Floor mats lead Toyota to issue largest recall in history

[ColonelPanic]

Oops! Quote »Toyota says it will recall 3.8 million vehicles in the United States to address problems with a removable floor mat that could interfere with the vehicle's accelerator and cause a crash.http://www.boston.com/business...icles/

[keithvibe]

this is because of the last crash involving a lexus that had a floor mat wedged in to the gas petal. Everyone died in that accident.

[BlueCrush]

I heard that 911 call on the radio....it was horrible...

[ehoff121]

Several years ago, Toyota Highlanders were recalled for a similar issue. The clips that secured the forward center console cover could pop out, allowing the side of the cover to catch the accelerator pedal. http://www.automotive.com/2005....html

[TONY TAT2]

My mat pins are still in the plastic bag,guess I should install em, I even have a smaller mat on top from 1 of my old sunbirds. In my youinger days beer can's were the problem, thay usually would up under the brake pedal tho.

[Whelan]

If your accelerator gets stuck:1) shift car to neutral2) apply brakes

[BadBrew]

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »If your accelerator gets stuck:1) shift car to neutral2) apply brakes I know it's the basic thing to do but not much people have this kind of reaction on panic, same when they are sliding off icy roads during winter...

[djkeev]

So, did you hear the "official" fix??Remove the floor mat and do not reinstall a mat!!!!!!!!!!!!Yeah, right! Like that's going to happen! People want a floor mat. I guess Toyota's official stance will be that they don't provide one or condone the use of them. So, people will get aftermarket mats which are almost NEVER secured and the problem will live on. What about fixing the lack of clearance at the gas pedal which is the real issue??????Dave

[jimincalif]

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »If your accelerator gets stuck:1) shift car to neutral2) apply brakes Yeah, I heard the 911 call, horrifying. But it you have time to call 911, you definitely have time to shift to neutral. I realize it is a panic situation, and normal driver training does not train for this in an automatic car. Wonder what would be a good exercise a normal driver can do to ingrain this reaction?Those of us driving sticks, natural reaction is to push in the clutch whenever anything goes wrong.

[cptnsolo77]

I have never had a car with a "secured" floor mat. They have always flopped down.Even my vibe has some cheap mats that dont have holes for the hooks.At least Toyota has taken some responsibility, unlike what Ford did with the Pinto.

[Whelan]

My last two cars had secured floormats. Those little plastic things that keep it in place. I had an issue once in my 94 Saturn with the floor mat. It was the cheap-o $10 brand and it slid and bunched up. I pushed the clutch (see manual drivers response above) and glanced down to see it bunched, grabbed the back of the mat and pulled it free. Thank god for manuals. I could see them going the route of having little velcro style grips holding mats in place now.

[ColonelPanic]

Toyota says "run along now, no recall to see here!"http://www.boston.com/cars/new....html*shrug*At any rate, from what I've seen in our two Vibes now, toyota's genius engineers need to go back to the drawing board with that stupid flimsy plastic hook setup. It's pretty much worthless. The only time they really grab hold of the mat is when you're trying to take the mats out, then you end up breaking the hook. The floor mats themselves also seem too thin which I find makes them prone to bunching up. Anything to save them a buck!Tragic about that Lexus incident... It does seem odd how one could take the time to call 911 but not the time to hit neutral. We're not thinking clearly in those sort of situations, however.

[ou.grizzly]

Get some WeatherTech or Husky Liners and call it a day...

[star_deceiver]

This is the first car I've had with floor mats. I remember once when I had my 81 toyota p/u, I was in the back country seeing how muddy I could get the truck. On the way home turning onto the highway the accelerator got stuck and held the engine at 4000 rpm. My first instict was to turn the engine off, I then coasted to the side of the road and popped the hood. A stick had wedged itself between the carburator linkage and the intake manifold (apparently I had too much fun!) The point is, weather it's turning off the ignition, shifting to neutral, or tying your floor mat to seat so it can't move forward, a little thought and common sense can do wonders.

[djkeev]

Quote, originally posted by jimincalif »Yeah, I heard the 911 call, horrifying. But it you have time to call 911, you definitely have time to shift to neutral. I realize it is a panic situation, and normal driver training does not train for this in an automatic car. Wonder what would be a good exercise a normal driver can do to ingrain this reaction?Those of us driving sticks, natural reaction is to push in the clutch whenever anything goes wrong.Just read an article about the family killed in the Lexus. He was a California Highway Patrol Officer! You'd think if any group of people had advanced training in both defensive and offensive driving skills this would be it!There's more to this story people........Dave

[Kincaid]

I heard good reasoning for everything except why the guy could not put it into neutral. I've heard (all rumor of course) that witnesses saw sparking or fire from the brakes and that this had a push button stop so you actually have to know that you need to hold down the button for three seconds or so to shut it down. I guess I could see that if you were traveling at a high rate of speed and *****-footed around with the brakes you could get them to heat up so much they could fade to uselessness. Still, as you are approaching an intersection why would you not put it in neutral and let the engine blow?Yep, there's more to the story.