Did we ever have this throttle sticking problem like current toyotas?

 

I personally have not heard of any MINI sticking accelerator problems. Most modern cars use similar electronic throttles and you don't often hear of these types of problems. Toyota's supplier had to really blow it to have such a basic problem.

 

Never seen the throttle stick on a MINI yet.

 

if you have your foot on the gas pedal and you brake with your foot still on the gas pedal does it disengage the gas pedal like vw's do? Never tried it...

 

I haven't heard of this issue with the MINI, since we have a bottom hinged design gas pedal and we also have the electronic cut off. If the accelerator is stuck, the brakes will override the accelerator. Most European cars have this feature, but many of the Japanese and domestics do not. The only thing I have noticed is I have had my rubber floor mat bunch up and rev the gas pedal, but this was when I was trying to reach into my pockets when the car was parked and the car was running. Are the rubber floor mats supposed to be secure to the carpet? Mine are not.

If you do have a stuck throttle in any car, you should shift the car into neutral then press hard on the brakes. Don't pump the brakes or you will lose pressure. Also, don't turn off the engine, because you will lose power steering.

 

My rubber mats came with ginormo velcro-headed screws that screw into factory-installed plastic grommets in the floor that are hidden under a pair of plastic caps normally. Look around and see if they're buried somewhere in your car, or check with your dealer. My rubber mats slowly migrated enough to be annoying until I put them in, now they're steady as a rock.

 

Nope. I've braked and inadvertently mashed the accelerator with the edge of my shoe... it *goes* instead of *stops* when you do this.

But that's the way it *should* be. Otherwise the car is driving you, not the other way around...

 

What actually happens is if you are on the brakes the accelerator works for a very short period of time them it either stops working or is severely cut back.

Try it, drive along in 2nd or 3rd and step on the brakes hard while pressing the gas pedal.......you will slow way down. Found this out while bedding in a set of brake pads.

 

Are you sure you didn't buy a Toyota that someone stuck a MINI badge on?

 

As was stated before, most European cars don't allow the car to accelerate if the brake pedal is also being pressed hard....remember the Audi.

 

Regarding not turning off the engine. Sorry but I don't agree. I have heard many cell phone recordings on TV of people with run-away Toyotas, sometimes they drive for miles before they hit something. I have never understood why they didn't think of turning off the key (one key position to kill the engine, not to the lock position). At speed, even with no power steering, you can still steer the car off to the edge of the road, the effort will be greater, but much better than running head long at speed into something. It is a matter of making choices, if you can't slow the car, do the best thing you can think of, in my opinion, kill the engine and take my chances with the steering.

Of course in the grand picture, most Americans have automatic trannys, which as far as I know (I haven't had an automatic anything for a long time) can be slipped into neutral, and of course with a manual, one can depress the clutch and/or put the tranny into neutral... Good chance you will blow the engine, but again,, make your choices. Blow your engine, or hit someone head on at speed. Just my old fart way of viewing things.

YD

 

Have not checked this out myself but was told by another MINI owner with an '08 MCS that if you are moving and you press the engine STOP button (second gens have no "key" to twist) the engine will continue to run UNLESS you hold the stop button for 3 seconds or so.

I guess this makes sense to keep an inadvertent bump of the stop button on the interstate from killing the engine. Could get you attention though When the car is stopped pressing the stop button immediatley shuts the engine off.

 

That's unfortunate. 60 Minutes really should have apologized for its poor reporting. No one... again no one won a case against Audi. All lawsuits were thrown out of court because plaintiffs couldn't replicate the problem.

By design, Audi made placed the brake pedal to close and to even to the gas pedal. They did for the enthusiasts who like to heel-toe. Those who drove their Audi 5000 through the neighbor's bedroom actually stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. Audi later designed and patented the Shift-Lock mechanism so that the driver can't shift out of P without depressing the brake pedal. Today, this feature is found in every car.

 

No me no think so. But if you'd like a more exhilarating car to drive that's dependable, cheap to maintain and practical, my relative's 2009 Corolla S is up for sale.

 

In fact there is an excellent article in the latest Car and Driver mag about this very thing.

Wanna know what they found out..........

Every car they tested (3) was able to stop the car with the brake pedal when the gas pedal was pressed to the floor. Even the 500+HP Mustang. A nice informative article, read it if you can and make sure to tell folks about it. This whole Toyota thing is being blown way out of proportion just like the Audi fiasco. I blame it all on the media, if they had simply done there own homework they would have found out that human error is to blame for all of these so called problems.

Our cars have the fail safe of not being able to do both. Once the brake is pressed hard the accelerator is severely cut back.

 

+1. Car throttles can and do stick sometimes. Car and Driver points out that MOST modern cars stop receiving fuel input when your foot hits the brake although Toyota curiously doesn't have this common software feature. Reading the C & D article makes you wonder what really goes on in these "incidents." You have several options for shutting your car down if the throttle sticks, starting with simply applying the brakes.

 

Although it's true that MOST auto makers design the braking power to be stronger than the engine power. When a car is in motion, other laws of physics make things complicated. Say for example, you're exiting a freeway ramp at 60 mph and entering a right sweep off-ramp with decreasing radius. The sign posted 20 mph and the distance to slow down is relatively shorter than most off-ramps. You step on the brake as you normally do to slow down the car. However, the engine speed isn't slowing down. Your brain will take time before it realizes something is wrong. You then react by slamming the brakes hard in the curve and the car's momentum forces it to roll over.

Here's a Consumer Report video for a Toyota Venza. With both feet on the gas and brake pedals, the brake isn't strong enough to stop the car.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8980024

Toyota's sticky pedal has affected many. Some of whom are advanced driver. If a cop can't prevent an accident, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for us to do the same...

The company's sudden-acceleration problem gained widespread attention in August, when a Lexus ES 350 driven by off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor sped out of control and crashed near San Diego, killing him and his family.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,4306863.story

Funny thing is.... why isn't Lexus doing a recall?

Edit: video clip of Toyota Venza tested by Consumer Report

 

They are. The recall reports are referring generically to all Toyota built vehicles including the Lexus

 

Ah... I see.

 

As I can't get video at my workstation to work I am going to hold off on commenting on the Venza.

And as for the cop....well if he was such a well trained driver why didn't he just put the car in neutral or park? He had enough time for a phone call. Doesn't say much for his training.

The only time something like this happened to me was when I was driving my dad's 74 Dodge van with the 318 and the cruise control malfunctioned. Didn't shut off when the brakes were applied. Sure didn't have a problem with getting stopped then.

 

He was a 17 yr veteran officer BS, trained to fight crime.....Not an airline pilot.....

By the way. The wealth of training YOU think LE's get in most Defensive Driving Courses, is less than week long......

 

The problem with the Lexus had nothing to do with the throttle, it was the floor mat. And it wasn't even the factory mat, it was a big thick rubber one laid on top of the factory mat that jammed the accelerator pedal. But I agree, I don't understand why the cop couldn't just kick it into neutral and pull over......maybe he was a motorcycle cop? Or a desk jockey? It's sad, but I do wonder why he couldn't get it stopped after all those miles at high speed.

There are two distinct issues here, the floor mats and the throttle assy. Only cars with the US made throttle assy's are part of that recall, all the Lexus cars are made in Japan (except the RX, and it uses a different design) so they use the Japanese made throttle assy.

The Lexus cars are part of the floor mat recall, tho I can't imagine why, they have pins built into the floor for the mat to hook over, mine have never come loose. In fact, it's a real pain to get them off the hooks to clean them.

Our local fishwrap says the dealers will have parts and trained techs ready to start doing repairs by this Friday - that's actually a pretty quick response - and that they will fix customer cars before they fix their new and used car inventories. I also read that some dealers will be open 24/7 at first to try and get as many customer cars fixed as they can.

 

Had a similar thing happen to me. Driving along the interstate doing around 60 making a lane change to overtake another vehicle and suddenly the car goes into full throttle. First thing came to mind was brake which did slow me down a bit but caused my heart to race faster than the engine. Then I turned the key off which of course made the steering much harder. My point is, we all react differently in emergency situations, some panic, some don't, and there is certainly a problem with this gas pedal issue. Luckly so far no problems like this with Mini. By the way the vehicle I was driving wasn't a Toyota.

 

Not sure what your point is? No training should be necessary to figure out that all you need to do is put the car into neutral or park.....or slam on the brakes.

And I know exactly how much training our LE's get......

 

are toyotas brake by wire?