On Mon, 1 Mar 2010 14:42:42 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Mar 1, 4:48Â*pm, "chaniarts"
wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Mar 1, 3:21 pm, wrote:
On Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:08:01 -0600, AZ Nomad

wrote:
On Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:15:57 -0500,
wrote:
On Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:00:44 -0600, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:39:39 -0500, Tony
wrote:
mm wrote:

My friend had a Rav 4. I don't know what that is. Today my
friend says it has unintended acceleration, but only a little.
!!!!

If I owned one of those Toyota vehicles affected, I would
install an auxiliary engine kill switch before I drove it again.

I would simply assure myself that I could tell the difference
between the brake and accelerator pedals. This is the same
****ing hysteria that struct audi ten years ago. The reports
vanished when audi installed an interlock so that the driver had
to have his boot on the brake pedal before putting the car in
gear.

Not even remotely the same thing.

And you were there in each and every case? People occasionally stomp
on the wrong pedal. It happens every week all the time. The only
thing different now is the media hysteria.

The only hysteria evident is yours.

The Toyotas, when they "run away" seem to do it while the driver is
just cruising along, sometimes already at highway speeds. Has nothing
to do with a foot hitting the gas pedal rather than the brake pedal.
In fact, part of the problem is that at 70-80 MPH with both feet
standing on the brakes, you can't stop the vehicle.

This has been widely reported.

The problem with Audis would happen when the car was being moved from
a standing position because of the size and position of the pedals
making it easy to push the wrong one without realizing it.

Also widely reported.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"In fact, part of the problem is that at 70-80 MPH with both feet
standing on the brakes, you can't stop the vehicle."

I'm admittingy tossing out "partial information" here, since I can't
cite the source.

The other I heard a gentleman who was being interviewed on the radio -
who I believe was a spokesman from some Auto Safety organization - who
stated:

"In any passenger vehicle, even the weakest set of brakes is more
powerful than the strongest engine. There is no reason that a driver
should not be able to stop a Toyota when it exhibits the run-away
problem. The key is to not panic, apply the brakes, shift into neutral
and pull to the side of the road."

Sounds easy enough. ;-)

that quote doesn't imply the brakes will stop the car without being in
neutral. the brakes won't stop the car if, in fact, it is in gear and
accelerating (or at least once the breaks start slipping due to
overheating), it won't.

"that quote doesn't imply the brakes will stop the car without
being in neutral."

I'm not arguing whether the brakes will stop the car or not, but I
will argue that that is most certainly what the quote implies.

"In any passenger vehicle, even the weakest set of brakes is more
powerful than the strongest engine."

If indeed the brakes are stronger than the engine, then they will stop
the car even when it is in gear.

What would be the point of going on the radio and stating that "Any
brake system will stop a car that is in neutral."? That's pretty
obvious.

I can certainly see that as written in my post, you could take the
quote to mean the car must be in neutral. However, had you heard the
speaker speaking, with the inflections and pauses where they were, you
could easily tell that he was making 2 distinct points:

1 - The brakes are strong enough to overcome the most power engine.
2 - Here's the process to follow if you have a stuck accelerator.

Number 2 doesn't make Number 1 false.


All you need to do is look at accelleration figures in comparison to
stopping distance figures. A car takes X number of feet to accellerate
from a stop to 100 KPH. The stopping distance is generally something
in the neighbourhood of X/4 feet, meaning the brakes are dissipating
roughly 4 times the power the engine is producing.

HOWEVER - the brakes must be applied HARD - and STEADY - NOT PUMPED -
to stop the vehicle as quickly as possible. Lighter braking will give
the brakes too much time to heat up and fade - and pumping at WOT
looses your vacuum boot VERY QUICKLY.