Accelerator stuck @ 135mph

Dolph · 11 Mar 2006 at 21:57

Gotta love the attitudes in this thread....

I think we all forget how many people with only a couple of years of driving experience are driving gods....

Yes, there probably is some fud surrounding the story, but the attitudes of many people in this thread smell of something far worse.

laissez-faire · 11 Mar 2006 at 21:59

I got so sick of this that I just went out in a Polo 1.4 Automatic into Holyrood Park and we had the throttle fully pressed down, then we turned off the ignition at (possibly illegal) speeds. Steering went a little heavy but was still fine, car came to a controlled stop in a sensible distance. We were going downhill but we did not need to use the brakes to come to an almost complete stop, engine braking was quite enough.

Personally the people calling us 'over-critical' are the kind of muppets who shouldn't be on the road, and are also hyprocritical. Some peasant from Portsmouth who could have killed scores of people should righly be flamed, but posters on this forum should not be flamed for getting rightly irritated.

chopchop · 11 Mar 2006 at 22:03

jonneh said:
so you cant engine brake in an auto??

i think it did if you locked it into 1/2/3, but its been a while since i had my auto. but in D with the ignition off it will coast.

chopchop · 11 Mar 2006 at 22:04

laissez-faire said:
I got so sick of this that I just went out in a Polo 1.4 Automatic into Holyrood Park and we had the throttle fully pressed down, then we turned off the ignition at (possibly illegal) speeds. Steering went a little heavy but was still fine, car came to a controlled stop in a sensible distance. We were going downhill but we did not need to use the brakes to come to an almost complete stop, engine braking was quite enough.

Personally the people calling us 'over-critical' are the kind of muppets who shouldn't be on the road, and are also hyprocritical. Some peasant from Portsmouth who could have killed scores of people should righly be flamed, but posters on this forum should not be flamed for getting rightly irritated.

in D?? or a locked gear ?

L0rdMike · 11 Mar 2006 at 22:07

geiger said:
I had this once approaching a roundabout so with about 5 seconds notice I tried the brakes and they couldnt slow the car so I turned off the ignition. Think I tried to put it into neutral but theres no limiter and that would have seriously wrecked the engine. The throttle control had something stuck in there as I remember, it was a 200 quid car.

You was worried about the engine in a £200 car?

Rather the engine die then me.

tb2000 · 11 Mar 2006 at 22:18

laissez-faire said:
Stephen Mead, assistant chief examiner at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, says:

DO NOT

Put your foot underneath the accelerator pedal and try to lift it up. You could lose control of the vehicle

What a load of dross! What difference will putting your foot under the accelerator make to your control of the vehicle?
I actually had a similar thing happen, although not at those speeds in my Sierra ages ago, there was a jubilee clip not done up properly (my fault) on the inlet manifold rubber ducting and when the accelerator/butterfly mechanism on the manifold turned (as I accelerated) it jammed on the jubilee clip, locking the accelerator on. But in this occasion, I did try to flick the pedal back by putting my foot under the pedal, not that it made a difference - I didn't lose control though. I just switched the engine off and coasted to the side of the road. Alright it was a manual but even switching off in an automatic would just blow the clutches in the box, it wouldn't lock the wheels.
As already said, the brakes would work just would require more effort. IMHO his brakes couldn't have been much good in the first place, they should overcome the power from the engine without too much trouble. Alright, they'll be cooked and need replacing but they should certainly be able to stop the car, combined with the handbrake.
The steering would also be usable, just heavy.
How I ever had towed/been towed in cars with broken cambelts etc before without brakes and power steering I don't know.

Possibly it is cobblers, but if not, all this said, I'm sure it was a scary experience for the chap.

Muncher · 11 Mar 2006 at 22:43

I have no doubt whatsoever that he is either a liar or mentally ill, or both.

Mickey_D · 11 Mar 2006 at 23:11

As someone who has driven cars with engines CONSIDERABLY stronger than anything in a 300 series BMW, and most of them with auto trannies, and several of them have problems with the accelerator sticking, I fully agree with Muncher.

The idiot in the BMW should NEVER be allowed back on the road. For several reasons.

He endangered everyone around him.
He could have turned his ignition off at the first sign of trouble (with no ill effects).
If he cooked the brakes trying to stop it from 70mph, either he had cardboard for brake shoes or he's a complete mechanical idiot that shouldn't be driving anything with more than 10bhp.
Loss of PAS & PAB?!?!? Don't be such a wuss!! Grab a pair and clentch some muscles. PAS/PAB. What does the middle letter stand for? Let me clarify it for you:
ASSIST
All those systems do is HELP you with those functions. They don't do them for you!! If you lose the assist, it just means that you need a little more cajones to use them, it doesn't make them inoperative!!

Jeez, people. He was a complete nancy and even admits it (crying). His gas pedal stuck. Boo hoo. Turn the ****ing thing off and pull over. Not that hard to figure out.

And yes, I knew the above at the age of 16 with less than 100 miles of driving experience under me. It's common knowledge for passing the driving test over here. If it's not over there, then something needs to change. And fast!!!!

Jonnycoupe · 11 Mar 2006 at 23:16

Hes just been on ITN News.

Doesn't look the sharpest tool in the box and even mentioned that 'people can criticise me all they want but the police sad i did the right thing not turning the engine off as id have lost everything then and all control of the car' or something to that effect.

Was even driving down the hardshoulder too :eek:

Said he used the brakes but they were getting hotter and hotter and even smoking either side of the car.

I might try in my car just whacking on the brakes when at full throttle at a rather low 3500rpm, im pretty sure id be able to haul it to a stop pretty fast and just let the engine stall.

NickXX · 11 Mar 2006 at 23:58

laissez-faire said:
I got so sick of this that I just went out in a Polo 1.4 Automatic into Holyrood Park and we had the throttle fully pressed down, then we turned off the ignition at (possibly illegal) speeds. Steering went a little heavy but was still fine, car came to a controlled stop in a sensible distance. We were going downhill but we did not need to use the brakes to come to an almost complete stop, engine braking was quite enough.

Personally the people calling us 'over-critical' are the kind of muppets who shouldn't be on the road, and are also hyprocritical. Some peasant from Portsmouth who could have killed scores of people should righly be flamed, but posters on this forum should not be flamed for getting rightly irritated.

Polo's on the motorway's just feel scary. I drove a 1.4 Polo from Hertfordshire to Portsmouth and it was downright scary tbh.

Actually I think this guy should't be on the road. Sounds like as soon as his car went beserk, he just threw his hands in the air and let god take its course..

energy · 11 Mar 2006 at 23:59

Vertigo1 said:
I assumed the resistance of the engine to being turned over by the drivetrain, especially in a high gear, would be too much and the wheels would lock up. By "lock up" I mean slow enough to lose traction with the road, if not stop completely.

In high gear, the wheels can very easily turn the engine, its the low gears that cant

jonneh said:
also again correct me if im wrong,
doesnt the vacuum just pull the pads apart?? so the calipers need less strong/no springs to return them?
how does the servo assist braking?

No, the vacuum essentially helps you press the pedal down

Mickey_D said:
Loss of PAS & PAB?!?!? Don't be such a wuss!! Grab a pair and clentch some muscles. PAS/PAB. What does the middle letter stand for? Let me clarify it for you:
ASSIST
All those systems do is HELP you with those functions. They don't do them for you!! If you lose the assist, it just means that you need a little more cajones to use them, it doesn't make them inoperative!!

I have to disagree with that - although the systems remain operative, and steering wouldn't be a problem at those speeds and the amount of lock that would be required.

Braking in many cars that are designed to do so with PAB is a different matter - when the vacuum is depleted sure you can brake to some extent but I've many times rolled a non working car down the drive to get it out of the way and resorted to using the handbrake in order to stop it running off even at those speeds as the foot pedal would hardly do a thing even when stood on.

My Dad used to have an ancient Autobianchi A112 with no PA anything, even as a 12 year old when he used to take me out in a field for a drive I could stop it. That said it only weighed 670kg

NickXX · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:01

Mickey_D said:
As someone who has driven cars with engines CONSIDERABLY stronger than anything in a 300 series BMW, and most of them with auto trannies, and several of them have problems with the accelerator sticking, I fully agree with Muncher.

The idiot in the BMW should NEVER be allowed back on the road. For several reasons.

He endangered everyone around him.
He could have turned his ignition off at the first sign of trouble (with no ill effects).
If he cooked the brakes trying to stop it from 70mph, either he had cardboard for brake shoes or he's a complete mechanical idiot that shouldn't be driving anything with more than 10bhp.
Loss of PAS & PAB?!?!? Don't be such a wuss!! Grab a pair and clentch some muscles. PAS/PAB. What does the middle letter stand for? Let me clarify it for you:
ASSIST
All those systems do is HELP you with those functions. They don't do them for you!! If you lose the assist, it just means that you need a little more cajones to use them, it doesn't make them inoperative!!

Jeez, people. He was a complete nancy and even admits it (crying). His gas pedal stuck. Boo hoo. Turn the ****ing thing off and pull over. Not that hard to figure out.

And yes, I knew the above at the age of 16 with less than 100 miles of driving experience under me. It's common knowledge for passing the driving test over here. If it's not over there, then something needs to change. And fast!!!!

HERE HERE.

FishThrower · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:02

sounds like a typical BMW driver rushing to get to a meeting...... maybe thats why they always drive aggressively?

If the pedal got stuck all the way down, surley he was ragging it from the start? I have a Clio 172 for about 8 months now, and I have never put it peddle to the metal in 5th gear yet

csmager · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:03

NickXX said:
HERE HERE.

or hear hear!

Agreed though. I can't see any real reason why he didn't turn the ignition off while on the hard shoulder. It's fairly straight, and i'm sure he'd've rolled to a stop in a reasonable distance.

NickXX · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:03

energy said:
My Dad used to have an ancient Autobianchi A112 with no PA anything, even as a 12 year old when he used to take me out in a field for a drive I could stop it. That said it only weighed 670kg

The point here is that Autobianchi A112 != BMW e36.

NickXX · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:05

csmager said:
or hear hear!

Agreed though. I can't see any real reason why he didn't turn the ignition off while on the hard shoulder. It's fairly straight, and i'm sure he'd've rolled to a stop in a reasonable distance.

You're right - hear hear & all.

energy · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:18

NickXX said:
The point here is that Autobianchi A112 != BMW e36.

And your point is? :confused:

What I was saying is that it is reasonably easy to stop a car that was designed from the ground up to have a non assisted braking system. Try the pedal with no assistance on my Mondeo and almost nothing happens. You might as well stick your feet out the door and do a Fred Flintstone. Also driven a '76 Corolla with no powered anything, still stopped fine.

NickXX · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:24

energy said:
And your point is?

What I was saying is that it is reasonably easy to stop a car that was designed from the ground up to have a non assisted braking system. Try the pedal with no assistance on my Mondeo and almost nothing happens. You might as well stick your feet out the door and do a Fred Flintstone. Also driven a '76 Corolla with no powered anything, still stopped fine.

Eh?

I won't bother reading through that again.

All I will say is that on an e36 BMW, if you kill the ignition, you will get some brake boost - for 2-3 goes, nothing more. Once that runs out, you will have very little braking abilitity.

agw_01 · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:40

Mickey_D said:
If he cooked the brakes trying to stop it from 70mph, either he had cardboard for brake shoes or he's a complete mechanical idiot that shouldn't be driving anything with more than 10bhp.

Sorry Mickey, but... the guy was trying to slow down from 135mph with the force of his engine against him.

No wonder his brakes failed.

Del Lardo · 12 Mar 2006 at 00:45

I only got as far as page 4 before I started to listen to the interview from the BBC website but as soon as I did I ceased to care about anything that has been posted here. The guy is either a bloody fantastic actor or has clearly been through a VERY nasty experience in a car that he loved. I cannot even begin to imagine what I would have done in that situation though I'm safe for the moment as I have no power steering or servo assisted brakes to lose

I really do hope that he can get back on the road very soon otherwise I fear that he will never drive again. That would be a real shame