stuck in passing gear

[Roland]

I was driving my 4runner Tuesday and went to pass on the freeway in my 08 v6 sport 4x4 and it stuck in passing gear. I finally had to throw it into neutral. and then back into 5 gear. Talk about having to change yout underwear. How about closing on the traffic in front of you at 90 mph:bugeye: Dealer tried some lame excuse that the gas pedal got stuck under the mat which is total BS. Not sure what I'm going to do now. Not using passing gear would be a real bummer, but having a major wreck if it did it again wouldn't be fun either.

I'll know more on Monday when the stealership gives me an update.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

I was driving my 4runner Tuesday and went to pass on the freeway in my 08 v6 sport 4x4 and it stuck in passing gear. I finally had to throw it into neutral. and then back into 5 gear. Talk about having to change yout underwear. How about closing on the traffic in front of you at 90 mph:bugeye: Dealer tried some lame excuse that the gas pedal got stuck under the mat which is total BS. Not sure what I'm going to do now. Not using passing gear would be a real bummer, but having a major wreck if it did it again wouldn't be fun either.

I'll know more on Monday when the stealership gives me an update.

:bugeye: :bugeye: Not good! Until resolved don't forget you can shut the engine off.

- The key will stop on ACC unless the transmission is in 'P'. The steering wheel will not lock.
- The Brake booster will hold enough pressure to stop you but the pedal effort may go up.
- The steering effort will increase dramatically but it will steer.


Good luck, let us know what they find. I'd take the floor mat out and try to duplicate the problem when it's safe.

:cheers:

 

[riverwolf]

There is no "passing gear". The 4Runner either down shifted to 4th or 3rd, depending on your cruising speed and how hard you mashed the go pedal. The only problems with being "stuck in passing gear" would be accelerating from a dead stop/low speed (selected gear is now too high) or possibly bumping the rev limiter if you tried to cruise at too high of a speed for 3rd's ratio.

If the vehicle maintained speed or continued to accelerate once you lifted off the throttle (you did lift and/or brake as needed?), then you have a stuck throttle. Since the 4R is drive-by-wire, either the pedal (pedal sensor) itself stuck as your dealer suggested or there's a glitch in the software. This is the first report I've seen of a stuck throttle since getting my 4th Gen back in '03 so I'm inclined to go with the dealer's initial thought.

Maybe it's my age showing, but if you were closing on traffic at 90mph, you most likely attempted an unsafe pass. Even passing a vehicle doing 55 (the max posted limit on 2 lane roads) shouldn't require more than 70, IMO. If the car you passed was doing more than 55, you should probably wait until the next 2 lane passing zone presents itself. Try to exercise a little more patience so you, your passengers, and fellow travelers have a better chance of getting to their destination safely, please.

-Brent

 

[Kmvreter]

... closing on traffic at 90mph...

The way I read his original comment is that the truck was uncontrolled accelerating up to 90 mph, not of his choosing, on a freeway, closing in on the cars ahead in the passing lane.

Never heard reports of drive-by-wire uncontrolled acceleration in a 4Runner. I believe there is a Toyota TSB out there about the gas pedal getting stuck on floor mats but I'm not sure if it applies to the 4Runner. The factory mats have holes that engage the plastic loops in the carpet. They are designed to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening so there could be an issue if you are using aftermarket mats.

 

[rook]

I finally had to throw it into neutral. and then back into 5 gear.

did the engine continue to rev when you did this. or did it return to idle?

 

[eskimochaos]

Were you on a slight hill, sometimes the car will stay in 4th or 3rd depending on throttle input and the amount of load and incline that it senses.

You really need to tell us what happened in more detail.

 

[Roland]

okay so it wasn't passing gear because the don't have one. Most likely it was 3rd gear. the gas pedal stuck and it wasn't caught under my floor mat. I use the weathertech mat and not only do they have a floor latch but they also slide up against door sill/well so it can't shift around on you. The mat has never slipped period and I'ver had them for almost a year. For clarification the vehicle kept accelerating once the gas pedal stuck and that is how I ended up doing 90.

the engine went over the redline and then the rev limiter kicked in, at that point I threw it back into gear and the vehicle returned to normal.

the vehicle was traveling on flat ground. I was driving what I consider to be normal for bay area traffic.

I should have an update from the dealer Monday on what they found out.

Bottomline if they say we couldn't find anything the vehicle is being sold, or traded in. I have three 4 runners 85, 96 and 08. This will be my last vehicle with drive by wire they can have it.

 

[eskimochaos]

okay so it wasn't passing gear because the don't have one. Most likely it was 3rd gear. the gas pedal stuck and it wasn't caught under my floor mat. I use the weathertech mat and not only do they have a floor latch but they also slide up against door sill/well so it can't shift around on you. The mat has never slipped period and I'ver had them for almost a year. For clarification the vehicle kept accelerating once the gas pedal stuck and that is how I ended up doing 90.

the engine went over the redline and then the rev limiter kicked in, at that point I threw it back into gear and the vehicle returned to normal.

the vehicle was traveling on flat ground. I was driving what I consider to be normal for bay area traffic.

I should have an update from the dealer Monday on what they found out.

Bottomline if they say we couldn't find anything the vehicle is being sold, or traded in. I have three 4 runners 85, 96 and 08. This will be my last vehicle with drive by wire they can have it.

It will be hard to find a vehicle that is not drive by wires these days.

 

[Roland]

It will be hard to find a vehicle that is not drive by wires these days.

I know, but this experience scared the hell out of me. I actually sort of like my 96 with manual trans, and if i'm bored I can always drive 2000 tacoma with the factory supercharger.

 

[eskimochaos]

I know, but this experience scared the hell out of me. I actually sort of like my 96 with manual trans, and if i'm bored I can always drive 2000 tacoma with the factory supercharger.

Look it can happen to anyone. Something similar happened to my Mom's 04 land cruiser. She was approaching a stop sign, hit the breaks normally and the car redlined. She had to slam on the breaks to keep it from going forward. After that no diagnosis of the problem, no records in the car computer and it has been fine for another 80k.

S*** happens, dont worry about it.

 

[rook]

any update from the dealer?

 

[Atlanta_man]

Happened to me last week for the first time when I was on a long road trip.

Brakes were able to overpower the engine while I pounded on the acc pedal.
(I'm convinced the pedal was stuck to the floor)
It finally sprang back with some force, almost like the computer yanked it back to idle.

Cruise control was on when this happened. First thought was that the cruise control / computer was the culprit but I'm not sure how it works (mechanical pull on the accelerator pedal ? I doubt it but have not checked)

Carefully examined the weather tech mats, the stiff ones and could not make it happen again while down on the floor fiddling with it and the pedal.

Was able to make it happen a second time but not again after five more tries.

First time it happened it was a heart stopper.

Keep thinking it has to be the mats but they are anchored in the two hooks and the clearance looks to be plenty up around the pedal. May trim it if I can figure out how - it looks like tough stuff.

 

[Roland]

any update from the dealer?

Word back from the dealer is that the mat most have got stuck over the accelerator. Which is total BS. I went back and looked in more detail and the weathertech mat has a slot for the accelerator pedal and tried a bunch of different ways to get the pedal stuck under the mat and couldn't duplicate the problem.

Reflecting back on the actual event when it happened this didn't have anything to do with the accelerator pedal getting stuck, it was more like the tranmission engaged 3rd gear and just developing a mind of its own My vehicle never stopped accelerating and was doing somewhere around 90 in 3rd with the shifter in the 5th gear slot. I've made limited attempts to duplicate the problem and been unsuccessful. To be honest I hope it never happens again, because that was a pretty scary event.

 

[mjuenem]

uncontrolled acceleration

I have always had a problem with our 2005 4 Runner with runaway acceleration while using the cruise control. It is especially bad when going up a hill and the cruise tries to maintain speed. It's like it mashes the throttle to the floor and then the speed flares WAY PAST the intended speed lock and you have to manually disconnect the speed control (stomp the brakes) to get back under control. It is so bad we stopped using the cruise. My wife drives it and never uses cruise so it wasn't a high priority. I had it in once to be checked and they could find nothing wrong. I even registered a complaint at the Government recall site and there were others there with the same problem. Makes me wonder if there is a problem in Toyota's ECU firmware.