Accelerator stuck @ 135mph

Pants · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:00

agw_01 said:
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.

You don't need impressive brakes to do 1 stop from 135 indicated. Not even with the pathetic 1.8 engine pushing you along.

I think he was "holding" the car at 70 with the brakes. Now that would cook them. Also a very stupid thing to do.

If the police really advised the driver to do this, they are retarded and need to review their procedures.

I'm not a "keyboard 1337 racing driver" it's bloody common sense!

nutcase · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:12

I've had a throttle stick open once. What happened was the main earth strap to the engine had failed, so when I started the car, the return current from the starter to the battery used the throttle cable. And melted it. I pulled away, and the plastic sheath then cooled and solidified, casuing it to stick wide open (it's a metro, you have to thrash it!). I was on a winding road, so whilst I was going slowly, it was still damned scary.

What did I do? Switched the ignition off, and braked. Problem solved. Wether this bloke could have done that, I don't know. I've never driven an auto. However, he does come across as a total plank. Maybe he isn't I don't know.

And Mickey has said what I wanted to. The middle letter of PAS stands for ASSIST. You DON'T lose brakes, you DON'T lose steering. If you do, then the system is not failsafe, so not allowed on cars sold in this country.

Tdh1987 · 12 Mar 2006 at 01:31

Theres one point some of you seem to have missed. When the throttles wide open you can't pull any car out of gear, you need to lift off the throttle. So that would have explained why he couldn't get it out of gear.

With no engine the brakes would only work for a couple of depresses then they'll be useless. I've been towed in a car with no ignition (ABS car) and I nearly slammed into the back of the car infront. I had 2 feet on the brake and nothing happened. I had to resort to using the hand brake. So I wouldn't advise turning the ignition off.

I think the guy could have done much more. I'd have slammed the brakes on until the car stalled. It would stop the car, and quite quickly too.

Zip · 12 Mar 2006 at 02:13

He said thayt they Police couldnt keep up with him. What wrong with the police cars up there? Christ they must be slow.
You would think they would drive ahead of him to clear the traffic :confused:

Also every one going on about "if he turned his car off his brakes will only work a couple times." HE HAD NO BRAKES HE COOKED THEM!!!!! So even if he turned the ignition off he would have the same amount of brakes he had when the ignition was on. But with the engine off atleast he would be loosing speed.

Now ill say it one more time so some of you get it. If he turned of the car and lost the brakes it would make no difference because he had all ready cooked his brakes so they were usless when he had the engine on anyway.

Mickey_D · 12 Mar 2006 at 02:21

Yes, the brakes were useless because he was a complete and utter MORON for cooking them in the first place!! :mad:

Oh, and earlier when the wife and I went to the store, we took the truck. I took it up to its mind numbing top speed of 72mph, mashed the throttle to plant the entire contents of its 5.0L V-8 engine to the driveshaft, and brought it to a shuddering stop by putting my left foot on the brake pedal. This is a 25 year old 1/2 ton TRUCK that is designed to pull almost 10,000 pounds in a trailer behind it, or put a full sized camper shell on the back. So it has GAWD amounts of torque, but relatively crappy brakes in comparison to the BMW. The brakes on my truck also haven't even been LOOKED at in 3 years, and the rears are still drum brakes. So my truck has at LEAST twice the torque available to try and overcome the brakes, has only half the braking power, and yet I was EASILY able to bring the truck to a controlled stop with them.

So for the idiot in the BMW, I have absolutely NO sympathy for him. He doesn't deserve such a nice car (in comparison to anything I own).

Clarkey · 12 Mar 2006 at 02:24

I dont know about the BMW, but certainly on the 300zx the autobox is completely electronically controlled, the lever only connects to an electrical switch, its just not possible for it to get jammed. Of course there are a bunch of conditions in which it wont allow you to move it. Say you cannot move from N to R without the button pressed and your foot on the brake, likewise moving from R to P. You can certainly move it from D to N without even pressing the button, as is the case on all auto's ive ever seen. Of course this is irrelavent, because the autobox has a one-way valve so with the ignition off and in D, it will not pass any of the drive from the wheels back to the engine, this is the very reason a lot of automatic cars can withstand a cambelt snapping with no valve damage. Even if it did pass all the drive back to the engine (just like say, a manual!) then it wont cause the wheels to lock, thats a ridiculous statement, your saying essentially that every time you release the accelerator in a manual car the wheels lock up. The arguement over the brake boost is also irrelavent, the brake boost comes from engine vacuum, if the throttle is jammed wide open there wont be any vacuum, as such it will make no difference if the engine is on or off. As for steering, if you cant steer the car without PAS at over 100mph then you need to start on some weights or something.

As for the brakes cooking, as said, the brakes will produce a massive amount of torque when stood on, WAY in excess of what the engine can produce, the only way the brakes would cook is if he was intentionally maintaining the speed at 70. Anyway, even witht he pads completely shot it will still stop, just not very well.

Im with mickey D here, the guy is a muppet, you'd think it would be obvious to anyone to kill the engine and stop if something like this happened. No doubt its a bit scary, but covering 60 miles like this is ridiculous when he could have stopped, he put a lot of people in danger in that time, but I suppose he can't be blamed if he was being instructed by the police.

Zip · 12 Mar 2006 at 03:31

Mickey_D said:
Yes, the brakes were useless because he was a complete and utter MORON for cooking them in the first place!!

I was trying to state that how much of a mupet he was

I completely agree with your posts

Mickey_D · 12 Mar 2006 at 03:44

I know, I was just adding my own perspective on to the end of your post. But it came across the wrong way..... *sheepish grin*

pyro · 12 Mar 2006 at 04:21

Dudes who knows what each of us would have done, maybe he did the best thing, maybe the worse, at least he didn't injure anyone and he escaped with a few scratches.

Freefaller said:
Of course I'm sure everybody here would have reacted perfectly and wouldn't have been scared....

lordrobs · 12 Mar 2006 at 09:46

But miraculously he walked away completely unhurt - and said he is now considering giving up driving for good.

Probably for the best

I can imagine the conversation now-

BMW driver- Help. My accelerators stuck at 130mph...
999 lady- OK sir put your hazard warning lights on were sending out a helicopter.
BMW driver- My hazard what?!
999 lady- er... the button that puts on both your indicators...
BMW driver- INDICATORS? :confused:

WTF?! this is no time to be talking gobble de gook woman. I'M GOING TO DIE!!!!

theboyrob · 12 Mar 2006 at 10:13

this is what i would do

get on the hard shoulder, wait until an exit comes with a long slip road, slame on the brakes.

He could have stopped from 135 ( :rolleyes:

) pretty quickly

Haircut · 12 Mar 2006 at 10:37

theboyrob said:
this is what i would do

get on the hard shoulder, wait until an exit comes with a long slip road, slame on the brakes.

He could have stopped from 135 ( ) pretty quickly

I would have thought the one place you don't want to be is on the hard shoulder given that anything on there will be stationary.

Lashout_UK · 12 Mar 2006 at 10:49

Sounds like he rode the brakes for some considerable distance, to bleed off speed, instead of trying to come to a complete stop. Hence completely wrecking them...

FishThrower · 12 Mar 2006 at 11:06

lordrobs said:
Probably for the best

I can imagine the conversation now-

BMW driver- Help. My accelerators stuck at 130mph...
999 lady- OK sir put your hazard warning lights on were sending out a helicopter.
BMW driver- My hazard what?!
999 lady- er... the button that puts on both your indicators...
BMW driver- INDICATORS? WTF?! this is no time to be talking gobble de gook woman. I'M GOING TO DIE!!!!

BMWs dont have indicators!

Enfield · 12 Mar 2006 at 11:17

I think he was too busy avoiding traffic/******** his pants to think about turning the engine off and all that, as said, he called the AA and then the Police and did what they told him to do.

It's a miracle that he didn't hit anyone, especially as he was travelling on the hard shoulder! When you're faced with a situation where you think you're going to die i'm quite sure that your logical side goes straight out of window.

csmager · 12 Mar 2006 at 11:24

Enfield said:
It's a miracle that he didn't hit anyone, especially as he was travelling on the hard shoulder! When you're faced with a situation where you think you're going to die i'm quite sure that your logical side goes straight out of window.

I'm quite surprised he managed 60 miles on the hard shoulder without running into a traffic cop/broken down car.

As has been said, I wouldn't give a monkeys how much braking i had left - but I'd no damn well I'd want to get rid of the acceleration part! I'm fairly confident i could steer on the hard shoulder until the car came to a halt. Wouldn't've even made the news then...

atpbx · 12 Mar 2006 at 11:29

The guy looks like a moron.

I am surprised at the amount of people who HAVE NOT had their brakes fail or accelerator stuck, an old iveco turbo daily is prime candidate for these problems, that and the clutch cable snapping, doors falling off, electrics catching fire....

I had complete steering failure in an Isuzu NKR at 75mph once, for some reason a combination of road conditions, speed and general crapness of the van conspired to "lock" the steering rack for want of a better description.
One of those situations where you simply cant do anything, when i opened my eyes again the van had dipped below 70 and i could steer again.

Sputnik II · 12 Mar 2006 at 11:30

I can only assume his an attention seeker like the idiot that did a similar thing with a Scania truck in the late 90's. I hope the car is still intact enough for the police and BMW to do a check on the vehicle and see what if anything was wrong with it.
Luckily he did not kill or injury anyone, thats the main thing.

Simon · 12 Mar 2006 at 12:28

NickXX said:
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.

You won't get any brake boost with the throttle fully open. An engine is an airpump and so with the throttle fully open there is no vacuum to assist the brakes. TBH it makes no difference if you lift the throttle completey off or turn off the ignition. In both cases fuel to the engine will be cut.

The drag on the car at 135mph would soon slow it to 70mph without any need for the brakes. With the car in gear still I would have thought the Powersteering would still work as the engine would be driven by the wheels and hence the Ps pump would be turning. Autobox would probably blow up mind you, same reason as why you should'nt tow an auto.

Clarkey · 12 Mar 2006 at 13:37

the engine wont be driven by the wheels simon, one-way valve in both the gearbox and the torque convertor. If the wheels did turn the engine then it wouldnt cook the box when towed, the reason that happens is the ATF pump is driven by the input shaft, without oil pressure it cooks pretty sharpish.