I was talking to my neighbor today (he happens to be an auto mechanic) and he was telling me that the prius is electronic in everything. Throttle, shifter, ect is all wired. Will not shift out of gear until it is below 20MPH and the button has a 3 or 4 second delay before it will shut it off..

I rode in one once....the owner never took the key out of his pocket..walk up to the car and it unlocks. get in and push the button to turn it on. As long as the key was in his pocket, the car would run and drive.

Brian.

Stol wrote:Need a new plane.... crash the Toyota.....

Hmmm... Naw! Not my style.

Sounds like a good way to avoid a speeding ticket. But officer the throttle stuck and I couldn't slow down. sob sob fake tears carry an onion and rub your eyes as the cop approaches.

Coyote Ugly wrote:Just strikes me as kinda funny that they would rather run a throttle pedal connected to a throttle position sensor, a computer and a servo motor...

Any way you dice it, you're operating a speed controller with a "throttle" position sensor. Maybe you use a cable to get through the firewall, but on the other side....well shit I don't know. There's no way to avoid the need for embedded software on a hybrid.

hicountry wrote:I once had a throttle spring break on '68 Dodge Charger 440 as I was pulling away from the auto drive-in bank teller...sob went clear to the floor. Within about 100 ft I had the clutch pushed in and the ignition shut off...and stopped....wild ride for just a little bit! Shoulda seen the looks I got! Folks..if you can't handle it, leave it in the barn!
Maybe the Prius needs a big red button on the dash that says EMERGENCY OFF BUTTON that shuts down the engine and sets the brakes?
HC

Ok doky. I can see it now, throttle sticks, the person hits the big red button. Now see this, a big semi is behind. Hits the red button, brakes come on and squish, no more prius. Ya baby.

We had a situation some years ago in a fire engine. Going down hill, a big hill, with a curve at the bottom, in town, no ditches. Driver hits a bump and unknown to him a battle lantern shifts and gets wedged under the break petal. A battle lantern is a flash light with a large rectangular battery.

When he realizes he has no breaks his brain goes into Prius mode. Come to think of it this ding dong probably drives a Prius now. But I digress.

So just how many parked cars does it take to stop a run a way fire engine? Seven. No one hurt, just a bunch of bent metal.

After that, the FD being a government agency, went into full on bureaucratic over drive. You never seen so many e mails, SOG, memos, rules, regs, inner office gobble dee goop. I think they had to hire a special staff person and a new Lieutenant to supervise her. If you know what I mean.

Then all 750 of us had to go to a class, no shit, to learn how to pull the EMERGENCY break and put it in neutral. I am so glad I am retired. I'm to old to be supervised by such morons.

I do have to say, over all it was a great job. Helping people who really need help is one the best feelings I have had. Pay and retirement not bad either. Thanks Zane. Put a Pay Pal button on and I'll give you some of your tax money back.

For those who don't work on cars for a living.I have books I purchase every year with the weirdest electronic problems you could ever imagine taking place in today's cars.No manufacturer is exempt from them.I can't tell you how many times a factory engineer has told me "'that's impossible it can't happen" while I have three cars in my shop with the same problem.
If you find your Ford diesel pick-up a little gutless check the output of the rheostat at the top of the gas pedal.If it goes away the throttle valve on the engine won't open fully.
Transmission won't upshift.Does your dome-light work?Dome-light and speed sensor in dash on same circuit.
It goes on and on.When the stuff works it is wonderful.When it does not it may be awhile before you figure out why.

Bill

hicountry wrote:I once had a throttle spring break on '68 Dodge Charger 440 as I was pulling away from the auto drive-in bank teller...sob went clear to the floor. Within about 100 ft I had the clutch pushed in and the ignition shut off...and stopped....wild ride for just a little bit! Shoulda seen the looks I got! Folks..if you can't handle it, leave it in the barn!
Maybe the Prius needs a big red button on the dash that says EMERGENCY OFF BUTTON that shuts down the engine and sets the brakes?
HC

Similar story,

We have a 1974 Ford F250 4X4 truck with a 460 under the hood. Every once in a while, the driver side engine mount would delaminate due to the torque of the motor. When it did this, the engine would rotate up pinch the throttle cable to the firewall and open the carburetor all the way. Takes a couple of seconds to get to the key to shut her off, but what a ride.....The last time it happened, we drilled the new mound and installed three 1/4 inch AN bolts through it. So far, we have not had it happen since.

By the way, you should have kept the charger, that is one kick ass car.....

Brian.

RobBurson wrote:Then all 750 of us had to go to a class, no shit, to learn how to pull the EMERGENCY break and put it in neutral. I am so glad I am retired. I'm to old to be supervised by such morons.

The Military is the same way. A couple years back a maintainer out on our flightline managed to get smashed and killed by a hangar door that moves at 1 foot per second. They made everyone that could ever come into contact with the flightline do "Hangar Door Training" or how to not get smashed by a door that moves so slow that a snail could sneak through.

I put some Husky Floor Liners in my 4-Runner a few years ago. I stomped on it one day playing in some gravel and it stuck wide open under the edge of my new floor mat. I saw 7 grand on the tach after I pushed in the clutch for about 1/2 a second till I got it shut down. Was kind of hairy but the whole episode lasted about 2 seconds.

I'm another person that cannot fathom how this is happening. I own 3 Toyotas and have never had a lick of trouble with any of them. It's too bad that you don't have to take a BFR to drive. Don't even get me started on California drivers. It's sad because my wife thinks it's normal as she was born and raised here. I've driven across the country several times and California is by the far the worst I don't care what anyone says. You can even tell your back in California coming over Donner Pass from Reno.

AvidFlyer wrote: Don't even get me started on California drivers.

I dunno, I'll bet my shitty Portland drivers against your Bay Area drivers any day in a battle of retardation.

Coyote, Hey I had to special order my GMC dsl that way too. Vinyl seats, rubber floor, crank windows, etc.

You guys haven't driven in Boston,in the snow !Lousy drivers,combine a$$hole + no skill.
Back in 19and72 at chevrolet there was a huge re-call to put restraining cables on the left side motor mounts of all cars and trucks.The mount would break and the engine rotate up from torque and pull the throttle wide open.

Bill

Looking back, my '54 Studebaker is looking better every day.

Best cars I ever owned were:
67 Toyota Land Cruiser, 72 Chev 3/4 ton Suburban 4X4 and 86 Isuzu Trooper Turbo Diesel (300,000 miles and still going). All simple and all reliable! Still have 2 out of three.

patrol guy wrote:Coyote, Hey I had to special order my GMC dsl that way too. Vinyl seats, rubber floor, crank windows, etc.

Yup, me too, but Zane's right too, it has a throttle position sensor.... Damn thing has gone out 3 times so far...
Other than that, been a damn good truck tho, 280K miles an that ol Dodge Cummins is still tickin. Gets about half the mileage of a Prius, but man, when I let out the clutch, if the wheels don't spin, the earth turns under me.

It's balloon boy all over again. If ever in front of a TV camera, and you have to lie, act EXACTLY OPPOSITE the way this guy acts, I mean does he look guilty or what? Can you see Mr. Toyoda (the correct spelling) watching this and going ballistic?? It, or at least this bozo, is a scam and a sham.
I'd like to see a body language expert analyze him, I guess he's got his 15 minutes of fame anyway. A great theory I heard today while riding the chairlift is that it is all a nasty bit of industrial espionage engineered by the Big Three! I can't wait for the book and the movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLmG7spf ... re=related