Runaway Is200

[NickF]

This evening, while travelling into Nottingham, I had a bit of a scare in the IS200 SE Auto courtesy car which I am using while my GS is having some balljoints replaced.

I accelerated hard (foot flat to the floor) onto an A road, upto about 50MPH ,and then released the accelerator. The car continued to accelerate at the same rate. By the time I had realized what was happening, I was doing about 70MPH. The brakes made hardly any difference. :o

I like to think that I am a mechanically sympathetic kind of chap, so I turned the engine off rather than shifting into neutral and leaving a brand new engine (400 miles) bouncing of its rev limiter. This allowed me to coast to a stop in a layby. I was surprised how bad the brakes were with no power assistance. :duh:

After a brief inspection of the accelerator, I saw that the very bottom edge of the pedal had wedged itself under the mat. The mats are genuine Lexus ones, but the retaining clip near the seat was missing, allowing it to ride forward.

I'm glad that I remained calm and had at least some idea about how to stop a car in this situation. I told my 17 year old brother what had happened when I got home, and he said that he wouldn't have had any idea what to do. If he had been driving, he would probably have ploughed into the back of a line of traffic at some traffic lights at about 90MPH. That would have been nasty...

Make sure your mats are securely fastened down chaps!

[Steve]

happened to me once.. scared me to death!

crappy thin mats!! my old import had really thick carpets.. they were great!

[biker]

I've had this happen a couple of times now, the first time was a bit worrying. I agree though for somebody who is'nt very experienced it could cause a nasty accident....

chris.

[JOHNNY-BOY]

This was a common fault on early IS's until they changed the mat design.

Scary moment Nick :o

[cheeky]

This happened to me also some years back. Not in a Lexus at that time, but still scared the living hell out of me. At the time I think I realised what happened and was actually able to free the pedal without resorting to emergency tactics. Very frightening though....

[ricky_is200]

Apparantly they recalled the mats on the early IS models because of this. When I took mine in for a service they fitted new mats and told me why.

If its a courtesy car you'd think it would have the latest mats and be well fitted, but someone probably swapped them with their own or something.

[ifraz]

As I said to you yesterday Nick, I would inform Lexus Nottingham of this so they can fix/correct this problem. I probably would have panicked and slammed it into Neutral :o

Scary stuff, especially when you're approaching a queue of traffic.

[Fargo]

well done that man for stopping,, however id like to point out that the handbrake can be applied, dont know about an auto, but on a manual it would help to 'stall' the engine to stop the car.

[Jock]

well done that man for stopping,, however id like to point out that the handbrake can be applied, dont know about an auto, but on a manual it would help to 'stall' the engine to stop the car.

Yeah, pulling on the handbrake, might make matter 10 times worse.

i.e. sideways, Colin McRae Style!!

[Fargo]

emergency calls for emergency action.. if in doubt whack the handbrake up..sorted...

[NickF]

In conjunction with the foot brake, it might have been possible to stop it with the handbrake. I think that the handbrake alone would have just heated up and faded, particularly as the accelerator was depressed beyond the kickdown stop. As the car slowed, it would have kept changing down through the gears increasing the torque.

[Fargo]

i am learn'ed

[woggledog]

The rev limiter is there for a good reason. Happened to me, Rather than cut the power, I just pulled over, using the clutch for control

Mine had a misisng clip, as menrtioned. Hasn't happened since

[Risky3301]

I like to think that I am a mechanically sympathetic kind of chap, so I turned the engine off rather than shifting into neutral and leaving a brand new engine (400 miles) bouncing of its rev limiter. This allowed me to coast to a stop in a layby. I was surprised how bad the brakes were with no power assistance.  :duh:

In this type of situation always shift the transmission into neutral, don't worry about the engine revving on the limiter, worry about having steering and brakes

Engine parts are easy to replace, Human body parts are not so easy to replace.

[Steve]

thats what i did.. pedestrians jumped outta their skins!