Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Sudden unintentional accelaration

Anyone experience this? I think I did today. Either that or Ive become totally stupid and senile one month after my 70th BD. 2016 Subaru Outback (please, spare the epithets), happened in reverse. Just tapped the throttle to back a little, when the thing took off. Got it stopped after doing a complete 180 and plowing into my front deck backwards, nearly hitting my wife. Hair raising to say the least. Still shaky after about 4 hrs. Not sure who to talk to about this, not sure I'll get a fair hear from Subaru. It was one of those things that make you wonder if the end is near, can't completely rule out my error. That's the scariest thing. Lookin' for input....and I'm NOT gay.

BTW, had I not aimed toward the house, a 30 foot sheer embankment's on the other side and a steep hill down from the house. I woulda died, no doubt. Live out in the country.

edit: that would be "acceleration

carpets can bunch up or move, catching pedal, dont know if you looked yet, but critters under hood can create issues.

Big feet, have had that happen.

I second partsman.

See if your carpets are all jammed up under your pedal.

If it catches the rubber edge, it wont spring back.

Carpet issue, no. 2 months old, less than 1500 miles. Yeah, I know about critters, esp pack rats. Been doing some web research. Fairly common esp. with new cars and all the electronic gadgetry. This one has most of it. Thanks, Partsman.



And WAR....

Did you start it up and put it in reverse right away? Not letting the idle come down before shifting? I always start my engine, wait for the RPMs drop and the ECM settle the engine down before shifting into gear. (usually about 30 seconds)

Scary crap man. Glad you're ok. But for the love of God! A Subaru??? It's like the .270 of cars. You just buy one so you could use the Gluten Free parking at Trader Joes?

No, just got back from going to the mail box, car wasn't cold. One thing I noticed about this car was starting from cold it revs to about 2000 R's for a while before settling down. Really don't like that, seems a mite fast before getting oil to the top. Thanks, RR65.

Don't have a 270, but this is Mrs. Spud's car. Should stay outta aything made after 1968.

My brother-in-law's mother's 2007 Camry accelerated while she was parking it just before Thanksgiving. She had the mats replaced under the recall and swears her foot was on the brake . She said it happened while she was shifting it into park. The car hopped a telephone pole on it's side and pushed an F150 quite a ways.

Thanks, Whiptail. No carpets in this'n, just mats. Definitely not something obvious. I think I aged about five years today.

I don't know if they can change the parameters in the EMC of the cold idle RPMs at the dealer, but I would take it in and see if they can locate/duplicate the problem you had.

Dealer's 200 miles away and this one won't be driven for a bit. Just trying to decide whether to hold off on repairing this thing thru my insurance or see if warranty will cover anything. Called dealer this PM and didn't get to talk to anyone, too late.

Dealer may or may not be able to pull up freeze frame data and see what throttle position, gear, rpm's, etc., were all doing at the time of the incident.

If it were an attempted homicide investigation they most certainly can remove computers and find the info.



Edit. Just saw your reply above, Spud. Yeah, after 200 miles I don't think the dealer would be able to help with freeze frame data.

Thanks, some things that would be nice to know. The event happened in about 10 seconds or less, wife said she saw the brake lites on, when it happened. Honestly I'm not sure what went down. Car's a mess, deck is seperated from the house by about a foot. Made a mess this time. Wife's brand new car and she didn't have the privilege of destroying it! We're OK, though, that's the main thing. Well get over it. Thanks to you all.

Wood and metal are far cheaper than than flesh and blood.


Glad everyone is no worse for the wear than some elevated BP and dirty laundry.

Will you ever be able to feel safe in that car again? You might need to think about getting out of it with a "lemon" lawsuit.

Won't feel safe and can't (won't) in good conscience consider dumping it on anyone else. But this is the kind of input I'm looking for. Options on what to do. Need to take it a step at a time, I guess. Not knowing what happened for sure is very frustrating, though. Thanks guys.

Spud,

I inherited my wife's Subaru Forester when we got her a newer Toyota. I have big feet and I have to be real careful that I don't catch the edge of the accelerator when I am moving my foot over and pushing on the brake as I pull into a tight parking spot. I am concentrating on not hitting something as I pull in, and I am not thinking about my foot.

I have had this happen in reverse, too. You mentioned that your wife saw that the brake lights were on during your incident.

I have almost jumped the curb a couple of times doing this, but so far I have been able to slide my foot further to the left quickly off of the gas pedal and haven't hit anything. The problem is worse if I am wearing bigger shoes or boots.

At least part of the cause of this problem is that the brake pedal is very low. Braking doesn't occur until the brake pedal is at or below the level of the gas pedal. If I push down on both pedals at the same time with the same foot, I get acceleration before I get braking.

I wonder if there is a way to adjust the brake pedal up a little higher? I think that would help my problem. I think I will look into it.

I had assumed that I was just a bit clumsy, but perhaps others (you?) might be having the same problem.
Just something to consider, anyway. Glad you are okay.

I am still convinced that sudden accelaration is the result of pushing the gas pedal in error.

I suspect a "big foot" syndrome. However there was a 2015 "collision avoidance" malfunction in the 2015 Outback that failed to instigate braking.
Nothing so far reported for 2016 models.
You can check here...............and maybe report here too............

www.nhtsa.gov

I have done this too. Newer cars that I am not used to, mostly. Smaller cars with less room for big feet can be a problem. miles