Sebring---- SUDDEN ACCELERATION
 

Our 2002 Sebring Coupe with 6cyl- 3.0 engine suddenly accelerated while
backing up in a parking lot causing a wreck. It lurched backward at top
speed. Has anyone heard of this happening?

jonz6 wrote:
> Our 2002 Sebring Coupe with 6cyl- 3.0 engine suddenly accelerated while
> backing up in a parking lot causing a wreck. It lurched backward at top
> speed. Has anyone heard of this happening?
>

Yes, it happened with several Audi's many years ago. The cause then was
likely the same as the cause with your Sebring ... the driving
mistakenly mashing the throttle thinking they are hitting the brake.


Matt

Nope i didn't happen that way. My wife was backing up with her foot on
the brake. She must not have been braking that hard.. but she says she
had her foot on the brake pedal and when shifting forward on the shift
lever into drive & past neutral is when it SUDDENLY jumped backward and
fast. She then smashed on the brake pedal at the same time she crunched
into another car.

"Nomen Nescio" > wrote in message
...
> Back in the good old days, sometimes the gas pedal linkage would bind or
> the return spring pop off. Get a good independent mechanic to inspect the
> mechanical control to the throttle body.
>
> Big air leaks will also cause this effect. Possible a large diameter
> vacuum hose popped loose.
>
> You have no idea how dangerous today's cars are. If the vacuum hose to
> the
> brake booster pops off, you will crash before you realize what happened.
>
> If a fuel line pops off at the fuel injector rail, the fire resulting will
> cremate your entire car.
>
> That is why cars need FAA certification; not because they cannot fly. In
> the meantime, pay $50,000 for a car full of things that can pop off.
>

If you're paying $50K for a car, you've been royally ripped. But assuredly
if that were built the way you want to be, they'd be $100K. No thanks!

In article .com>,
says...
>Our 2002 Sebring Coupe with 6cyl- 3.0 engine suddenly accelerated while
>backing up in a parking lot causing a wreck. It lurched backward at top
>speed. Has anyone heard of this happening?

Yes. This happened to Audi's a while back. The government did a lot of
reasearch. In all instances the brake system was still functioning
properly. In all instances the drivers states they were stepping on the
brakes as hard as they could and the car kept going. The government came
to the conclusion that this was a case of pedal mis-application. That
means that driver was stepping on the wrong pedal. I don't think that
is what you wanted to hear.
--------------
Alex

"jonz6" > writes:

> Our 2002 Sebring Coupe with 6cyl- 3.0 engine suddenly accelerated while
> backing up in a parking lot causing a wreck. It lurched backward at top
> speed. Has anyone heard of this happening?

Yes. It happens when you aren't sitting as squarely in the seat as
you think you are, and the pedal your foot was on was really the gas.
--
Joseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605
Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002
New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer

jonz6 wrote:

> Nope i didn't happen that way. My wife was backing up with her foot on
> the brake. She must not have been braking that hard.. but she says she
> had her foot on the brake pedal and when shifting forward on the shift
> lever into drive & past neutral is when it SUDDENLY jumped backward and
> fast. She then smashed on the brake pedal at the same time she crunched
> into another car.
>

I haven't driven a Sebring, but all floor mounted automatics that I've
driven have P-R-N-D-2-1 with Park at the front (towards the dash). So,
if your wife was backing up, that suggests she was in reverse. If she
moved the parking lever forward from there, she would have engaged park
not drive or neutral. If the shifter is column mounted, then it is
moving left/right or up/down, not forward/back. Something isn't jiving
with this story.


Matt

Alex Rodriguez wrote:

> In article .com>,
> says...
>
>>Our 2002 Sebring Coupe with 6cyl- 3.0 engine suddenly accelerated while
>>backing up in a parking lot causing a wreck. It lurched backward at top
>>speed. Has anyone heard of this happening?
>
>
> Yes. This happened to Audi's a while back. The government did a lot of
> reasearch. In all instances the brake system was still functioning
> properly. In all instances the drivers states they were stepping on the
> brakes as hard as they could and the car kept going. The government came
> to the conclusion that this was a case of pedal mis-application. That
> means that driver was stepping on the wrong pedal. I don't think that
> is what you wanted to hear.

Nobody wants to hear that, but that is the fact. Also, there are very
few cars that have an engine that can overpower the brakes. And you'd
likely need AWD as in FWD or RWD, two wheels locked will keep the other
two wheels from moving the car at any rate of speed in any event. When
I first heard the Audi stories years ago, I knew they were bogus without
even doing an investigation. Simple physics showed that you couldn't
possibly have a car that couldn't be controlled using the brakes at full
application. Of course, if there had been a defect in the brakes, then
the claims would have been plausible, but that was never found to be the
case in any of the cars.

Nobody wants to hear that the problem was them, but that is usually the
case in these sudden acceleration cases. I'm not saying there isn't the
potential for this to happen, as anything is certainly possible. It is
possible that the brakes could fail at the exact same time that a
software bug in the ECU commanded full throttle, but that is a long shot
beyond long shots.


Matt

Does this vehicle have a cruise control servo?
"jonz6" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Our 2002 Sebring Coupe with 6cyl- 3.0 engine suddenly accelerated while
> backing up in a parking lot causing a wreck. It lurched backward at top
> speed. Has anyone heard of this happening?
>

Servo? Yes it has cruise