vivftp

Howdy all,

The damndest thing happened to me tonight and I have no idea what caused it. A mechanic won't be available to look at it until tomorrow, but I was wondering if anyone here might know what occured.

I was driving my car home tonight and just got on the highway. I was accelerating up to highway speeds, and everything was going just fine. I was just about to reach the speed limit so I took my foot off the gas, but the car kept accelerating on its own! Now before you ask, the cruise control was definately, 100% off. I don't use it and don't touch it.

Now I am a car novice. I had no idea what was going on so I thought maybe the gas pedal had become stuck so I tried giving it a quick, hard press to see if that might unstick it - that didn't do anything. I was in D5 this entire time and had to press hard on the breaks to stop the car from accelerating out of control and slow it down to a more reasonable speed. Everytime I would take my foot off the break, the car would accelerate again. On the advice of a person I got on the phone during all this, I tried downshifting to a lower gear, but that didn't seem to do anything. By this time I didn't know what to do. I managed to get the car down to around 15 km/hr and it was definately not going any slower than that. I couldn't figure out how else to stop the car, so I did the only thing I could think of - I shifted the car to park. This did stop the car, but the engine was revving VERY high and the tires were screeching in place. I immediately took out the key, and was now parked on the shoulder of the highway.



The car's now been towed to a mechanic, but it's still very early and he won't even be up yet. So... has anyone ever heard of such a thing occuring? Any advice on what might've gone wrong? Anyone know if I completely trashed the transmission by flipping it into park while in motion?


*sigh*... T'is a sad night for me (and a friggin' scary one!)... if the highway wasn't almost completely dead, things could've gone very, very bad.


Thanks for any help!

fsttyms1

could be a few things. Some thing got lodged in the throttle body cables or the cable is kinked and not releasing all the way, the cable came loose and pulled the throttle cam open further in its resting position. Or the TPS (throttle position sensor) went bad and is causing the car to idle higher.

For future reference IF something like this were to ever happen to you again with any car DONT throw it in park Its VERY bad for the trans(ours doesnt need help breaking the way it is) . Simply turn the car off by turning it back one position (not all the way to the lock position). You will have full control of the car, be able to put your hazards on and move over to a safe spot. Neutral would have also worked.

JDM Inspired

ahh the wonderful power of the TL, just wants to keep going and going, thats a crazy story, but thank god, nothing bad happened....

vivftp

Hmm, I'll keep those in mind. The mechanic won't be able to take a look at it until this evening, unfortunately.

Yeah, I knew throwing it into park has the potential to mess up the transmission, but at the time I didn't know what my other options were. I did put it in neutral for a couple of seconds, but then it was revving so high I immediately put it back into on of the driving gears as I didn't know if the engine was about to explode or anything, hehe.

Good advice for if this should ever occur again tho, thanks.

sbuswell

Now that it's parked did you take off the intake to see if the TB butterfly was stuck open? Maybe it got so gunked up that it was stuck open. Definitely check the throttle cables first. if the throttle cables look fine and TB is closed when the motor is off the I'd think it's a TPS sensor malfunction or tranny problem. Did your CEL come on?

vivftp

Heh, as I indicated in the OP, I'm very much a novice when it comes to cars. I have much to learn about what's what, and what does what.

I don't have the car with me right now, it's at the mechanics and he'll be getting to it later today. I'm just hoping there isn't any sort of tranny issue that caused it, or any issue that'll come up as a result of me putting it into park while doing 15 km/hr.

As for the several options you listed, are all the fixes relatively simple and cheap? The tranny issue of course isn't cheap, but are the others pretty easy to deal with?

And sorry, I don't know what a CEL is.

03bl AC k CL

CEL is check engine light... the previous mentions of the Throttle Body being the problem may be correct. I had to have mine replaced for the opposite reason in that my gas pedal would be very sticky, as in i would have to mash on it to get going and thus cause rough acceleration at red lights and dead stops. However your situation seems a lot scarier and dangerous so it's good it has been towed immediately. In my case eventually my TB broke and my check engine light and VSA light came on and my car drove similar in harshness to how it did when the trans went on me. good luck.

03aspec

CEL=check engine light

just as fsttyms1 said, dont ever throw it into park like that, it is very VERY bad for the trans. try to throw it into netural and bring the car to a complete stop then turn the engine off.

vivftp

I didn't actually take notice of the CEL as I was too busy trying to hold down the break, talk with someone on the phone, navigate the highway and think of what could be going on... all at the same time, hehe.

Since I immediately yanked out the key as soon as it was in park, I didn't get a chance to look at it then, and I didn't put the key back in after that. I'll be going to the mechanics in about 5-6 hours, so I suppose we'll be able to tell what happened then.

I guess I should've kept it in neutral when I did shift it there, but the extremely high revving of the engine scared the shit out of me and I didn't know what that would do, which is why I took it out of neutral. I suppose the one good thing is that I managed to slow it down as much as I did before shifting it to park. I don't recall hearng any grinding noises when I did it, which is a good thing as far as my research on the net shows.

fsttyms1

Throwing into park while moving is very bad for the trans. The computer wont let you damage the motor with it reving high. Far less than what could happen to the trans from what you did.

Novice or not you still could pop your hood and look to see if any thing didnt look right and play around a little. Only way to not be a novice and start trying.

01tl4tl

the engine computer has a rev limiter function- in driving gears, its ~7300 rpm
In NUETRAL or Park, its 5500 rpm- and then you will hear badabdanadadadaabdaa-
as it cuts out, and then you turn the key off- car is stopped- park brake on-- put in park
Thats P for Park- not PANIC

First rule of survival - PUT THE PHONE DOWN
So your brain is active with the visual inputs and situation!!!
and get a hands free- headset- so holding the phone is not your primary focus

Take the time to read the owner manual- it will transform you from noob to knowledgeable in short order. Thats where I learned about rev limiters, then tested it on the freeway to know how it felt.

vivftp

Well just got the car home. Apparently the cruise control cable had somehow managed to get stuck, even though I wasn't using it. *shrug* I don't know, but the car is working perfectly fine now at the very least. Fortunately I was going slow enough that kicking it over to park while in motion didn't fuck up the transmission.


As for being on the phone, the highway was fairly clear, and as I had no idea what to do in that situation my best bet IMO at the time was to call someone with more knowledge and see if they knew how to get out of the situation. In the end things could've been worse, but at least it all worked out


Thanks for the input guys!

Gfaze

Glad you got it fixed! On a sidenote, if you ever in the future end up needing a warranty replacement transmission, DO NOT mention that you had a situation where you put the car in park while it was still moving. EVER!! They'll try to get out of replacing it if you tell them about it.

01tl4tl

Have a mechanic check the throttle cable and cruise cable adjustment, they are supposed to be locked in position with a bolt on each side of the mounting plate for them, along the threaded shaft cover of the cable

Its easy to fix- and often gunk/crud in the spring return assembly can mess up operation
Lube the cables inside their housings while in there.
WD40 or Seafoam in a spray can- called Deep Creep works good

In the future- if you have a car problem- pull over first- get somewhere safe, lets pretend its trans acting up, you do not want to be on the freeway and have it stop dead on you~
If its a tire, you dont want to drive on the exposed rim- costly mistake!

Xzn31

I've done this twice.

My stupid pedal accidently got stuck in my floormat as it slips to the point where its right next to the edge of the pedal.

01tl4tl

get acura mats for it- they have a pin that secures the mat in front of the seat
or some velcro strips

fsttyms1

Unless you have a girlfirend that rips the mat out to vacuum it and vacuums the clip up

01tl4tl

oh,- mine has a hook type pin just in front of the seat track- that grabs a hole in the mat so it cant slide forward.
And a wife who would never consider anything with the car to be in her realm of concern ....or cleaning

This is one reason you have to take out the floor mats for track driving days.
Amazing how much stuff is lodged under the seats, for a few braking zones!

Then you wonder~~ who has been in my car with a Titleist 4 anyway....????