Wow, can't believe it's affecting most of us Lexus/Toyota owners (how come no GS owners). I'm even more shocked to see no one here in CL is posting or discussing this Major issue with our cars. Man this blows and now words have spread at my work and a lot of my coworkers are looking down and clowning on Lexus's and Toyotas. So much for the pretext of the mat issue that I was hopeing for. Keep in mind ya'll, the defect happens at WOT!
Try using the search button, multiple threads about it when it actually made the news a while back. Recall letters were sent out a couple weeks ago too. There's no pretext, it is a floormat issue (combined with further ignorance of the driver to make it worse)
The entire issue is people don't know how to keep their floormats in place and are too stupid to put the car in neutral or turn the engine off if the mat causes the gas pedal to get stuck.
It's a complete non-issue other than how dumb people have gotten, but since it got press coverage Toyota is grossly over-reacting to it.
Read the very article you posted- the entire problem was all of the following happening on the same car:
1) The dealer installed the mat incorrectly to begin with.
2) The mat got stuck on the pedal.
3) The driver hadn't bothered to learn how to turn his engine off, and apparently wasn't bright enough to just put it in neutral.
If any one of those had been different, nobody dies.
I mean, it sucks somebody died, but the length of the 911 call makes it obvious the driver had PLENTY of time to avoid that if they'd bothered to read their owners manual (or understood what that "n" on the shifter meant)
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If you guys read the article carefully, the truth has come out on the latest article. The floor mats issue was so yesterdays news. I knew that a long while back. The truth is, it's a part mechanical/electrical issue that's really causing the WOT defect on the gas pedal, not the floor mat. Keep in mind, the driver was a well experience CHP driver and I'm sure if it's just the floor mats, he could of found a way to rectified it.
I've contacted someone I knew that works in a dealership (non lexus/toyota) and he went to find out for me that currently, Lexus/Toyota can't pinpoint the problem for the fix so the resolution are still in the works.
^
I've been having the same problem with my floor mat,,and as far as I know (from my experience), the problem is caused due to THE FLOOR MAT and not gas pedal
and yes, it happens at WOT,,when you floor it, the gas pedal gets stuck on the floor mat
so I decided to not use the clips that you are supposed to, and I moved my floor mat little further down so that it won't get stuck again
and ever since, I have had no issue..LOL..problem solved
and trust me,,it is not that easy to make the decision to "turn-off" your car when you are in that position..
I almost got into an accident several times due to this stupid floor mat, but I avoided by slamming the brake REALLY HARD..LOL..
Installed properly, never had a problem with my mats ! Many people are so dumb they get careless on the installation. It's not Toyota's fault that people don't take the time to do things right !
i heard it was the floor mat problem but later on toyota said something might be wrong with the gas pedel too on the news. so it is not all the floor mat. i have a 07 camry xle and 06 is350 should i ask the dealer anything about it or do they call people by thier vin# if they think something is wrong?
This is really an issue in driver awareness. Yes the mat gets in the way, there may be an issue with the electronics, but what is being overlooked is the fact that the driver doesn't know how to operate the car they are driving.
Do you know how many fail safe devices the driver never ingauged or made use of. Lack of awareness!
Someone knowingly floors there car and doesn't think of any risk factor of doing so, car becomes out of control, then doesn't know how to stop it, put it in N , hold the S/S button for a second to shut off, turn the wheel to avoid the cliff, press the brake pedal.
It comes down to the driver freaked out and lost control of the car. What happened to drivers Ed.? When the teacher would make you run off the road at 60MPH, make you floor the car then hold the brake and gas at 45mph. This was pratice for the unknown. Stop blaming and learn to drive.
I mean if everything failed and I had to chose between a 100' cliff or the side of a Mtn. I'm going to be testing the airbags not the flight capablities of an ES350, LOL
LEARN HOW TO DRIVE!
There are numerous ways that the car could have been stopped, but not sure why the "experienced" CHP officer failed to do so...
the most obvious is the neutral position, many people, experienced people that is, that have driven stick shift know right from the bat, that putting it in neutral will disconnect the engine from moving when the gas pedal is applied.
BUT, I asked my wife about this, I said what would you do if you were in this situation, and she didnt know what to do????
Majority of people are uneducated about this, she replied, she would scream.
Yes, that is probably what most people would do.
2nd if the pedal is stuck, is it even possible to lift up the gas pedal by lodging your foot underneath it and trying to bring it back up?
Not sure, bc I do not have weather floor mats, nor will I ever, it is just too bulky for my liking, but that being said, if the dealer is responsible for installing the wrong floor mats, and installing them incorrectly, then why would it be Toyotas fault?
It did not come from the factory that way, so it's a matter or proper installation of the right part.
Is this problem only in the US? I dont know, but if so, then maybe US dealers have some explaining to do, but if it circulates widely around the globe, then Toyota might have some explaining....
Also, there is an Ebrake, which stands for emergency....I'm not sure if that was utilized in this situation, but it's there specifically for these situations.
Again, I'm not trying to point fingers here, and my sincere condolences go out to the family and their loved ones.
I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing something. I've owned an '07 ES350 for a whole 8 days now and I just tried re-creating the problem (in the garage of course with the engine off). I could not get the pedal to stick. I pulled out the mat, floored the pedal. It did not stick to the carpeting. Put in the mat, but left it un-hooked. Moved it around, and tried the pedal each time. Every time, either the mat was too far or if not, the pedal when released would just pick up the corner of the mat. I never could get the pedal to jam. I've heard rumblings on the grapevine the mat is not the issue. Something more along the lines of the accelerator linkage. Something like that happened to a friend of my wife's truck. (Don't recall the make/model) The linkage under the hood "flipped" the opposite way causing the throttle to be stuck wide open. Maybe that's the case here and Toyota/Lexus isn't being up front?
I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing something. I've owned an '07 ES350 for a whole 8 days now and I just tried re-creating the problem (in the garage of course with the engine off). I could not get the pedal to stick.
That's because you aren't an idiot. Lexus is now pandering to the "special" population amongst us, and we're all going to suffer for it. If they touch my floor mats the next time I go in for service, I'm going to be pissed.
Great - now I have to put a sticky on the dash saying "NO WASH", and another on each floor mat saying "DO NOT TOUCH - DRIVER NOT RETARDED".
1) The dealer installed the mat incorrectly to begin with.
2) The mat got stuck on the pedal.
3) The driver hadn't bothered to learn how to turn his engine off, and apparently wasn't bright enough to just put it in neutral.
If any one of those had been different, nobody dies.
I mean, it sucks somebody died, but the length of the 911 call makes it obvious the driver had PLENTY of time to avoid that if they'd bothered to read their owners manual (or understood what that "n" on the shifter meant)
I agree with you. Thats exactly what I was thinking. It does suck a family had to perish, yet it was an avoidable accident. Extremely avoidable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by texasborn
I'm sorry, but maybe I'm missing something. I've owned an '07 ES350 for a whole 8 days now and I just tried re-creating the problem (in the garage of course with the engine off). I could not get the pedal to stick. I pulled out the mat, floored the pedal. It did not stick to the carpeting. Put in the mat, but left it un-hooked. Moved it around, and tried the pedal each time. Every time, either the mat was too far or if not, the pedal when released would just pick up the corner of the mat. I never could get the pedal to jam. I've heard rumblings on the grapevine the mat is not the issue. Something more along the lines of the accelerator linkage. Something like that happened to a friend of my wife's truck. (Don't recall the make/model) The linkage under the hood "flipped" the opposite way causing the throttle to be stuck wide open. Maybe that's the case here and Toyota/Lexus isn't being up front?
They werent ES mats on the victims car. They were RX mats.
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They werent ES mats on the victims car. They were RX mats.
I went back and re-read the article. Oops. Still, makes me think something else is going on that's causing this large of a recall just because of one person at one dealership making a mistake like this. Why not an internal bulletin to all the dealerships? Like someone said an over-reaction if it's just a mat issue.
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