2nd gen Toyota Prius pedal sticks even after servicing, guy survives - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

theycallmeebryan · 03-09-2010, 10:44 PM

MadisonMPG · 03-09-2010, 10:49 PM

haha Toyota needs to tell the truth.

NeilBlanchard · 03-09-2010, 10:50 PM

It's a second-gen Prius...and it was not serviced, because it is not part of the acceleration recall.

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/03/09...n-incident-in/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=124501318

cfg83 · 03-09-2010, 10:59 PM

Neil -

That's what I heard. The owner was told by the dealer that his Prius was not part of the recall. This has been all over the Southern California radio stations the past few days.

CarloSW2

moonmonkey · 03-09-2010, 11:22 PM

it gets some press and now everybodys car is going wide open, excuse to speed? problem being blown out of perportion to hurt toyota and maybe help GM? i know the problem is real but just sounds fishey.(or maybe im a conspiricy nut) gotta go black choppers buzzing my compound.

NeilBlanchard · 03-09-2010, 11:37 PM

I think this is either an attempt to extort some money from Toyota, or he was speeding and had to come up with an excuse. The Prius is one of the few cars on the road with a full brake throttle override -- push the brakes and the throttle will automatically cut.

Here are some YouTube videos showing three ways to stop a runaway Prius:

Shift to neutral to override the throttle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II_03...eature=related

Hold power button down for 3 seconds, to shut off the car (or shift into neutral and then click it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N22L...eature=related

Use the brakes, and the throttle is overridden:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiSQe...eature=related

A 2008 Prius like he has will immediately reduce the throttle to zero if you do any of these actions. So this requires a cascade of multiple failures, or a scam, or speeding excuse.

And since he took it into the dealer and found out the recall didn't apply to his car, I think it is a scam to try to force Toyota to settle out of court.

ChrstphrR · 03-10-2010, 12:37 AM

Since I'm not a Prius owner (but do have another one of those other cars models that cuts off fuel as soon as the brakes are touched too), but I'm wondering if the good ol' trick of mashing on the throttle pedal the second time about would fix the problem?

Not that tapping the brakes / switching to neutral isn't already a smart idea...

The only unintended acceleration event I ever had was with my mom's old Impala - the carburator linkage went over while working the throttle and stayed full-wide-open. (No, the throttle pedal mashing trick didn't work in that case)

Frank Lee · 03-10-2010, 01:06 AM

You didn't whip out your cell phone and cry into it either, right?

theycallmeebryan · 03-10-2010, 03:43 AM

hmmmm, seems like this guy is just trying to start some trouble then , huh?

kubark42 · 03-10-2010, 05:18 AM

It's always difficult to make a snap judgment without further information, but I'm inclined to be skeptical about this one. It's just too much of a coincidence.

There was some interesting research that shows that when a celebrity commits suicide that fatal single car accidents increase by 2-3% in the days afterwards. IIRC, Malcom Gladwell talks about it in his book "The Tipping Point." The Toyota debacle would seem to be a perfect example of an idea "tipping".