What to do if your accelerator pedal is stuck?
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What to do if your accelerator pedal is stuck?
A similar thread on bimmerfest is my motivation for starting this thread.
In case no one heard about the Lexus with the stuck accelerator and the family inside that was killed, you can read about it here: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...p-lexus-crash/
Say a similar situation were to happen in a W221 with Keyless Go (or any other MBs with KG), what are our options? I know you can shift into neutral, but what about shutting the engine off? Could we do this by pressing and holding the starter button? I know once I accidentally hit this KG button in my 220 with my elbow and the car didn't shut off, but if my elbow had been on it longer, would it have?
PS, I'm pretty sure I saw a similar thread here about this but couldn't find it after searching.
In case no one heard about the Lexus with the stuck accelerator and the family inside that was killed, you can read about it here: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...p-lexus-crash/
Say a similar situation were to happen in a W221 with Keyless Go (or any other MBs with KG), what are our options? I know you can shift into neutral, but what about shutting the engine off? Could we do this by pressing and holding the starter button? I know once I accidentally hit this KG button in my 220 with my elbow and the car didn't shut off, but if my elbow had been on it longer, would it have?
PS, I'm pretty sure I saw a similar thread here about this but couldn't find it after searching.
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You cannot turn your car off via keyless go unless you are in PARK. It won't let you do it unless there is some "hold the button down for 10 seconds to override" feature or something.
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They even had time to call 911. I heard the call and it was about 50 seconds. In that time no one figured out anything at all to stop the car? He did say "we have no brakes" so I wonder if it really was just a stuck accelerator problem.
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What if you have the key in the ignition instead. Would it let you turn the engine off? I'd assume so, but I could be wrong (and too scared to try it myself).
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That is really odd. I would have just thrown the vehicle in park and let it stall out the engine. Brakes went out? Slowly apply the ebrake. I am confused how this happened. I hate to doubt the guy but to slam into another vehicle at 100mph, wow. This isn't at 500hp AMG... I think we are missing some details
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So it's all about floormats? Or I don't understand?
People should learn to drive in Lada, Yugo or Trabi .. complaining about being scared of driving because floormats - Jesus!
People should learn to drive in Lada, Yugo or Trabi .. complaining about being scared of driving because floormats - Jesus!
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That is really odd. I would have just thrown the vehicle in park and let it stall out the engine. Brakes went out? Slowly apply the ebrake. I am confused how this happened. I hate to doubt the guy but to slam into another vehicle at 100mph, wow. This isn't at 500hp AMG... I think we are missing some details
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That's what I was going to say... use the brakes as much as possible until you can jam the car up against something solid like a barrier, a large tree, a ditch, etc. Then put the ebrake on. After that, I don't know what I'd do.
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Is that a Fiat? If so, I had an old one of those in the early '80's as a beater! Then I drove a POS Fiat to college for about a year or two.
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That is really odd. I would have just thrown the vehicle in park and let it stall out the engine. Brakes went out? Slowly apply the ebrake. I am confused how this happened. I hate to doubt the guy but to slam into another vehicle at 100mph, wow. This isn't at 500hp AMG... I think we are missing some details
I'd shift to neutral and eventually turn off the key. As for keyless go, thats an interesting question.
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A friend of mine commented that if the Lexus' gear shifter in the car is electronic, it could have malfunctioned, so trying to switch out of "D" didn't do anything. I don't know or care enough about Lexus' to look that up, but its possible shifting out of "D" did nothing.
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I don't know how Lexus works, and don't care much either
but it probably has an electronic parking brake too.The brakes on all cars are more powerfull than the engine. If the driver hits brakes heavily, an MB at least would activate BAS which would kill engine power irrespectively of the throttle position and even if this did not work, the car would slow down pretty fast. The problem could be a driver using brakes only smoothly, making them overheat and loose power (also mentioned at the reference).
Drivers like trumpet1 could just activate cruise, and steer the car behind another one going slowly enough, Distronic Plus would take care of a safe speed.
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I drove my dad's LX 570 and my accelerator got stuck under the floor mat for about 15 seconds. During that time, I pumped the brakes until the pedal got loose. I wouldn't know what to do in the case except shift into neutral because there is no key hole for those new Lexus. My pedal got stuck because I slammed the accelerator on open road to see how it compares to other SUVs, unfortunately I got myself into that situation and lucky enough to be alive!
In regards to the S, I know when you use keyless go, you can take out the button, and when you stick your key in there, it would shut the engine off. I did this at a roll in "D" about 2~3 MPH under a controlled environment (tow hooks on a hummer, road bumps on both ends and safety cones in a yard). In every other case with the keys, I have yet to try!
In regards to the S, I know when you use keyless go, you can take out the button, and when you stick your key in there, it would shut the engine off. I did this at a roll in "D" about 2~3 MPH under a controlled environment (tow hooks on a hummer, road bumps on both ends and safety cones in a yard). In every other case with the keys, I have yet to try!
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^^Same here, and I never knew how important those little snaps were^^
I hope to God that I never find myself in that situation, and if I do I hope I'm smart enough to come out of it alive.
I hope to God that I never find myself in that situation, and if I do I hope I'm smart enough to come out of it alive.
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This statement is not true. I NEVER put my car in PARK. I turn off the engine with keyless go with the care in drive. It goes into park automatically as soon as I open the driver's door.
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Must have been "while moving", does not make sense in this context otherwise (although not too bad to clarify how it works when stationary).
A bit different topic but the W221 actually does neither allow P being selected at speed, the speedometer display shows which gear selector transitions are possible and the triangle from N to P fades away unless the car is stationary or moving very slowly. Even "mechanically controlled" transmissions do not really engage P at high speed even if the P-position could be selected from the gear selector. No way to slow down the car with the transmission selector then (other than selecting a lower gear).
A bit different topic but the W221 actually does neither allow P being selected at speed, the speedometer display shows which gear selector transitions are possible and the triangle from N to P fades away unless the car is stationary or moving very slowly. Even "mechanically controlled" transmissions do not really engage P at high speed even if the P-position could be selected from the gear selector. No way to slow down the car with the transmission selector then (other than selecting a lower gear).
