Toyota; Total recall?

Inactive

This sounds about right to me;

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/10/2030866/many-reported-toyota-prius-problems.html

mikey72

Inactive wrote: »

This sounds about right to me;

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/10/2030866/many-reported-toyota-prius-problems.html

Glad you're coming round at last
quote from your article

"Regulators count 52 deaths linked to crashes alleged to have been caused by acceleration."

That's 52 too many.

Inactive

mikey72 wrote: »

Glad you're coming round at last
quote from your article

"Regulators count 52 deaths linked to crashes alleged to have been caused by acceleration."

That's 52 too many.

Obviously you missed out the word " alleged ", you also seem to have forgotten that the USA have this strange legal system whereby everybody claims against anybody and everybody for things that are usually down to their own stupidity.

It is gradually encroaching in to the UK.. :mad::(

mikey72

You really are very bigoted, I have no desire to hear how "stupid" Americans are over and over again. If you have anything constructive to say, please do, otherwise assume I will take your view as being known.
There have been some good questions, re turning the engine off, selecting neutral, why the accelerator sticks, why there was no override on the brakes, address these, but give up on the racist remarks.

cyclonebri1

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

As a 5 on the floor man, is it possible to put an automatic into neutral when it is going full pelt?
It is absolute madness to have a vehicle where the engine cannot be turned off at any time from the "cab" - reminds me of those buses that say engine cut off valve under flap).
I used to have an old Rover with a crash engine cut off above the driver's knee behind the dash board - I used to pull it out when parked in dodgy parts of town.;)

Do we yet know what caused the problem - as I see it there was a box of electronic gubbins operated by a plunger - this box sent a throttle setting from the accelerator pedal by electric wire (instead of levers and cables). Electronics engineers, raised on computer technology forgot that the box of gubbins would be next to a snow covered salty boot in the winter and the plunger went rusty and jammed.??!!?? (A fine example of lots of brains and no common sense?)

Most cars have for sometime run the throttle on a fly- by- wire system, just seems something perculiar to the system Toyota used.

cyclonebri1

mikey72 wrote: »

Apparently not, the automatic can be shifted into neutral, but stays locked in gear due to the engine speed keeping on driving the gearbox, and locking it up. The pushbutton engine stop is disabled above 7mph as well.
Good job the car in front is a Toyota, I wouldn't want one behind me.

Interesting, I supose thats to prevent the electric steering rack fom being disabled. Never tried that on my car, but I will next time out.

.
.
.
.
.
Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah:eek:

cyclonebri1

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Interesting, I supose thats to prevent the electric steering rack fom being disabled. Never tried that on my car, but I will next time out.

.
.
.
.
.
Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah:eek:

Well tried that and survived. My car, a Renault not a Totota I must add has a push button start and a key card. IE, you don't turn the key to swith on of off. It also has an electric assisted steering rack.

Got the car to 30mph uphill pressed the engine stop which normally requires 1 push to stop the engine with the card in the dash, 2 if the cars not in the dash.
Nothing happened, untill i pressed it twice in quick succesion and thast stopped it, yes it did loose the power steering but at driving speeds that doewsn't matter. The steering did not lock.
Repeated again downhill with the same result.

I think Toyota got something very wrong if they decided the engine cannot be stopped on the move:(:(

mikey72

The other thing about the Toyota cases are that the gearbox should select neutral if told to by moving the stick, and the pushbutton should also stop the engine if held down for over three seconds, or pressed repeatedly, in an emergency, on the theory that if you are panicking it's more likely that's what you would do.
But it's all drive by wire, so it all depends on ecu doing as it's told to as well.
If you youtube it, there are good examples on test tracks and even the highway in america where it does indeed do what it's supposed to.
It would be very hard to imagine anyone driving to their death without trying to stop the engine, or selecting neutral, and the reputed stabbing at the button would be exactly what you would expect to do, so you have to ask why it didn't work in this case, and why the box didn't shift into neutral.
The gearbox locking in drive when moving and the disabling of the stop button over 7mph appears to have overridden everything in some cases.

Inactive

I am convinced that this is mainly down to human error / incompetence / hype, I would have no hesitation in driving any Toyota.

Remember that the US Government has a vested interest in all of this.

mikey72

Inactive wrote: »

I am convinced that this is mainly down to human error / incompetence / hype, I would have no hesitation in driving any Toyota.

Remember that the US Government has a vested interest in all of this.

I think we know what you're convinced of by now, but do you have anything useful to say yet, or is it still just the conspiracy theory?