Cruise control Problems?

Last nite, the TV show, "48 Hours", showed a Florida mother guilty of
vehicular manslaughter for killing her daughter as well as
herdaughter's best friend. They were killed as the Bimmer left the road
at 80-90mph and hit a tree. Her defense was a malfunctioning cruise
control causing sudden acceleration. Experts testified that a "rogue
spark" could cause such a malfunction. BMW said that they receive about
50 sudden acceleration claims on about 5 million cars.

I have never thought about cruise control malfuntioning. People said
the power of the engine overcame their braking efforts and that it all
happened so quickly within a very short distance.

Other than yanking on the emergency brake, are there any other ideas to
stop the runaway car if this should happen? Has anyone ever experienced
this.?

Peter

"It DRIVES me crazy 2" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Last nite, the TV show, "48 Hours", showed a Florida mother guilty of
> vehicular manslaughter for killing her daughter as well as
> herdaughter's best friend. They were killed as the Bimmer left the road
> at 80-90mph and hit a tree. Her defense was a malfunctioning cruise
> control causing sudden acceleration. Experts testified that a "rogue
> spark" could cause such a malfunction. BMW said that they receive about
> 50 sudden acceleration claims on about 5 million cars.
>
> I have never thought about cruise control malfuntioning. People said
> the power of the engine overcame their braking efforts and that it all
> happened so quickly within a very short distance.
>
> Other than yanking on the emergency brake, are there any other ideas to
> stop the runaway car if this should happen? Has anyone ever experienced
> this.?
>
> Peter
>

I've had a cruise control go rogue on me like that. I can confirm that it
DOES happen. It was a Mitsu. Galant that I was driving at the time. I was
on the highway, doing about 65/55. (about what I normally do) Suddenly,
the engine started pulling HARD. At first, I thought the accelerator pedal
must be stuck. So I was digging my foot under the accelerator pedal to make
sure it wasn't hung up on a floor mat or something. But it was swinging
free. Then I thought to turn OFF the cruise control (normally, I left it
ON, but didn't set it unless I needed it). That didn't help. I was doing
about 90MPH down the highway (still accelerating) before I finally gave up
trying to fix it from the driver's seat. No big deal, I just threw the
clutch to the firewall (engine goes WAY into red zone) and then coasted off
into the breakdown lane. As soon as I was there, I killed the engine and
proceeded to coast to a stop. I only had a couple simple tools with me, so
I just cut the wire for the cruise control when I figured out that that's
what was holding the throttle wide open. I later repaired the cruise
control and used it for a couple more years until it wore out. I never knew
what was wrong with it, but if it had acted up again, there's no way I would
have been in any danger. An accident like you wrote about is clearly the
driver's fault. I've never driven a Bimmer, but I'd bet anything it has a
"neutral" setting for the tranny, and that the engine is controlled by an
ignition switch. If you allow your car to drive you off the road, then you
are a fricking moron, and a prime candidate for the darwin award. It's good
that she was convicted of manslaughter. IMHO -Dave

"It DRIVES me crazy 2" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Last nite, the TV show, "48 Hours", showed a Florida mother guilty of
> vehicular manslaughter for killing her daughter as well as
> herdaughter's best friend. They were killed as the Bimmer left the road
> at 80-90mph and hit a tree. Her defense was a malfunctioning cruise
> control causing sudden acceleration. Experts testified that a "rogue
> spark" could cause such a malfunction. BMW said that they receive about
> 50 sudden acceleration claims on about 5 million cars.
>
> I have never thought about cruise control malfuntioning. People said
> the power of the engine overcame their braking efforts and that it all
> happened so quickly within a very short distance.
>
> Other than yanking on the emergency brake, are there any other ideas to
> stop the runaway car if this should happen? Has anyone ever experienced
> this.?
>
> Peter
>

I've had a cruise control go rogue on me like that. I can confirm that it
DOES happen. It was a Mitsu. Galant that I was driving at the time. I was
on the highway, doing about 65/55. (about what I normally do) Suddenly,
the engine started pulling HARD. At first, I thought the accelerator pedal
must be stuck. So I was digging my foot under the accelerator pedal to make
sure it wasn't hung up on a floor mat or something. But it was swinging
free. Then I thought to turn OFF the cruise control (normally, I left it
ON, but didn't set it unless I needed it). That didn't help. I was doing
about 90MPH down the highway (still accelerating) before I finally gave up
trying to fix it from the driver's seat. No big deal, I just threw the
clutch to the firewall (engine goes WAY into red zone) and then coasted off
into the breakdown lane. As soon as I was there, I killed the engine and
proceeded to coast to a stop. I only had a couple simple tools with me, so
I just cut the wire for the cruise control when I figured out that that's
what was holding the throttle wide open. I later repaired the cruise
control and used it for a couple more years until it wore out. I never knew
what was wrong with it, but if it had acted up again, there's no way I would
have been in any danger. An accident like you wrote about is clearly the
driver's fault. I've never driven a Bimmer, but I'd bet anything it has a
"neutral" setting for the tranny, and that the engine is controlled by an
ignition switch. If you allow your car to drive you off the road, then you
are a fricking moron, and a prime candidate for the darwin award. It's good
that she was convicted of manslaughter. IMHO -Dave

On 18 Dec 2004 09:24:33 -0800, "It DRIVES me crazy 2"
> wrote:

>Last nite, the TV show, "48 Hours", showed a Florida mother guilty of
>vehicular manslaughter for killing her daughter as well as
>herdaughter's best friend. They were killed as the Bimmer left the road
>at 80-90mph and hit a tree. Her defense was a malfunctioning cruise
>control causing sudden acceleration. Experts testified that a "rogue
>spark" could cause such a malfunction. BMW said that they receive about
>50 sudden acceleration claims on about 5 million cars.
>
>I have never thought about cruise control malfuntioning. People said
>the power of the engine overcame their braking efforts and that it all
>happened so quickly within a very short distance.
>
>Other than yanking on the emergency brake, are there any other ideas to
>stop the runaway car if this should happen? Has anyone ever experienced
>this.?
>
>Peter

There are *very* few real cases of unintended accelleration; most are
a simple driver error: using throttle instead of the brake.
Having said that, the rare cases are best handled by first trying to
turn off the CC; either press the off button or tap the brakes. If
that doesn't work, shut the engine off. There's enough vacuum in the
pot to easily handle a stop, and power steering will still work
because at any speed you should be using the CC, the engine will still
turn with the ignition off. Even if it doesn't, you will still be able
to steer.
Do not yank on the emergency brake; the engine will easily overpower
the emergency brake, and with the CC still on, it will certainly
attempt to do so. You need to either cut the CC off, or turn off the
power (engine).

--
Bill Funk
Change "g" to "a"

On 18 Dec 2004 09:24:33 -0800, "It DRIVES me crazy 2"
> wrote:

>Last nite, the TV show, "48 Hours", showed a Florida mother guilty of
>vehicular manslaughter for killing her daughter as well as
>herdaughter's best friend. They were killed as the Bimmer left the road
>at 80-90mph and hit a tree. Her defense was a malfunctioning cruise
>control causing sudden acceleration. Experts testified that a "rogue
>spark" could cause such a malfunction. BMW said that they receive about
>50 sudden acceleration claims on about 5 million cars.
>
>I have never thought about cruise control malfuntioning. People said
>the power of the engine overcame their braking efforts and that it all
>happened so quickly within a very short distance.
>
>Other than yanking on the emergency brake, are there any other ideas to
>stop the runaway car if this should happen? Has anyone ever experienced
>this.?
>
>Peter

There are *very* few real cases of unintended accelleration; most are
a simple driver error: using throttle instead of the brake.
Having said that, the rare cases are best handled by first trying to
turn off the CC; either press the off button or tap the brakes. If
that doesn't work, shut the engine off. There's enough vacuum in the
pot to easily handle a stop, and power steering will still work
because at any speed you should be using the CC, the engine will still
turn with the ignition off. Even if it doesn't, you will still be able
to steer.
Do not yank on the emergency brake; the engine will easily overpower
the emergency brake, and with the CC still on, it will certainly
attempt to do so. You need to either cut the CC off, or turn off the
power (engine).

--
Bill Funk
Change "g" to "a"

Why the hell do people even use cruise control? It's nothing but trouble
waiting to happen. Besides, it's one less thing that you have control
over...

-sparkle nuts

Why the hell do people even use cruise control? It's nothing but trouble
waiting to happen. Besides, it's one less thing that you have control
over...

-sparkle nuts

"Art Merlyn" > wrote in message
...
> Why the hell do people even use cruise control? It's nothing but trouble
> waiting to happen. Besides, it's one less thing that you have control
> over...
>
> -sparkle nuts

Thank you very much for your insightful participation into the topic at
hand.......................numbnuts.
That's another 2 minutes of my life I'll never get back (1 to read the post,
and 1 to reply)

"Art Merlyn" > wrote in message
...
> Why the hell do people even use cruise control? It's nothing but trouble
> waiting to happen. Besides, it's one less thing that you have control
> over...
>
> -sparkle nuts

Thank you very much for your insightful participation into the topic at
hand.......................numbnuts.
That's another 2 minutes of my life I'll never get back (1 to read the post,
and 1 to reply)

"It DRIVES me crazy 2" > wrote in message
oups.com...

<snip>

> Other than yanking on the emergency brake, are there any other ideas to
> stop the runaway car if this should happen? Has anyone ever experienced
> this.?
>
> Peter
>

Others have already posted good stopping techniques, so I won't rehash them.

I've never had it happen to me, but based on the many ways already mentioned
to stop a car, I can only believe that folks that get into accidents like
that don't have the proper mindset to be behind the wheel anyway. If you
can't either a) calmly think your way through the problem at hand, or b)
react automatically and properly, you shouldn't be out there.

Pete