Unintended Acceleration

ChumpusRex · January 20, 2015

I was driving back home today, and took a junction quite quickly to nip in front of some traffic.

Once I got round the junction, the car continued to surge forward even after I let go of the accelerator. Revs banging along at about 3500.

After slamming on the brakes, and having the engine labour against the stopped car at about 2500, I dropped it into neutral, the revs jumped and then dropped back down to idle.

I was able to get the last bit of the way home without incident.

Has this happened to anyone else?

is200 Newbie · January 20, 2015

I am pretty sure there has been a post last year from someone drivine on motorway who had the same issue ... I don't know date it was posted etc

johnatg · January 20, 2015

Is this the 'floor mat-interfering-with-the-accelerator pedal issue'?

But the accelerator is fly-by-wire so there's the possibility of an electrical/electronic fault?

ChumpusRex · January 20, 2015

Beat me to it. I discovered that it was the mat. It had slipped forwards slightly.

So, if you pressed the accelerator hard, the edge of the pedal would slip under the mat, and the mat would stop the pedal from coming up.

is200 Newbie · January 20, 2015

There was a recall for this

I believe they solved it by adding two hooks to the carpet which hooked into holes in the mats preventing them from slipping

ChumpusRex · January 20, 2015

Ah. I've got the hooks for the mats, but the problem is that they don't stay locked into the holes in the car's carpet- they pop out. In this case, I hadn't noticed because I hadn't cleaned the car recently due to weather.

This is basically exactly what happened to me:

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2009/09/explaining-the-toyota-floormat-recall.html

Looking on eBay, it appears that there is a new design of hook which actually locks into the carpet - although it doesn't appear to be available in the UK.

Steve_M · January 21, 2015

looking at the pics in the link Mark, I'm pretty certain that the hooks fitted in my 09 are different and 'curl' over the top of the carpet more, try some of the breakers and see if they have any off a later model. For the cost it might cure it for you.

Jamesf1 · January 23, 2015

I have been after some mat clips myself and was unsure about getting the correct ones on eBay. My IS had no mats when I bought it so I got some IS tailored mats from Halfords. I mentioned I was wanting some clips to secure the drivers mat to the dealer when I had my IS in for the fuel sensor recall yesterday. When I picked it up they had supplied and fitted for free. Might be worth trying a lexus fealer - they are £12 to buy I think.

The service guy also commented that although not official Lexius mats they were a very good fit.

I had tried a Toyota main delaer first assuming they probably had the same comonent for less, but they were not sure on which Lexus models the clips thay had would match - they only had reference to the matching Toyata models.