Hi,

Was hoping that I could gain a bit of insight to what happened to my GS300 last night from others that may have experienced it.

Basically I was driving along, accelerated, took my foot off the gas and the car just kept on accelerating, scary stuff! I managed to brake enough to get the car to stop, put the shifter into P and the revs were just bouncing off the limiter so I swiftly shut the engine off.

At this point I could smell some kind of burning, may have been brakes, or could've been liquids, as I got out the car and looked underneath to see what I assume is coolant pouring out the underside.

Called recovery and they picked me up. It was too dark to do anything once I was home.

Any suggestions as to what happened? Anything I should look for?

Thanks

 

Did you check your floor mat?

 

Something may be interfering with the accelerator pedal (like the floor mat as mentioned), or the cable near the throttle (rodent nest or something). Or the cable is sticking inside the tubing (most likely). You'll have to see if you can work the cable through easily, if it's rough at all or binds anywhere, replace it. If not the cable, access the throttle and make sure the blade is closed and has it's normal force of wanting to close when the blade is opened. If it flaps open with ease, the throttle is defective and needs replaced. That is extremely rare compared to a cable binding. If it's still in it's failed state, you should see the cable at the throttle pulled all the way back towards the sheath of the cable. If you can pull it back forward with some pliers, then it's the cable.

 

The only thing I can think of something similar happened to me was when my tensioner bearing went. Since you mentioned you saw coolant maybe it was your water pump bearing? Not sure. Anyway, I was driving along and smelled something like burning rubber. I didn't know it at the time but it was my serpentine belt smoking due to the tensioner bearing failing and pulley no longer spinning! In about 5 seconds I hear a pop (the belt snapped) and a loud sound from the engine as if something broke loose. It wasn't so much unintended acceleration as it was very high rpms. I was able to get the car home (no power steering but I was only a few blocks away) and the next day to the shop where they confirmed it. It was scary at the time but not a big deal looking back.

Again, that's just my case (I have a GS400) I'll be interested to see what they find out about your vehicle.