Just had an uncommanded acceleration '11 Ecoboost

[jeepman3071]

I certainly don't think the OP is full of B.S., and I'm glad he reacted the way he did instead of panic.

I remember reading that story of the lady who was speeding down the highway in her drive by wire SUV and couldn't stop it. Most people thought she was an idiot, and that she should "just turn the car off". Easier said than done, especially if she was panicking.

My dad has a 2009 Mercedes-Benz GL450 SUV. It has drive by wire, and a push button start. It also has a computer controlled column shift. Flipping the lever in a certain direction controls what gear the transmission is in.

While the car is moving, it won't let you shift into neutral. Unless the car is completely stopped, it won't let you shift into any other gear either. Pushing the button while the car is in drive does nothing, even if it is stopped. The engine will only shut off if the car is in park. The M-Benz has pretty large brakes, but I can imagine other vehicles with smaller brakes will have a difficult time stopping the vehicle at high speeds especially if it is at wide open throttle. Brakes heat up, get glazed over, and turn useless.

Like I said before I like technology. It has many advantages and has greatly improved the automotive world. Think about OBD for example. Now the car's own computer can help diagnose a problem. Or ABS, Traction Control, Stability Control, all good things. Drive by wire is not though. We have enough accidents caused by human stupidity on a daily basis, we don't need them caused by computer glitches as well.

 

[SteveSRT8]

We own more than one DBW vehicle and 3 EBoosters are in our extended family. Never experienced this yet, hope we don't, but these are far from trouble free vehicles.

To those knocking Cujet, he is a trained pro who knows how to react in an emergency. I would value his testimony far above the average person due to his extensive flight training.

VERY interested...

 

[Jmeyers278]

Something no one here is mentioning. I had a 2010 f250 diesel that has been in the shop numerous times for uncomanded acceleration. Turns out a turbo was bypassing oil into the cac tube, through the intercooler and back into the intake and the truck was running on its own oil. I was towing a trailer the last time it happened and it drug me out into the intersection where I almost got hit. I have heard of turbos doing this quite a bit. Not sure about gas trucks but diesel trucks are known for it. My truck was drive by wire, they tried replacing the pedal, tps, all kinds of things before they noticed oil seeping out of the cac tube

 

[SwampSurvivor]

It's not out of the realm that it really was unintended. Electronics fail.

If there's a measure put in to stop unintended acceleration when it detects it, how do we NOT know that the computer doesn't detect it when it's happening.

The eco-boast (and I'm assuming other fords) have a feature that you can't hold the gas and brake down at the same time. But if it gets confused ... it's not going to stop that.

My previous comment was more towards the nature of left foot braking. I've rode with a few people that left foot brake and they're always hitting the gas when they don't want to.

Last week my Cherokee was having idling issues and I had to drive with one foot on the gas and one on the brake to slow down and sit still at a stoplight. For me, it's EXTREMELY confusing to operate a brake pedal with the left foot.

I've experienced the electronic throttle just stop working before ... as in non responsive. While driving my parents Jeep (08) the gas pedal just stopped working while driving down the road. Pulled over, restarted engine and it was fine.

My focus idles fast when cold, but once it's up to temp, it usually idles around 650-750. It goes up and down. Once or twice it's just shut off while idling. Started right back up and worked perfect.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Jmeyers278
Something no one here is mentioning. I had a 2010 f250 diesel that has been in the shop numerous times for uncomanded acceleration. Turns out a turbo was bypassing oil into the cac tube, through the intercooler and back into the intake and the truck was running on its own oil. I was towing a trailer the last time it happened and it drug me out into the intersection where I almost got hit. I have heard of turbos doing this quite a bit. Not sure about gas trucks but diesel trucks are known for it. My truck was drive by wire, they tried replacing the pedal, tps, all kinds of things before they noticed oil seeping out of the cac tube


Yes, runaway diesels are a completely different beast, as they have no throttle. If it can be burned, like oil, a diesel will burn it and you get exactly what you experienced.

IIRC, the old MACK dump trucks had a mechanical trap door that could drop into the intake and shut the engine down in the event that it became a runaway.

Getting one of these beasts stopped can be a real chore from what I've been told.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Jmeyers278
Something no one here is mentioning. I had a 2010 f250 diesel that has been in the shop numerous times for uncomanded acceleration. Turns out a turbo was bypassing oil into the cac tube, through the intercooler and back into the intake and the truck was running on its own oil. I was towing a trailer the last time it happened and it drug me out into the intersection where I almost got hit. I have heard of turbos doing this quite a bit. Not sure about gas trucks but diesel trucks are known for it. My truck was drive by wire, they tried replacing the pedal, tps, all kinds of things before they noticed oil seeping out of the cac tube


Diesel consuming oil and running away isn't a product of faulty electronics. The runaway Toyotas and the OP's eco-boast running away are electronic failures.

No amount of TPS, etc would fix your diesel.

Its not incredibly common, but it does happen. A diesel engine will run on motor oil. When it starts to run on it's own oil via blown turbo seal or whatever else is introducing oil to it, cutting the fuel does nothing ... letting your foot off the gas pedal does nothing. It's going to source fuel from the crank unless you can cut off the air or stall it.

The old 2 cycle detroit diesels are somewhat famous for running away on their crank oil, then seizing and throwing flywheel parts all over!

On a turbocharged gasjob, if it starts sucking in any large amount of oil, it'll smoke or just foul out it's plugs and die.

 

[97f150]

I would love to hear the explanation as to why our safety reps vehicle did that then. His age, training, demeanor, whether he drives with left/right foot or a mop stick has no bearing when his would throttle up without driver input as no one was in the vehicle. I know dang well Im not deaf or stupid either and I was standing right next to it talking to him.

The floor mats on these are snapped in on the 2 bottom corners as well, so I doubt the floor mat wedged up under the pedal.

 

[cp3]

Originally Posted By: apwillard1986
I hope after these attacks on his driving ability, age, and perceptual ability that the OP will keep us posted. I also hope that when some of you have problems with your cars that you meet someone a bit more open than yourselves.


+1

 

[bdcardinal]

I don't understand the hate on people that left foot brake. I do it all the time, on both a manual and automatic, it is a lot more natural for me.

 

[notech47]

Ford and everyone else is going with smaller turbo engines with direct injection and advanced electronics resulting in better mpg and better performance. For some reason I expect these engines will give more trouble in the long run than the engines they replace. Have you looked at the website Blue Oval News???

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I don't understand the hate on people that left foot brake. I do it all the time, on both a manual and automatic, it is a lot more natural for me.


You are faster using your right foot then using both.

There's a cool little brake reaction time tester at the Ontario Science Centre. Myself, and a number of family members used it. I tried both approaches and couldn't get it out of the red (something like 30 ticks) using both feet. Using only my right foot, I was able to get it deep into the green, only a few ticks up the scale (2 or 3).

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: Cujet


My left foot on the brake,



Do you always brake with your left foot ?? I know what you are saying about electronics, I was an electronics tech most of my life, I've seen most everything.
But when someone says their vehicle accelerated and their left foot was on the brake I begin to doubt....

Right foot on brake = very good chance of FBW glitch/failure.
Left foot on brake - very good chance of inadvertent right foot input to throttle (subconscious)

 

[rjundi]

DBW and turbo technology in our 2005 Subaru Legacy has not had a single issue for us in 145k of ownership.

Its nothing new except maybe to Ford?

It seems really simple correction in ECU programming to stop applying torque if your foot is on the brake.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
DBW and turbo technology in our 2005 Subaru Legacy has not had a single issue for us in 145k of ownership.

Its nothing new except maybe to Ford?

It seems really simple correction in ECU programming to stop applying torque if your foot is on the brake.






Ford has been using DBW since around 2004. It certainly isn't new to them.

 

[lexus114]

WOW!! If that happened to me I think I`d SMP!!

 

[zzyzzx]

The only time I have ever had this happen was with a bad IAC, and that was on an Escort with ~160,000 miles in it at the time.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

My Taurus had a problem where the pedals were too close. More than once EVERYONE that drove that car went to stop and hit both pedals at once.

I couldn't drive the car with boots on before the pedals were moved because I couldn't press just the gas.


There was a recall, but I still had issues driving it with boots on.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
The only time I have ever had this happen was with a bad IAC, and that was on an Escort with ~160,000 miles in it at the time.


I had the TPS go out on my Mustang and it started idling at like 3,000RPM. It was idling in my buddy's driveway, we were both standing there gabbing and then all of a sudden...Grrrrrr...GWAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

 

[JOD]

Ford finally issues a recall on this for the Freestyle, after several hundred complaints* and about 2 years worth of NHTSA investigation. I have to wonder if you have the same issue?

On the FS, when dirt builds up on the throttle plate and bore, the engine management seems to have a difficult time dealing with the signal being sent from the TPS. There is now a reflash that supposedly fixes it (haven't taken mine in yet). Keeping the throttle body clean (like way cleaner than you'd normally keep it!) seems to take care of the issue before it starts. I knew about it when I bought my car so I've cleaned the TB every other oil change since I've owned it. A couple of times, right before the next cleaning was due, it would surge slightly when braking. The good news is that at least with the FS the car goes into limp mode pretty quickly, so there were no "runaway Freestyles"--but there were a few parking lot mishaps documented. Your story sounds very, very familiar.

*by my estimation, "several hundred" complaints must mean that 90% of all Freestyles sold were affected...

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: JOD
Ford finally issues a recall on this for the Freestyle, after several hundred complaints* and about 2 years worth of NHTSA investigation. I have to wonder if you have the same issue?

On the FS, when dirt builds up on the throttle plate and bore, the engine management seems to have a difficult time dealing with the signal being sent from the TPS. There is now a reflash that supposedly fixes it (haven't taken mine in yet). Keeping the throttle body clean (like way cleaner than you'd normally keep it!) seems to take care of the issue before it starts. I knew about it when I bought my car so I've cleaned the TB every other oil change since I've owned it. A couple of times, right before the next cleaning was due, it would surge slightly when braking. The good news is that at least with the FS the car goes into limp mode pretty quickly, so there were no "runaway Freestyles"--but there were a few parking lot mishaps documented. Your story sounds very, very familiar.

*by my estimation, "several hundred" complaints must mean that 90% of all Freestyles sold were affected...


I know something who had something similar happen to their avenger. Except, instead of acellerating ... the throttle body just stopped working and the car went into limp home mode.