Toyota Camry, Uncontrolled Acceleration, Part 2 - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I received a phone call from the Toyota dealership to inform me that the Toyota shop had examined the Camry and found nothing wrong with it. They assured me that the car is safe to drive. In response to my incredulous reaction to that assertion, it was further offered that I would not be getting told that if they thought that the car would be any way dangerous.

The acceleration events, so they claimed, were the result of gas pedal activation via the floor mat. I very much doubted that assertion because my foot in both instances had been on the brake pedal alone. The gas pedal was not depressed nor do I believe that there was there any movement of the driver's floor mat during either event.

I fear that gas pedal activation was not an accurate diagnosis but was instead an unsupported supposition. I further fear that if Toyota's test methods did not uncover the true cause of the acceleration events, then those test methods are inadequate.

Since I was not going to get anywhere to my satisfaction with the situation, I had the car towed to my home where I removed the driver's side floor mat altogether.

I have since test driven the car to the local grocery and back several times with no further difficulty, but I am not comfortable nor confident with the situation.

Again, we shall see how the matter continues to unfold.

Comments

[Pieter Hoeben]

One of the most difficult faults to find is something that happens intermittent. What this could be is an bad connection to a sensor where the developer did not take precautions as going to a safe position in case of bad connection (and making detection electronics or software).

The best ways to find such fault is to log and replay the situation many times until you caught such an event. The way to do that is just the situation happen as many times as possible. The more chance you have of finding the fault.

External factors must be taken into consideration as humidity, external temperature, motor temperature, external radio transmitters and even a new phone.

This floor mat seems unlikely to me. Who goes backwards on the driveway with the gas pedal to the floor?

Is your gas pedal electronic or with an old-fashioned cable? That make a lot of difference.

Regards from another consultant (Jabil, Philips, Bosch etc. but also the flying PAL-V car)

Pieter Hoeben