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.

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

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, 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.

Nope, it didn't happen that way. Your wife hit the gas without knowing it,
period. I know it's less embarrassing and less expensive for her to blame
it on the car, but cars do not behave so much as they are behaved upon.

"jonz6" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> 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.

If you want to make any kind of a legal case, you will have a major uphill
battle. As others have stated, the AVN ("Audi Victims Network") legal
campaign went down in flames when multiple and overwhelming sources of
evidence showed to everyone (including consumer organizations) that driver
error was at fault. Drivers inevitably swore they did not commit pedal
error, even when it was conclusively demonstrated they had. Additionally, a
high proportion of the drivers involved were either menopause-age women or
seniors of both sexes.

Please don't take this as a challenge to your (or your wife's) honesty,
merely a "heads-up" about the historical background.

Dave Gower wrote:

> "jonz6" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>
>>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.
>
>
> If you want to make any kind of a legal case, you will have a major uphill
> battle. As others have stated, the AVN ("Audi Victims Network") legal
> campaign went down in flames when multiple and overwhelming sources of
> evidence showed to everyone (including consumer organizations) that driver
> error was at fault. Drivers inevitably swore they did not commit pedal
> error, even when it was conclusively demonstrated they had. Additionally, a
> high proportion of the drivers involved were either menopause-age women or
> seniors of both sexes.
>
> Please don't take this as a challenge to your (or your wife's) honesty,
> merely a "heads-up" about the historical background.

Yes, I don't think it is an honesty issue. I believe that many, if not
all, of the Audi drivers really believed that they were mashing the
brake, when they were, unfortunately, mashing the throttle. And this
gentleman's wife very likely also believed that as well. However, that
still doesn't change the fact that it is about 99.44% certain that she
hit the throttle by mistake, especially if she was twisted around
looking backwards when backing up.


Matt

"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

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