steering. Shift into neutral, turn the key off.

enjenjo · January 27, 2010, 01:05:44 PM

The trucks I worked on were drive by wire. They were set up to failsafe at idle. We never had a problem with one of them "sticking". We did have failures. Seems to me it is more a programing problem, rather than a mechanical problem.

We had a supervisor they hired, a real know it all, and a woman. One day I was starting a reluctant truck in real cold weather. She came out to see what was taking me so long. She watched me try to start it, and complained that I didn't pump the throttle before trying to start it.

That did nothing with mechanical linkage, let alone drive by wire, on a Diesel engine. I could not convince her it was fruitless.

One thing about starting the ones with drive by wire, if you depressed the throttle before cranking started, it "disconnected" the throttle pedal from the computer. If you waited until the engine was cranking to depress the throttle, it would open the injectors for more fuel.

We had air starters, rather than electric. With those, you cranked them until they started, or you ran out of air. She complained that I cranked it too long and was going to burn out the starter.

Carnut · January 27, 2010, 01:13:11 PM

Just another case of mass hysteria and out of control trial lawyers. Everyone with a Toyota is now gonna jump on the band wagon if they have any sort of accident with a Toyota.

Audi went thru the same thing. Mostly elderly folks who frequently had inadvertant missteps blaming it on the car and not on themselves.

Most speculation on Audis was too close to together pedals european style that americans couldn't get used to, especially elderly folks so ignition interlocks were introduced.

UGLY OLDS · January 27, 2010, 06:33:34 PM

QuoteShe watched me try to start it, and complained that I didn't pump the throttle before trying to start it. That did nothing with mechanical linkage, let alone drive by wire, on a Diesel engine. I could not convince her it was fruitless.
We had air starters, rather than electric. With those, you cranked them until they started, or you ran out of air. She complained that I cranked it too long and was going to burn out the starter.

[/quote]

As long as you kept those air brakes "pumped up" ..........

I had a boss that put a garbage can lid with glowing charcoal under an engine to "warm it up" so it would start...His idea....His truck ...His way ..

Yep...We saved the frame, engine,trans,brownie,axles & suspension...Rebuilt & Replaced everything else when the smoke cleared....

Bob.......

58 Yeoman · January 27, 2010, 07:00:01 PM

QuoteYep...We saved the frame, engine,trans,brownie,axles & suspension...Rebuilt & Replaced everything else when the smoke cleared...

When I was still married to my first wife, a fella two houses away was a scrapper. He would drag stuff home and park it in the sand lot across the street, strip it, then sell the scrap. One day he came home with a COE tractor and started to strip it. It was taking too long, so he figured that he'd just set the interior on fire, then take it from there. LOL. The aluminum cab melted, and he had to pick the pieces out of the sand. He didn't do it that way anymore.

kb426 · January 27, 2010, 07:24:23 PM

Frank, I'm sure that story is just one of many about upper management. Wow!

Danimal · January 27, 2010, 07:43:55 PM

Sticky throttles on drive by wire? Probably not enough blinker fluid.

jaybee · January 27, 2010, 08:02:44 PM

The Audi unintended acceleration hype actually figures into one of my "wish I hadn't passed up that one" stories, the sort that every car guy has. A local dealer had something like 30 brand new Audi 5000's at about 1/3 MSRP. Would have been one heck of a deal if I just had the scratch to make the deal at that time.

Old Blue · January 27, 2010, 08:36:36 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall Toyota being widely criticized on the forum for building a car like the Echo.

It seems that the company was loyally defended by Carps ? I think !

Anyway, at this point I'm willing to give kudos to Toyota for doing what has never been done before. Saying they will stop sales of certain models till they fix the problem.

That is the way a company should step up to the plate, unfortunately most times an auto companies game plan is to deny deny.