CORONADAN

Gentlemen,
I recently had a very intense experience.
While stopped at a light on a rainy day my 1992 C4 just took off.
I stood,, I mean stood!!!on my brakes and I barely slowed it up.
Unfortunately a pickup truck was about 10 feet ahead and i kissed his bumper and bent it down.
Fortunately he locked up his brakes and stopped me from going forward.
My Vette was still trying to drive through his pickup with all 300 horse and just stopped on it's own accord. What the heck happened. Cruise control malfunction. ASR having a glitch??
Hep me gents :confused:

LT-4 CE

Dayum!!!! No clue what would have caused that to happen.

By the way, welcome to forum!!

ElisTwoCents

Welcome to the forum. I belive a while back before I even found the forum I saw something on recall list or Service bullitens about this happening, random C4 vettes just accelerating out of control (I have nothing to do with it :reddevil ) I think somebody actually died from this....not to sure. Someone will chime in. I just tried doing a search on yahoo but couldnt find anything on this :leaving:

Dave's_88

I had the exact same problem in an automatic ford I was driving on the interstate a few years ago. The car just took off. I had to brake hard and shut the car off to get it to stop. Upon turning it back on it just did the same thing...kept surging. My problem was a sticking throttle.

I didn't see whether your vette is a manual or automatic. However, check to see if anything is gummed up. Might be a good starting place.

Hope this helps,
Dave

Kale

good time to pop the car in neutral. of course that's easier said than done in a panick situation...

tempest

whoa :eek:

glad you are alright and didn't launch any schoolkids off your hood in the process.

96CollectorLT4

That really sucks man.....someone is going to have to pay for that, and I hope it's not you....not your fault. :(

CORONADAN

Gents,
Thanks for your replys.
A.) No i didn't launch any school kids.
B.) Yes i was lucky>
But
C.) Come on , What happened!!??
Then
D.) What if it happens to you??
I WAS LUCKY!! :nopity

jimb500

Same thing happened to me a few years ago in an 85 Z28 Camaro. I was stopped at a light, it turned green, I accellerated, it just wanted to keep going. Pushed it into neutral, shut it down.

Never did that before and never did it after. Go figure.

mitymek

wow,that is insane.
let me get this straight.
your stopped at an intersection with the car in drive,its an automatic,your foots on the brake cuz they roll a little when in gear.
out of the blue the throttle goes to w.o.t.?
you asked what we would do.i know what i would do-my right hand would click it into neutral.its always sitting on the shifter.it would then move to the switch turning the key off.it would then open the console and pick up the cell phone to dial the tow truck.
panic kills.
but ive logged tons of hrs in heavy equipment,old junky stuff too,so im kinda numb to weird things happening behind the controls.
im very curious to find out a possible cause of this.and youve came to the right place.
these guys are amazing.
you may have to post another query in tech/tuning as it seems some of the pros over there dont linger around the general forum to much.
oh-welcome to the forum :cheers:

Rich_01659

I've read (here on the forum) that some folks get their foot on the brake and gas at the same time. While appling the break the car acclerates so more break thus more gas and so on until you have a car out of control. Good thing i drive a stick because with work boots those peddles are very close together.


[Modified by Rich_01659, 8:03 PM 7/31/2003]

BAM92

Welcome to the forum and glad your ok. I think the asr can only shut down the throttle not open it, but could be wrong on that one. I think the idle control valve cannot flow enough air to push car that hard. Could it be you hit both pedals without realizing it?

jaa1992

The same sort of thing happened to me when I first got my 88.
Brakes full on but the engine revving like all get out.

The problem was my big 6E foot was on the brake, but was also on the gas
:eek: :eek: :eek:
No damage done to either vehicle, but it taught me I needed to lift my foot from the accelerator and move it to the brake.

Just my $0.02

bill mcdonald

My 90 did this to me, it started pulling as I was approaching a stop. I pushed the clutch in and it started to rev, I turned it off and stood on the brakes. everything was okay with me after that. :crazy: nothing like getting a jump start on the heart rate.

my guess is cruise control. I dont have ASR. I popped the hood, look at the cables, everything was okay, fired it back up, have not had a problem with it since.


[Modified by bill mcdonald, 1:50 AM 8/1/2003]

mitymek

brake with left,throttle with right,with an auto.
even if you mashed both pedals at once with one big foot your brakes would be in need of repair if the pedals both went to the floor.
he said he was sitting at a light when it took off i think.
this sounds like a recall situation if it did happen that way.
i cant think of any possible way for the throttle plate to pull itself open while the car is sitting with the brake on in gear.
can you?
maybe cruise control-but the brake switch should have it cancelled even if the cc switch was armed.
meanwhile i will ensure my cc is in off position when not in use.

:crazy:

beachcat

I don't think this applies to your situation, but the raining and accel part reminded me of when I first drove in the rain and at night on top of that with the 87. I tried to turn on the wipers in the normal spot, for most cars that is, and finally found the controls on the the door. When I approached a light, I took my foot off the gas, but kept going, no slowing down , till I hit the brakes. In my original attempt to turn on the wipers by looking for the controls on the steering column, I had engaged the cruise control. :rolleyes:

mitymek

is this a fishing expedition for some kinda litigation perhaps?

C4kid94

OMG, this same thing happend to me, except i was taking a turn and spun out into a median. After that it ran fine, is there some kind recall or something. Also its happen before when I was stoping for a light, it just kept going and then it stoped.

mitymek

:eek: maybe there is an issue here. scary
:lurk:

update:Digging around i found several like this:
ODI ID: 126184
Make: CHEVROLET
Model: CORVETTE
Year: 1984
Date of Failure: Wednesday, September 12, 1984
Incident: No
Fire: No
Number of Injuries: 0
Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:INSTRUMENT PANEL:COMPUTER COMMAND CONTROL MODULE
Summary: SIMULTANEOUS WITH TURNING ON A/C,THE MOTOR ROARED INTO WIDE OPEN POSITION,HURTLING CAR INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC/ECM BELIEVED TO BE CAUSE OF SUDDEN ACCELERATION. KP
http://www.c4vettes.com/84pb.htm
thats all on 84 ym's. looking for more.
heres one for 92:
ODI ID: 949509
Make: CHEVROLET
Model: CORVETTE
Year: 1992
Date of Failure: Wednesday, April 27, 1994
Incident: No
Fire: No
Number of Injuries: 0
Component: FUEL:FUEL INJECTION:IDLE SPEED CONTROL VALVE
Summary: VEHICLE WILL ACCELERATE AT ANYTIME WITHOUT WARNING IN EITHER DRIVE OR REVERSE. AIR CONTROL VALVE MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSE. PLEASE DESCRIBE DETAILS. TT

man-tons of instances in 95 too
none in 96
but wow-from 84 to 95 i would think an issue like this wouldve been corrected.


[Modified by mitymek, 11:43 PM 8/2/2003] :crazy:
cant beleive there hasnt been more mention of this.


[Modified by mitymek, 11:59 PM 8/2/2003]

CORONADAN

Well gentlemen I found the problem.
Go to ths web page and read the alarming news about Cruise Control!!
http://www.abramslawfirm.com/Sudden_acceleration.html :reddevil