OT- truck accelerated on its' own

HappyDaze · ‎06-13-2012

I am posting it here because I am friends with most of you and just had to share a scary situation. My husband was driving our truck and all of a sudden it accelerated on its own. If anyone had been in front of him, he would have run into them. It accelerated from 60 to 90+ almost immediately and finally the only thing he could do was turn the truck off and then try to steer it off the highway onto the side road. We were lucky he wasn't on our windy, gravel, mountain roads or he would have went off the cliffs. We were also lucky it was no longer icy on the roads. He said he saw and felt the pedal move away from his foot and go all the way to the floor so who knows how fast it would have gotten up to. This scary thing is not something a recent heart attack patient needs to deal with!! ANd I couldn't even imagine if it were me in there- I don't know if I'd know what to do. I am sure I would have pulled the emergency brake or something which would have proably blown up the engine!

Anyway, I went online and see that that year of Ford trucks have had unintended acceleration issues and there have been class action lawsuits filed (couldn't find any resolution to them yet but it has only been a few years since they were filed). We had to have ours towed to the Dealership because every time you turned the truck back on, it accelerated instantly. Well, of course, they couldn't find anything or any explanation so nothing was done. I did file a complaint with Ford and plan to file it with the NHSA too but what I am worried about it this doing it again and next time, we wouldn't be so lucky and not be on a straight, flat highway! I was reading that many people have exprienced intermitten unintended acceleration too, so not all just had a one time incident. I remember reading about the same thing with Toyotas and eventually they did a recall but only after several people died due to this!!

It just scares me and I was so worried about my husband. I just can't believe they can't figure out why it did that! And I don't know what else to do at this point.

Sorry just had to vent.

Nightowlz · ‎03-11-2010

Sorry this happened but glad you guys are ok.

If Ford has had this problem they surley know what's causing it. I know I would not want to drive that vehicle. What year is it? If it's pretty new I would want Ford to fix it. How do they think people can just go out & buy another vehicle. If they don't fix it you could tow the vehicle near their business with a big lemon sign on it. Ford will do something about it. A guy my DH works with bought a Van from the Dodge place. It was a lemon & Dodge said oh well it's now your lemon. He parked the car by their business with a huge lemon sign it. Dodge took the van back & sold him a running vehicle.

I have a Toyota Avalon that I bought after they had that problem so hopefully won't have it with mine.

When I was in high school dad bought a 69 Ford Fairlane 500 in 1973 for me to drive. He gave it to me when I got married in 76. The gas pedal on it would get stuck & the car would take off like a bat out of hello. I freaked out as I did not know what to do. I kept flipping my foot under the gas pedal & it stopped. It did it to me again & I turned about a 180 in the middle of the road & almost wiped out in a light pole. I just mised it. I was lucky. Needless to say we sold the car. We did tell the people that bought it about the problem. The guy was a mechanic so I hope he fixed it before his wife got in it.

Venezia · ‎03-09-2010

You didn't say what year or model your Ford truck is, but I see from a search that this seems to have been a problem with several years. I hope you get some answers. I just bought a new F250 in July; so far, so good.

You should also research how to stop safely in such a situation, but for what it's worth, here's what Consumer Reports says to do:

1) Press the brake as firmly as you can.

2) Shift the vehicle into neutral.

3) Once it's stopped, switch off the ignition.

They said that some drivers switched off the ignition first, which resulted in them losing steering control. (I have also heard some experts say that, if the all else fails - that's the time to pull the emergency brake.)

There was a bad situation about a year ago, where a woman on a freeway had her car suddenly accelerate and nothing she did could stop it, until a policeman told her (over the phone) to press the brake and accelerator at the same time. It overrode the acceleration system and worked!

I'm glad your husband is safe; such a frightening thing to happen. Let us know what you find out.

Venezia · ‎03-09-2010

@HappyDaze - Wow, I'm surprised Consumer Reports didn't mention that (about neutral blowing the engine). They even suggested trying the maneuver in a quiet parking lot, when you're not in the emergency situation to practice!

I subscribe to CR so I may email them to ask about this advice. If I find out any more, I'll let you know.

(ETA: Not sure how this post ended up before yours, HappyDaze, unless you were editing while I was posting???)

HappyDaze · ‎06-13-2012

@Venezia wrote:
You didn't say what year or model your Ford truck is, but I see from a search that this seems to have been a problem with several years. I hope you get some answers. I just bought a new F250 in July; so far, so good.

You should also research how to stop safely in such a situation, but for what it's worth, here's what Consumer Reports says to do:

1) Press the brake as firmly as you can.
2) Shift the vehicle into neutral.
3) Once it's stopped, switch off the ignition.

They said that some drivers switched off the ignition first, which resulted in them losing steering control. (I have also heard some experts say that, if the all else fails - that's the time to pull the emergency brake.)

There was a bad situation about a year ago, where a woman on a freeway had her car suddenly accelerate and nothing she did could stop it, until a policeman told her (over the phone) to press the brake and accelerator at the same time. It overrode the acceleration system and worked!

I'm glad your husband is safe; such a frightening thing to happen. Let us know what you find out.

@Venezia it is a 2010 F150 King Ranch. I guess for the models after 2010, they installed a safety mechanism that allowed you to press the brake and essentially override the acceleration so you should be fine.

Also, they said if you put it in neutral, you could blow the engine up too. I mean, sure, blowing up the engine is better than crashing and dying for sure so I would do what I have to do but it would be nice to safely stop and not blow up the engine in the process. And he did try to apply the brake at the same time but all it did was start to burn up the brakes because it could not override the 90+ acceleration it was doing. The lady you mentioned who spoke with the police, that would only work in cases where there is a mechanism that allows for that. Trust me, my husband did this and it did not work either. There is no safety override mechanism in the 2002-2010 trucks.

Wsmom · ‎03-09-2010

My friend has a ford SUV...I want to say it's the Escape. Hers randomly stopped on a major road. Luckily there was nobody around her or behind her so no accident. Since then also random glitches. Each and every time Ford has told her there's nothing wrong, it's all good and they have had no other reported incidents like she's been experiencing.

HappyDaze · ‎06-13-2012

@Nightowlz wrote:
Sorry this happened but glad you guys are ok.
If Ford has had this problem they surley know what's causing it. I know I would not want to drive that vehicle. What year is it? If it's pretty new I would want Ford to fix it. How do they think people can just go out & buy another vehicle. If they don't fix it you could tow the vehicle near their business with a big lemon sign on it. Ford will do something about it. A guy my DH works with bought a Van from the Dodge place. It was a lemon & Dodge said oh well it's now your lemon. He parked the car by their business with a huge lemon sign it. Dodge took the van back & sold him a running vehicle.
I have a Toyota Avalon that I bought after they had that problem so hopefully won't have it with mine.
When I was in high school dad bought a 69 Ford Fairlane 500 in 1973 for me to drive. He gave it to me when I got married in 76. The gas pedal on it would get stuck & the car would take off like a bat out of hello. I freaked out as I did not know what to do. I kept flipping my foot under the gas pedal & it stopped. It did it to me again & I turned about a 180 in the middle of the road & almost wiped out in a light pole. I just mised it. I was lucky. Needless to say we sold the car. We did tell the people that bought it about the problem. The guy was a mechanic so I hope he fixed it before his wife got in it.

@Nightowlz thank you! How scary about your Fairline (I LOVE 69 FFs!!)! I can't imagine in that big ol' heavy vehicle! The thing is, the Ford dealership said if it happens again to bring it in (hopefully we are alive to do so!!) and they will try to figure it out. I said but what happens if we bring it in again and they still can't find anything? What happens then? He just kind of shrugged his shoulders. I told him here is what would happen- I would insist Ford changes out the electrical throttle body, basically completely change out the electrical system responsible for that. I believe there isn't even a code that regsiters a failure like that on their electrical system in these year models so how they are going to diagnose the issue, I don't know. Oh and regarding the Toyota issue, they did the recall even though it was never 100% proven that the pedals were acclerating on their own- just a bunch of people claiming it did. At first, Toyota blamed it on floor mats causing it but after so may complaints, they just issued a recall. Funny thing is, that is what is the Ford guy suggested- possible floor mat laying on the accelerator- however the mat was not on the pedal and the floor mat is not heavy enough to hold down the pedal to the floor. Plus it would not explain the fact that the pedal was at my husband's foot and then, after awhile, it depressed further. It was almost like the cruise control engaged-that same feeling- except the cruise control was never set at 90+, lol. Scary scary stuff.

And yes, I am afraid to drive it now and worried about my husband when he does. We love the truck otherwise and don't really want to buy a new vehicle right now because we are building a house and we need to replace my car first which is older and starting to nickel and dimeing us. So yeah, not an easy solution.

HappyDaze · ‎06-13-2012

@Venezia wrote:
@HappyDaze - Wow, I'm surprised Consumer Reports didn't mention that (about neutral blowing the engine). They even suggested trying the maneuver in a quiet parking lot, when you're not in the emergency situation to practice!

I subscribe to CR so I may email them to ask about this advice. If I find out any more, I'll let you know.

(ETA: Not sure how this post ended up before yours, HappyDaze, unless you were editing while I was posting???)

@Venezia yes, I decided to start over and quote your post with my answer. So regarding the neutral blowing up the engine (or possibly doing so), both my husband and the Ford service guy said the same thing. Now, it probably wouldn't at slower speeds but at 90+ mph, putting it neutral could easily do so, and probably will. But if your safety is in question, that is, of course, the best option.

HappyDaze · ‎06-13-2012

@Wsmom wrote:
My friend has a ford SUV...I want to say it's the Escape. Hers randomly stopped on a major road. Luckily there was nobody around her or behind her so no accident. Since then also random glitches. Each and every time Ford has told her there's nothing wrong, it's all good and they have had no other reported incidents like she's been experiencing.

@Wsmom funny you mention the Ford Escape. When the tow truck came, he told us that a week ago he picked up a Ford Escape that did the exact same thing as ours! So I don't think it is just limited to the trucks but probably any vehicle that shares the similar engine or electrical system. I hope they reported it to Ford and the National Highway Trafic Safety Administration. That way there is documentation of the issues and the NHTSA investiages all claims and also if there are so many reported issues, they will issue a recall.