Car moves by itself!
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 330
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From: Manila, Philippines
1994 C220
Car moves by itself!
For some reason my car just decided to accelerate itself with me touching the pedal. Any known issue or cause for this?
I was driving through traffice when all of a sudden I could feel my car picking up speed and I immediately press the brakes but it's still accelerating. Put the gear to Neutral so I won't collide and the car revs at around 2000-2500RPM.
Luckily I was able to pull the car on the side. Really strange and scary too!
I decided to kill the engine since it was getting ready to rev higher and open the hood. Tried to check the cable if it somehow got stuck, gave it a little play and start the car. It was fine after that and up to now, I hope that won't happen on the express way tomorrow.
Please let me know if you know the cause for this problem. Thanks.
I was driving through traffice when all of a sudden I could feel my car picking up speed and I immediately press the brakes but it's still accelerating. Put the gear to Neutral so I won't collide and the car revs at around 2000-2500RPM.
Luckily I was able to pull the car on the side. Really strange and scary too!I decided to kill the engine since it was getting ready to rev higher and open the hood. Tried to check the cable if it somehow got stuck, gave it a little play and start the car. It was fine after that and up to now, I hope that won't happen on the express way tomorrow.
Please let me know if you know the cause for this problem. Thanks.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Apr 2005
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From: Long Beach, Ca
lots of cars
Sounds like your cruise control is acting up. This happened to me in my w124 and i was pretty much thinking i was gonna die and crash into a wall. The simple temporary fix is to take off the cruise control linkage.
Junior Member
Joined: May 2008
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From: Sacramento
2000 C230 Kompressor
Are your floormats locked down? If not they can slide forward and put pressure on the gas pedal. Recently Toyota/Lexus have had some horrendous crashes because of this. It's worth checking.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 330
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From: Manila, Philippines
1994 C220
My cruise control hasn't been working for how many years now, so I don't think that would be the cause.
About the floor mat, that could somehow be possible, I recalled seeing my the end of my floormat hitting the pedal, however, I don't think it's hard enough to put pressure to make the car rev to 2000-2500 RPM. I could be wrong.
I had the car brought to the shop immediately and mechanic suspect that the throttle cable could have got stuck for some reason and said that it happens to some Benz customers who had old cables with them. I just ask them to replace the thing just to be on the safe side. I'm going to observe and see if it happens again.
Thanks for all the concern peeps.
About the floor mat, that could somehow be possible, I recalled seeing my the end of my floormat hitting the pedal, however, I don't think it's hard enough to put pressure to make the car rev to 2000-2500 RPM. I could be wrong.
I had the car brought to the shop immediately and mechanic suspect that the throttle cable could have got stuck for some reason and said that it happens to some Benz customers who had old cables with them. I just ask them to replace the thing just to be on the safe side. I'm going to observe and see if it happens again.
Thanks for all the concern peeps.
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Joined: Oct 2008
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From: Norcal
43
Good call on slamming the gear to neutral. The ones in the lexus panicked, burned out the brakes and crashed...
Even though your CC may be nonoperational, it would still be a good idea to pull the wires completely just to be sure. Better safe than sorry.
And if you're using OEM floormats, theres only a very low possibility it could have caused your acceleration problem, unless you cleaned it out and put it back in recently or something.
Glad to hear everything worked out fine that day though.
Even though your CC may be nonoperational, it would still be a good idea to pull the wires completely just to be sure. Better safe than sorry.
And if you're using OEM floormats, theres only a very low possibility it could have caused your acceleration problem, unless you cleaned it out and put it back in recently or something.
Glad to hear everything worked out fine that day though.
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Joined: Apr 2003
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From: Boston
'05 A4 1.8TQM6
Throttle cable/linkage is sticking, especially if you played around with it and the problem went away. I had this happen to me when I had my w202. The cable/linkage needed to be cleaned and lubed.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 330
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From: Manila, Philippines
1994 C220
Good call on slamming the gear to neutral. The ones in the lexus panicked, burned out the brakes and crashed...
Even though your CC may be nonoperational, it would still be a good idea to pull the wires completely just to be sure. Better safe than sorry.
And if you're using OEM floormats, theres only a very low possibility it could have caused your acceleration problem, unless you cleaned it out and put it back in recently or something.
Glad to hear everything worked out fine that day though.
Even though your CC may be nonoperational, it would still be a good idea to pull the wires completely just to be sure. Better safe than sorry.
And if you're using OEM floormats, theres only a very low possibility it could have caused your acceleration problem, unless you cleaned it out and put it back in recently or something.
Glad to hear everything worked out fine that day though.
That's what the mechanic suspected. I told him after I pulled over and pop the hood, I played with the cable and everything went back to normal. So just to be on the safe side, I had it change. I didn't had a second thought since I use my car daily and frequently on expressways.
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2000 c230 Kompressor
Yeah could have been something cable related. The gas pedal connects through a cable to this thing which is pretty much a rheostat. That then connects to the actual throttle, which is electronically actuated. So if the cable or the rheostat piece become sticky from gummed up junk (grease,etc) then that could result in your problem. I really doubt cruise control would just have a mind of its own.
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Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 330
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From: Manila, Philippines
1994 C220
I think I may have resolved this problem.
After changing the throttle cable, it happened again and really bad. It rev to the limit really hard. It reach 4000 RPM and thanks to the rev limiter it didn't go any further and save my engine from blowing up. I was as close as hitting a wall with this one. I'm blessed that my car didn't got reck.
There was two things that I did when both incident happened, I disconnected the MAF and reconnected it before I started running. My MAF was no doubt going bad like what I stated in the other topic I posted. The reason why I disconnected it and reconnected it because I tried cleaning it the first time and the second time had it replace from the one I got on eBay. Obviously both methods didn't worked out and got a new Bosch from a local store.
Ever since I haven't experienced the problem yet... I'll keep my fingers cross.
Is there any possibility that my going bad MAF is sending a signal to the throttle actuator that the car is about to stall because of low RPM, making the actuator to open wide and rev really high?
After changing the throttle cable, it happened again and really bad. It rev to the limit really hard. It reach 4000 RPM and thanks to the rev limiter it didn't go any further and save my engine from blowing up. I was as close as hitting a wall with this one. I'm blessed that my car didn't got reck.
There was two things that I did when both incident happened, I disconnected the MAF and reconnected it before I started running. My MAF was no doubt going bad like what I stated in the other topic I posted. The reason why I disconnected it and reconnected it because I tried cleaning it the first time and the second time had it replace from the one I got on eBay. Obviously both methods didn't worked out and got a new Bosch from a local store.
Ever since I haven't experienced the problem yet... I'll keep my fingers cross.
Is there any possibility that my going bad MAF is sending a signal to the throttle actuator that the car is about to stall because of low RPM, making the actuator to open wide and rev really high?
Newbie
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
w202 c220
we have the same problem,, were not sopouse to drive the car untill it fix but i like to drve it evrytime.. my cruise control is on and off working i think i need to shut it off permanently.. maybe thats the problem.. it thinks by its own.. i drove this morning and its really bad having that problem.. i wish somebady can help us to troubleshoot this one... good luck driving... i hope when its time to go home today its gonna be ok.,,, 
my cruise control is on and off working i think i need to shut it off permanently.. maybe thats the problem.. it thinks by its own.. i drove this morning and its really bad having that problem.. i wish somebady can help us to troubleshoot this one... good luck driving... i hope when its time to go home today its gonna be ok.,,,
Newbie
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
w202 c220
i think i know the problem is.. but still im going to check it coz it happens to me twise now.. the first one is when i drove my baby first time.. and its really cold.. and after a 2 months of drivng it,, its just happen again today and its cold to.. probably its just the cable that needs lubracation.. i hope im right..
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 32
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From: In good old germany
W202 C280
Hi,
for that two probs where located. Cruise control multi stock gets failure or the throttle cable/linkage is not lubricated.. Do this at every planned check wit it..
Oh man..we have the same problems in germany too but the solution is easy
Sven
for that two probs where located. Cruise control multi stock gets failure or the throttle cable/linkage is not lubricated.. Do this at every planned check wit it..
Oh man..we have the same problems in germany too but the solution is easy
Sven
