Upon starting the car and placing the CVT transmission into drive, the engine RPMs went much higher than had been normal. I was in a parking lot and I fortunately kept my foot on the brake or I would have moved forward into the travel lane. I quickly decided I should shift into neutral so that even if the engine RPMs went up that I wouldn't have to worry about hitting something and at the same moment I contemplated that I would turn the key to the off position. Once in neutral the engine revs went higher because it was not under any load and faster than I could shut off the key (less than 2-3 seconds), the idle returned to normal. At that point I put the car in drive and drove it for about 20 minutes until I got to my destination. The drive included low speed roadways and stop signals.
I have driven hundreds of kinds of cars and trucks over 45 years of driving and probably have over 750000 miles of driving under my belt. I have never experienced anything like this. I grew up servicing cars and trucks and am fairly comfortable dealing and fixing the mechanical side of car.
Some facts for others reading this. When the incident happened the car was warm. It had been driven for about 30 minutes and then was off for about 30 minutes while I was in a mall. The air conditioner was turned on. The cruise control was not on. It was about 11am in the morning and the outside temperature was about 80 degrees. The radio was on. There were no obstructions or anything unusual around the gas pedal. I am sure I did not have my foot on the gas pedal. I was in a bit of a rush and when I started the car (with a key not a fob), I immediately put the car into Drive. I did not wait until the car went through all its checks/lights that show up around the speedometer.
I was fortunate, but Toyota has something wrong in their electronic/sensors that is causing the problem. If it happens to me again I will go see the dealer, but it appears that Toyota is denying that there are issues with unexpected acceleration. I wanted to report it just in case others have experienced similar problems and had worse outcomes than me.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Upon starting the car and placing the CVT transmission into drive, the engine RPMs went much higher than had been normal. I was in a parking lot and I fortunately kept my foot on the brake or I would have moved forward into the travel lane. I quickly decided I should shift into neutral so that even if the engine RPMs went up that I wouldn't have to worry about hitting something and at the same moment I contemplated that I would turn the key to the off position. Once in neutral the engine revs went higher because it was not under any load and faster than I could shut off the key (less than 2-3 seconds), the idle returned to normal. At that point I put the car in drive and drove it for about 20 minutes until I got to my destination. The drive included low speed roadways and stop signals.
I have driven hundreds of kinds of cars and trucks over 45 years of driving and probably have over 750000 miles of driving under my belt. I have never experienced anything like this. I grew up servicing cars and trucks and am fairly comfortable dealing and fixing the mechanical side of car.
Some facts for others reading this. When the incident happened the car was warm. It had been driven for about 30 minutes and then was off for about 30 minutes while I was in a mall. The air conditioner was turned on. The cruise control was not on. It was about 11am in the morning and the outside temperature was about 80 degrees. The radio was on. There were no obstructions or anything unusual around the gas pedal. I am sure I did not have my foot on the gas pedal. I was in a bit of a rush and when I started the car (with a key not a fob), I immediately put the car into Drive. I did not wait until the car went through all its checks/lights that show up around the speedometer.
I was fortunate, but Toyota has something wrong in their electronic/sensors that is causing the problem. If it happens to me again I will go see the dealer, but it appears that Toyota is denying that there are issues with unexpected acceleration. I wanted to report it just in case others have experienced similar problems and had worse outcomes than me.
- almd, Ellicott City, MD, US