dimenchens

Hi Everyone,

Need your advice after you read what happened.
This is the first time I'm posting a message but love reading the varies post from others members.

So here it goes:

Yesterday, I had a crazy experience with my 1999 TL and hopefully no one else got hurt but myself. I had just pulled into an indoor garage and there was a car ahead of me so I stopped and got out to get the ticket from the garage attendant. At this point the car was on a slight gradient. I went back to the car to turn it off (at this point I am not in the car, I just have the door open and I am leaning over) and as soon as I took the keys out of the ignition the car started rolling backwards. The driver side door hit me on the side/back and I drop to the ground and the car is dragging me with it! Its rolling backwards towards the entrance which leads to the street and there are people walking by outside. At this point, I'm trying to brace myself for some kind of impact, but lucky the wall curves towards the entrance, so I take my right leg and pressed it against the wall. Now I am 225 pounds and this is my 3000+ friend rolling backwards but it actually slowed the car to a stop. Whew! thank god that's over, but here is the bad news. I get up and turn around to see that the door was bent backwards and that the left front planel dented in from the door. Called insurance company and they were very nice and coordinated getting the car towed to body shop(door is bent so that it cannot close). Went to the hospital and only had some bruising in my back( doc prescriped xtra strength pain killers so I'm not feeling it today).
Anyway, so how could this have happen? I do a search on google and I find from NHSTA website that Acura had a recall because: ON CERTAIN PASSENGER VEHICLES AND MINI VANS, THE IGNITION SWITCH MAY WEAR EXCESSIVELY AND PREVENT PROPER INTERLOCK OPERATION, MAKING IT POSSIBLE TO TURN THE IGNITION KEY TO THE “OFF” POSITION AND REMOVE THE KEY WITHOUT SHIFTING THE TRANSMISSION TO "PARK."
Now I am a very careful person but maybe I did forget to put the shift in park. However, as the recall states, notification should have begun in January 2004. I bought the car from a friend in early December, 2003 and since then have had the original dealer do the necessary maintenence. The car came with an extended warranty so I know Acura had my name and address. So my question is why I was not notified by either Acura or the dealer of this problem with the ignition switch? My question to you members is what I should do? Should I write a angry letter to Acura stating my harrowing experience? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

PS. Ironically if you can believe this, before pulling into the garage, I was coming back from the dealer where I just got an oil change.

Thanks everyone for reading this long post and responding!

joseph_99tl

wasn't there a recall on this?..

Acura changed my ignition switch.. awhile back.

they sent me a recall notice.

dimenchens

Josph_99TL,
I believe the ignition switch recall for what you are talking
about (ON CERTAIN SEDANS, COUPES, HATCHBACKS, AND SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES, ELECTRICAL CONTACTS IN THE IGNITION SWITCH CAN DEGRADE DUE TO THE HIGH ELECTRICAL CURRENT PASSING THROUGH THE SWITCH WHEN THE VEHICLE IS STARTED. ) was the one *before* the one I am talking about. Check it here http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/home.cfm

Bxscig

I heard two people mention it in their CL and TL when I was getting an oil change.

samkws

wow
glad u were fine?

i make sure i put in park b4 i go anywhere, or putting the e-brake on first

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

You didn't mention if the car was in park or not.

joseph_99tl

yea...was the car inpark?..

dimenchens

I thought I put in park, because when I got out to get the ticket from the attendant it didn't move. However that could have been due to the incline that the car was on so I may have forgotten to put it on [P].

yoda

it would be impossible for the car to roll backwards if the car was in park...assuming the tranny wasn't defective/broken...this has nothing to do w/ the ignition...

I would suspect that the car was not in park...an easy way to tell later on is to test the tranny w/ the car in gear vs. in park..

Mr Zipps

The car was probably in Neutral. It wont let you take the key out of the ignition without having it either in park or neutral...

Love my 99

The car was in neutral