Ford Focus: ford focus unexpected acceleration

malcolmm wrote:
 

Your BRAKES should be looked at by a competent mechanic. If you were
standing on the BRAKE pedal and the car accelerated, there is something
very wrong with the BRAKE system.

As far as the unintended acceleration is concerned, I'd be looking very
closely at the cruise control and throttle cables and the throttle body
to make sure nothing's broken or damaged, which could certainly cause
the throttle to stick open.

Have you or anyone else done any work under the hood recently?

"Mark Olson" <invalid> wrote in message
news:supernews.com... 

Any properly operating braking system will easily overpower the motor of
most cars. You should be able to drive with a wide open throttle, even keep
one foot on the gas pedal and still bring your car to a stop with the brakes
without a considerable increase in braking distance.

As he said, your brakes are suspect if you couldn't slow it down.

This all sounds familiar to me. I seem to recall reading this very same post
before. A bit of Trolling perhaps?

Rob

------------------------------

"malcolmm" wrote ...
 

"Basic Wedge" <ca> wrote in message
news:6joGe.64980$.. 

Don't know about this particular thread, but in general these periodic
unintended acceleration posts that pop up on various newsgroups from time to
time do seem to be a Trolling activity - a very special kind of Trolling.
Trolling for big bucks, as in class-action lawsuits. Didn't work in the 80s
with the Audi Victims Network fraud, won't work now either.

It is possible that this "malcolmm" guy is sincere, in which case he was
probably pressing the accelerator rather than the brakes by mistake. The
less likely situation is that he does have both a throttle problem and
almost useless brakes, but that's a pretty unusual combination.

malcolmm <net> wrote:
 

Yes. Brief engine racing, but it's only happened to me with the clutch
in and no load on the engine.

"Dave Gower" <ca> wrote in
news:ca:
 
"Troll". Have been lurking in this group for the last year and when I
have a problem and post it's taken as...

No my foot was not on the brake. Going down the highway at 110 kms
with no feet on the pedals I think there is a problem and when I
came to a stop the engine raced because it was forced to gear down
(I put it in nutral) and the revs went up to the sky!

And my brakes... from the $510. bill I just had them done.

So guys I am not a Troll but just a person looking for advice not
redicule.

Malc

 

"malcolmm" <net> wrote
 

OK, but reread your first post, and especially the subject title. It looked
like you were saying that the car sped up in spite of you applying the
brakes. Now that you have clarified it, this is a simple case of a stuck
throttle, which is something very different from "unexpected acceleration",
to quote you precisely.

Many people are unaware of the long and nasty history behind the issue of
"unintended acceleration" or the fact that there are nutball anti-corporate
activists and sleazy contingency lawyers constantly looking to fabricate a
case. That's why precision is important in discussing any such cases.

net (Neill Massello) wrote in
news:1h0gfxd.kr0i0q1uahlkwN%net:
 

I too have had that experience. US model 2005 ZX3 with an automatic
transmission and a 2 liter engine. The vehicle was appoximately two
months old with 3.5k miles.

While driving on a two lane road in southern Michigan, (early May, cool
evening, light mist), the dash lights and all gauges "flashed" a couple of
times. On the second "flash" of the dash lights I noted all the gauges
going to the max as well.

The Flashing dash lights were not on and off but rather regular
illumination and VERY bright flashes of appoximately a second duration. In
my experience as an engineer I have wittnessed the same during a high
voltage spike. Possibly something in the alt/regulator?

Anyway, I lifted off of the go pedal while the damn thing floored itself.
After about 5 seconds of bumping the gas pedal and then the brake pedal, I
had the presense of mind to simply turn the key off and I then braked to
the side of the road. I turned the key back on, the gauges and all seemed
to zero, except for the eng temp which read actual temp. There was no
repeat of the flashing dash lights and gauges slewing around. It
restarted and ran normally except for the check engine light which was now
on. The ONLY thing that could have taken the gas pedal to the floor was
the cruise control activating to full pull on the throttle body/linkage.

I carefully drove home and in the am took the car back to the dealer where
I explained the problem. I used a loaner car for the three days the
dealer took to recieve and replace the "transmission position sending
unit". That was the only fault the computer returned. I have over 75k
miles on the car now and have not had a return of the same problem.

I have had to replace both rear wheel bearings and three sets of tires in
75k miles. The factory settings on the rear are stupid and guarentee that
the tires will wear out in 20-25k miles. I have had mine set to 0 degree
toe-in with me sitting in the car and the feathering/wear has been reduced
to a more normal pattern. Current tires have over 30k miles and still
have 50-60% tread left. The excessive toe the factory quotes is probably
the cause of the wheel bearing failure as well.

Another issue with the factory toe-in is VERY dangerous. With such a
light car, while driving in weather, it is possible to unload one side of
the car or the other. That is, get one tire to plane on water or slush
and the other side of the car stays planted. When that happens, the tire
on the loaded side of the car, (the side NOT planing) will push against
straight travel and can (did in my case) cause a spin. At the factory
setting (as recieved 2.5 degrees toe-in on both sides!) it shot the rear
end to the right when the right tire unloaded on slush. Compounding that
problem is that on most roads, the big semi's typically have left slight
depressions in the tarmac that collect a bit more water than the crowns.
A small car like the Focus does'nt ride equally in both depressions so the
likelyhood of having equal ammounts of water/slush under both sides of the
car is less than that of an bigger car/truck and increases the likelyhood
of a spin because of the above. Add to that the tires wearing very
rapidly (worn tires plane much more easily than fresh tires) you have a
great recipe for disaster.

Other than the above I am extreemly happy with this vehicle. A bonus for
us BIG guys, 6ft 3in tall is that I actually fit in the damn thing and my
brother, same size can travel with me. Loads of interior room, (Head and
Foot) in the front seat and with the two door entry/egress is not the
twist, bend, lurch activity typical of most small cars-big people matings.
Don't even talk about the rear seats.... My five year old grandson
does'nt fit now, I can't wait until he is ten. lol.