So I was driving home from work late last night, I punched the gas a little and somehow the throttle locked up and the car kept accelerating. I stood on the brakes and could feel the ABS "grinding", but it wasn't enough to really slow the car down.

I ended up going over a curb and hitting a small tree in front of a school. Thank God no one was hurt.

As far as damage is concerned, my front left tire and wheel are toast and I think the back left tire is in questionable shape (sidewall is bubbling in one spot). My front fender is dented next to the headlight and the bumper is really scraped up. The car needs an alignment at the very least as well... hopefully the front suspension is ok.

Today I went through the forums and read some posts where people had issues with the gas pedal getting stuck under a floor mat - I can tell you that this wasn't the case with me.

Somehow the pedal, or maybe the throttle body, got stuck. I had seen a few (non-floor mat) posts in which people claimed that their car would surge sometimes. I'm here to tell you that if your car does this, you should have it checked out.

 

sorry aboutwhat happened.time to get some warranty work done. you bitch to the service people that this little defect could've gotten you killed.

 

E-Brake FTW?

But couldn't you just turn the car off?

 

thanks for the tip.. and sorry to here about your car... I feel for ya .. glad no one was hurt
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This is when you take the car the car out of gear.... Neutral is only a notch up. Sorry to hear about your bad luck though. Hope everything gets fixed ok.

 

+1 to N or shutting the car off and the TB can get stuck.

 

Yeah I've been beating myself up about not bumping it up to neutral - just happened to fast.

Turning it off is an interesting thought, but would've killed the power brakes, no?

As far as the e-brake is concerned, I don't think it would've cut it.

 

yeah, i know what you mean. you don't really have time to think. Ok...hmm..what should i do here? you just go with your instincts, which was to slam on the brakes, to bad it didn't work..oh well, at least you're ok.

 

when stuff happens that fast that quick, no one would fault you for not thinking that

main thing is you are ok and you didnt hit anyone else

 

Thanks man.

And yeah, whatever/however the gas got stuck forced me to run a 3-way intersection and make a turn since the road was ending. This is on city streets with parked cars btw. Basically I was focused on not hitting someone else's car.