[BobKat1]

The story of the last reported Prius incident seems to be unraveling a bit.

By most accounts, shutting off the engine (key or button), putting the car in neutral and/or standing on the brakes are recommended.

Newer cars have rev limiters. If the engine hits the redline on the tach, fuel is cut off to prevent engine damage. IMO putting the car in neutral seems like the first thing to do.

[KayakerNC]

Originally Posted by Pturner

Why, Batman? All you do to turn off the engine is hit the start button. It's faster than turning a key.

Although, hitting the start button to turn it off does sound a bit Microsofty, doesn't it. lol

Actually, the button says "Power".
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/1132365_fd5c479ec1.jpg
And, yes, pushing the button and holding it in for a few seconds does shut down the engine while the vehicle is in motion.

[Pturner]

Originally Posted by KayakerNC

Actually, the button says "Power".

Beam me up Scotty. You're right. Just went out to check. I've been driving my '07 Camry Hybrid for three years! You'd think I'd know that.

[BobKat1]

The button in my car (not a hybrid) says: Engine - Start - Stop.

[faithfulfrank]

Well, I have a Prius, and I love it. Alot of this bashing by the media is bull.

Yes, the last story is unraveling fast.......I listened to the actual 911 tapes of the incident, all 24 minutes of them.

The 2010's had one recall on the abs system...easy fix. Done. The car mat problem? Also bull. The OPE car mats are fine, well secured and cannot move at all....A cheap Walmart brand car mat?, well I don't know.

Problem is that everyone believes whatever they hear from the media....there is usually 2 sides to every story, and a half truth is a whole lie. I have friends calling me up all worried because we own a "death car". Jeez. They mean well, but it kind of ticks me off. I've never had a lick of problems with it, and if I did, I could handle it easily. I"m not losing sleep.

I drove my Prius 900 miles yesterday......on my way to my Florida home from NY. I'll be there tomorrow.....can't wait!!

Frank

[Hawkwind]

Originally Posted by faithfulfrank

The 2010's had one recall on the abs system...easy fix. Done. The car mat problem? Also bull. The OPE car mats are fine, well secured and cannot move at all....A cheap Walmart brand car mat?, well I don't know.

Frank

Frank
Remember one thing and the is that Toyota is the one that stated the acceleration problem was caused by the floor mats (I have me recall letter right in front of me for a 2010 Camry) and the news media just reported it.

I feel that Toyota is clueless as to the cause and has done a very poor job of informing the consumers. My old Ford F-150 was recalled twice and I received the recall notice a day or two after it hit the news media. In Toyota's case I just received the recall for the accelerator pedal reinforcement just last week and how long has this been going on?

As far a creditability, how about Apple Computer founder Steve Wozniak's speed up adventure?

Toyota is spending more time trying to discredit anyone and everyone than it is trying to find the root cause of the problems. Take the engineer that was able to short circuit the computer system and caused the car to speed up. Toyota is disputing his claims because he cut the wires in the wiring harness to create the short. Duh how else can you create the problem? And to top things off the computer readout showed no error.

I think that there is a problem and it is with the electrical / computer system or a combination of both and is a intermittent problem that is the hardest to trouble shoot. Remember back a few years ago when the space shuttle was being delayed because of what everyone was thinking was a faulty sensor? Well it turned out not to be the sensor but the wiring to the sensor that would open or short out when the fuel tank was fueled. The actual short was many feet away from the sensor.

I have a boat that had a problem with raising the stern drive when the motor was hot. You could sit in the drive and raise and lower the drive all day long with no problem but send a day on the lake water skiing and 100% of the time you could not raise the drive. The boat was back to the dealer so many time they though I was nuts as they could not duplicate the problem. It took 2 years to resolve the issue and it was not until I actually cut into the wiring harness and found a short in a molded rubber plug that when things got hot would expand and not allow the drive to raise. I replaced that harness and have never had a problem since. Could this be a possible cause for Toyota?

Also was there anything common in the reported occurrences? We will never know the answer to that question. We will not even go into the possibilities of RF transmission mixing frequencies and creating a harmonic and the end result getting into the computer system.

My Camry go into the shop on 3/22 for the accelerator pedal fix and it will be interesting to see if it fixes another issue and that is smooth acceleration for a standing start. Every time you pull away from a stop there is a very minor jump and not a smooth acceleration. I have never owned or driven a car that did that and I noticed it when I drove the car off the lot and this was long before the Toyota problems hit the news media.

[KayakerNC]

Is Sikes a "Balloon Boy"?


http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/fox...a-balloon-boy/

[BobKat1]

Originally Posted by KayakerNC

Is Sikes a "Balloon Boy"?


http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/fox...a-balloon-boy/

It's beginning to sound like he might be. There will probably be more too.

[GMONEY]

Looks like a group are taking this Toyota Deal another GIANT step forward. I own a 2008 Camry and agree with them. I would not let my Kids drive it..

http://www.wftv.com/automotive/22847494/detail.html

[Grill Meister]

With the events happening with Toyota, it reminds me of an "empidemic" that occurred in Atlanta. One of the customers at the Atlanta Farmers' Market put their hand into a bag of butter beans and felt a sting. They reported that they had been bitten by a coral snake. Within a week, five other people reported that they had been bitten....also by coral snakes.

The anomaly of this story, like the Toyota incidents, is that the coral snake is indigenous to the sandhills of North Carolina and because they are so small and don't have fangs like other poisonous snakes, they would have had to have actually gnawed on a person's hand for a while before any venom would be injected....and because their mouths are so small they would have had to "gnawed" on the hand's webbing between fingers. In other words...."it didn't happen".

I drive a 2006 Toyota Prius and had not heard of one incident of accidental accelleration or other problems, until the panic epidemic set it.....and only after the feds took over Detroit, with Ford's exception, and sales started sagging terribly. As with any automobile manufacturer, accidents and incidents such as accidental acceleration with happen, but not in epidemic proportions. Go figger.

My next car will be another Prius.

[BigLew]

Originally Posted by Hawkwind

Frank
Remember one thing and the is that Toyota is the one that stated the acceleration problem was caused by the floor mats (I have me recall letter right in front of me for a 2010 Camry) and the news media just reported it.

I feel that Toyota is clueless as to the cause and has done a very poor job of informing the consumers. My old Ford F-150 was recalled twice and I received the recall notice a day or two after it hit the news media. In Toyota's case I just received the recall for the accelerator pedal reinforcement just last week and how long has this been going on?

As far a creditability, how about Apple Computer founder Steve Wozniak's speed up adventure?

Toyota is spending more time trying to discredit anyone and everyone than it is trying to find the root cause of the problems. Take the engineer that was able to short circuit the computer system and caused the car to speed up. Toyota is disputing his claims because he cut the wires in the wiring harness to create the short. Duh how else can you create the problem? And to top things off the computer readout showed no error.

I think that there is a problem and it is with the electrical / computer system or a combination of both and is a intermittent problem that is the hardest to trouble shoot. Remember back a few years ago when the space shuttle was being delayed because of what everyone was thinking was a faulty sensor? Well it turned out not to be the sensor but the wiring to the sensor that would open or short out when the fuel tank was fueled. The actual short was many feet away from the sensor.

I have a boat that had a problem with raising the stern drive when the motor was hot. You could sit in the drive and raise and lower the drive all day long with no problem but send a day on the lake water skiing and 100% of the time you could not raise the drive. The boat was back to the dealer so many time they though I was nuts as they could not duplicate the problem. It took 2 years to resolve the issue and it was not until I actually cut into the wiring harness and found a short in a molded rubber plug that when things got hot would expand and not allow the drive to raise. I replaced that harness and have never had a problem since. Could this be a possible cause for Toyota?

Also was there anything common in the reported occurrences? We will never know the answer to that question. We will not even go into the possibilities of RF transmission mixing frequencies and creating a harmonic and the end result getting into the computer system.

My Camry go into the shop on 3/22 for the accelerator pedal fix and it will be interesting to see if it fixes another issue and that is smooth acceleration for a standing start. Every time you pull away from a stop there is a very minor jump and not a smooth acceleration. I have never owned or driven a car that did that and I noticed it when I drove the car off the lot and this was long before the Toyota problems hit the news media.

Toyota has confirmed that there are black boxes in their cars but have never offered nor responded to requests for the data in the cars with problems. The NHTSA has asked repeatedly and been denied....this was just before it was reported how they laughed in their boardroom about OUR laws and how they did not care about them.
http://www.businessinsider.com/toyot...t-laugh-2010-2

[KayakerNC]

Originally Posted by GILMERMURRAY

With the events happening with Toyota, it reminds me of an "empidemic" that occurred in Atlanta. One of the customers at the Atlanta Farmers' Market put their hand into a bag of butter beans and felt a sting. They reported that they had been bitten by a coral snake. Within a week, five other people reported that they had been bitten....also by coral snakes.

The anomaly of this story, like the Toyota incidents, is that the coral snake is indigenous to the sandhills of North Carolina and because they are so small and don't have fangs like other poisonous snakes, they would have had to have actually gnawed on a person's hand for a while before any venom would be injected....and because their mouths are so small they would have had to "gnawed" on the hand's webbing between fingers. In other words...."it didn't happen".

I drive a 2006 Toyota Prius and had not heard of one incident of accidental accelleration or other problems, until the panic epidemic set it.....and only after the feds took over Detroit, with Ford's exception, and sales started sagging terribly. As with any automobile manufacturer, accidents and incidents such as accidental acceleration with happen, but not in epidemic proportions. Go figger.

My next car will be another Prius.

[Hawkwind]

BigLew
No one knows, outside of Toyota, what information is actually collected by the onboard black boxes. Toyota will not give out any information about it. Also no one knows how far back they can go with the data. I believe in some US made cars you can only get the last 20 or 30 seconds of data.

It should come to no surprise that Toyota nor the NHTSA could recreate the problem on the car is question. How many times has anyone had a problem with their computer and for some unknown reason it only happened once and could never be duplicated?

[golfnut]

gil, what do toyota's problems have to do with the feds bailing out GM and Chrysler?...gn

[Grill Meister]

I guess it is only a coincidence that one of the major auto sellers suddenly comes under scrutiny after Detroits problems. I am certain that one really has nothing to do with the other.