Snazy

Toyota Recalls 3.8 Million Cars In US Including Camry, Prius And Lexus Amid Fears Over Floor Mats | Business | Sky News

Just seems really wierd that a mat sticking could cause this. Surely something could have been done?

Time to call the emergency services, but not cut the drive ?

Markus

Heard about the recall last night, am curious to see pictures of where/how the pedal sticks and how hard it sticks. I'm guessing that the carpet is preventing the return travel of the pedal somehow?

Curious to know how/why the driver could not shift into neutral, thus preventing the engine from increasing the speed. Ok, I know that this would not stop things dead, mass/velocity type things going on, but it would mean the engine would not increase or maintain the speed. At this point brakes can be applied to aid the slowdown.

If you managed to get to 120mph then this would tend to indicate you had space to do so, in which case, would there not have also been space to slow down considerably.

stilover

This happened to Ford on the Explorer. First speculations was that the cruise control would switch itself on, and wanted to test the Explorers top speed. Many crashes later, it was actually found to be the floor mat trapping the accelerator.

My old man had an Explorer at the time. Got recalled to have the mat changed.

yoza

Picture of the mat.....and the guy in the car was a highway patrol man, you would think he would know what to do.


Lexus and Toyota recall floor mats

Devildog

I'd bet they had time to palce a call to their lawyer before dialling 911 to get the compensation claim started....

Its America Snaz, the land of the free, and the home of the thick as pig****

ChefDude

kudos to the Prius for getting to 120

serega

Natural selection at work.

53

iTrader: (41)

Apparently EcuTek are handling the Remat side of things.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Try telling that to his 13 year old daughter

I listened to the phone call, I wish I had not now

subaruturbo_18

This used to happen to my old clio all the time. Dodgy matt would catch under the pedals and stick them, little tug on the matt or kick on the pedal and its back to normal.

bigsinky

typical yanks wanting spoon fed. it's lexus' problem not mine. total juan kerrs the lot of 'em

Snazy

Eeeek I dont wanna listen to that call I dont think.

Im glad im not the only one confused by the situation. Even if it took a few seconds of panic, eventually you would reach the common sense stage of removing drive from the equation.

Suprised there has been a recall on it though, maybe there is more to it.

magepaster

iTrader: (2)

Has happened to me on a couple of occasions and as you said a tug on the mat and everything was ok. How the hell this guy - who was trained to cope in emergencies - failed to either release the pedal or stop the car using the ignition, gears and brakes is beyond me. Very sad for all involved but it should never have reached the stage of being a tragedy.

Snazy

Huh, where do brakes come into it.

Snazy

Oh my god, seriously !!

This is what could not be rectified whikle driving ?



Surely as soon as it didnt come up the first thing would be try get your foot under it and pull it up ?

magepaster

iTrader: (2)

I know! how stupid would you have to be not to figure this out. And this was a guy trusted to make life and death judgement calls while carrying a gun around.

rovermb6

not a good idea really, lock your stearing and lose your brakes with the accelerator all the way down.

53

iTrader: (41)

That brake pedal looks like an auto too

Snazy

Not really, that would be turning the key right off and taking it out. Killing the ignition would not lock the steering wheel.
Maybe thats what he was thinking too eh.
Plus the throttle would not matter as the engine would be killed

Brakes would be affected but still work to some effect, especially the hand/E brake


USA.... 95% chance it was an auto.

bigsinky

ask an american to drive a "stick" shift..................................behave yourselves!!!

Snazy

They dont need to anymore, easily solved... Apple to the rescue, "there's an app for that"

I know I love watching the cop shows where they try and steal a "stick" car

Still baffled by this whole case though.
Curious of the timescale involved.

Sadly the intelligence of the said officer, reminds me of the clip if the highway officer that stops someone for jumping a stop, and forgets to use his parking break

Coffin Dodger

Not so if it's still in gear as the wheels will be turning the engine thus generating the vacuum required for the brake servo

And yes any idiot would figure out a way to stop it - neutral, handbrake, ignition off, drop it into first (engine killer ), etc.

Markus

Thanks for the link to the picture, makes it clear as to what is happening, and it could happen on any car where the pedal could interfere with the mat in that manner. I wonder if it had been an aftermarket mat if someone would be suing the mat maker? As it's an official Toyota mat they now get the blame for this.

As others have said you would have thought either moving the mat with your feet, or possibly sticking your foot under the pedal and trying to move it back would have come into the mind of the driver, I know it would have mine, plus I'd have been slamming down on the brake pedal at the same time (got two feet, why not use em both ).

I'm curious about the brakes not working, perhaps this is more a case of the brakes not working PLUS the accelerator getting stuck, than just the stuck loud pedal. Wouldn't shock me if the brakes were just completely shot and the driver had not got round to replacing pads and discs yet.

Jamz3k

Really? Common sense? Americans?

Looking at thoses pictures i can only think to myself A: The pedals on my old Go-Kart looked better manufactured & B: They are pretty nasty looking matts!

StickyMicky

Said it before, and i will repeat it now.

The vast majority of the general public are complete spackers when driving cars, the vast majority drive around in complete nano-brain-auto-pilot mode, and barely even think about driving at the time.

Weather this is down to the vast amount of clutter a driver has to deal with nowadays (street furniture, masses of signs etc) or is simply down to people falling well short of the required standards due to age, cockyness etc etc i am not so sure, but the amount of people i deal with, who are unable to even understand how to switch off an auto wiper system, or an auto handbrake, is now around 15% of the drivers we deal with every single day, and its always getting worse.


PS . as for the brake servo question, i would hazzard a guess that the car in question runs a slightly different setup as the engine is not even running half the time

dunx

iTrader: (3)

In a Prius.....

Haven't the yanks heard of ignition keys ? or hazard lights ?

It's not rocket science, hit hazards, turn off ignition, press brake pedal....

Simples.

dunx

yoza

It wasnt a Prius....looks like a 350ES to me.