Nearly had a (potentially) very nasty smash the other day...
Discussion
well as it says above...
I was coming out of a small side road an audi tt went past and, with no other traffic on the road, I decided to boot it a little for some fun . So far so good, tail drifts ever so slightly out - this is fun, the car leaps forward catching to the audi so I let up off the throttle... and then it happens - I let off the throttle the car on the other hand has other ideas and it still on nearly full throttle and rapidly closing on the audi, stamp on the brakes still accelerating (though not as quickly) at this point the air isn't even blue as I'm too busy filling my pants! Foot now jammed on the brakes harder than I've ever pressed a peddle before I mange to knock the gearbox into neutral and then suddenly the revs die down to idle. Home is 1 mile away so I get home at a crawl (ready to knock into neutral asap) with no problems.
Cause of this potentially serious mishap? The over-mat had slipped off the tethering hook and the throttle peddle had wedged itself underneath
Moral of the story - CHECK THAT YOUR OVER-MATS ARE SECURE!!!!
I was coming out of a small side road an audi tt went past and, with no other traffic on the road, I decided to boot it a little for some fun . So far so good, tail drifts ever so slightly out - this is fun, the car leaps forward catching to the audi so I let up off the throttle... and then it happens - I let off the throttle the car on the other hand has other ideas and it still on nearly full throttle and rapidly closing on the audi, stamp on the brakes still accelerating (though not as quickly) at this point the air isn't even blue as I'm too busy filling my pants! Foot now jammed on the brakes harder than I've ever pressed a peddle before I mange to knock the gearbox into neutral and then suddenly the revs die down to idle. Home is 1 mile away so I get home at a crawl (ready to knock into neutral asap) with no problems.
Cause of this potentially serious mishap? The over-mat had slipped off the tethering hook and the throttle peddle had wedged itself underneath
Moral of the story - CHECK THAT YOUR OVER-MATS ARE SECURE!!!!
Scary stuff, and something I've always been a bit paranoid about
Can never understand why people keep things loose in their drivers footwell (e.g. open handbags), and reminds my of the sad story about 20 years ago of the mini-bus driver who was killed when a bottle managed to get trapped under his brake pedal
Can never understand why people keep things loose in their drivers footwell (e.g. open handbags), and reminds my of the sad story about 20 years ago of the mini-bus driver who was killed when a bottle managed to get trapped under his brake pedal
Terrifying when you are suddenly out of control isnt it. Happened to me twice in the TVR.
First time when I pulled out of a junction turning left big empty road so hoofed it intending to get the back to swing round. All good to start with, bank end swings out, I release throttle pressure to control it...but no its still going full chat !. Oh. Bugger. Back end carries on catching up with the front end, now doing a 360 smoking tyres with me hard on the brakes which only resulted in me starting to do donuts. Clutch in then Killed the ignition as it set off into the second 360 , ended up arse end into a hedge but no damage. Throttle cable had separated and got stuck inside the sheath.
Its very hard to work out what to do when you have an engine bouncing off the limiter going sideways and you dip the clutch but it carries on. Brain gets a bit confused (well mine did anyway).
Second time I came into a roundabout with a fair bit of speed on intending to shed it at the threshold to the roundabout then turn in, apex and away. Hit the brakes and .... nothing. Pedal moving but car not slowing down. Due my god like driving skills (not) I cleared the entry, clipped the apex and almost made it out of the exit. I was just about to pat myself on the back for a great recovery when I hit a big bump at the exit of the roundabout which made the back end snap round. Ended up parked facing the wrong way between two lamp posts. The driving gods were smiling on me that day.
First time when I pulled out of a junction turning left big empty road so hoofed it intending to get the back to swing round. All good to start with, bank end swings out, I release throttle pressure to control it...but no its still going full chat !. Oh. Bugger. Back end carries on catching up with the front end, now doing a 360 smoking tyres with me hard on the brakes which only resulted in me starting to do donuts. Clutch in then Killed the ignition as it set off into the second 360 , ended up arse end into a hedge but no damage. Throttle cable had separated and got stuck inside the sheath.
Its very hard to work out what to do when you have an engine bouncing off the limiter going sideways and you dip the clutch but it carries on. Brain gets a bit confused (well mine did anyway).
Second time I came into a roundabout with a fair bit of speed on intending to shed it at the threshold to the roundabout then turn in, apex and away. Hit the brakes and .... nothing. Pedal moving but car not slowing down. Due my god like driving skills (not) I cleared the entry, clipped the apex and almost made it out of the exit. I was just about to pat myself on the back for a great recovery when I hit a big bump at the exit of the roundabout which made the back end snap round. Ended up parked facing the wrong way between two lamp posts. The driving gods were smiling on me that day.
Glad everyone was ok and could have been a lot worse.
Had similar happen to me twice,
Had the throttle body stick wide open on my Elise S1 in heavy traffic which scared the s
t out of me.
The most embarrassing one was when I was 16 and me and my mate had scramblers with mine having been bored out to 90cc so was a bit lumpy on idle. We were riding around together one evening and pretended to re enact Road Rash (on the Megadrive) whilst driving along without realising there was a copper behind us. We got to the end of the road and stopped at the junction just as the blue lights came on.
I revved it (remember it runs lumpy on idle) to pull in round the corner and as I did so my clutch cable snapped....... resulting me hanging on for dear life as the bike shoots up, goes almost vertical in a spectacular wheelie resulting in the biggest b
king ever from the copper who thought we were just dicks and wouldn't believe the cable snapped initially. Youth of yesterday eh 
Had similar happen to me twice,
Had the throttle body stick wide open on my Elise S1 in heavy traffic which scared the s
t out of me.The most embarrassing one was when I was 16 and me and my mate had scramblers with mine having been bored out to 90cc so was a bit lumpy on idle. We were riding around together one evening and pretended to re enact Road Rash (on the Megadrive) whilst driving along without realising there was a copper behind us. We got to the end of the road and stopped at the junction just as the blue lights came on.
I revved it (remember it runs lumpy on idle) to pull in round the corner and as I did so my clutch cable snapped....... resulting me hanging on for dear life as the bike shoots up, goes almost vertical in a spectacular wheelie resulting in the biggest b
king ever from the copper who thought we were just dicks and wouldn't believe the cable snapped initially. Youth of yesterday eh 
Had exactly the same issue when I bought my Saxo VTR new, pulled out on to a roundabout into 2nd gear and the car took off............scarey as s
t when the car pulls away under its own steam!
Fortunately like the OP it was the stupid car mat trapping the accelerator to the floor ggrrr....
t when the car pulls away under its own steam! Fortunately like the OP it was the stupid car mat trapping the accelerator to the floor ggrrr....
I had something vaguely similar happen a while back.
I don’t have an accelerator cable on my car (1970 Volvo Amazon) let alone any of these new-fangled electronic throttle jobbies. The loud pedal is connected to the carb by a series of linkage rods (length of metal with a ball joint at either end). Unbeknown to me, one of the ball joints was worn and decided to jam... resulting in the engine red-lining in rush hour traffic. As the throttle was jammed wide open dipping the clutch stopped me shooting forward into the car in front but didn’t stop the engine revving scarily.
Fortunately I was only doing about 15 mph so I killed the ignition, pulled over and made a temporary repair at the side of the road and then carried on home.
Didn’t drive the car again until I had replaced all the linkages - I now check them regularly (and carry spares) in case it ever happens again. When I examined the faulty part I found a tiny piece of grit in the joint, which is what must have contributed to the failure.
I don’t have an accelerator cable on my car (1970 Volvo Amazon) let alone any of these new-fangled electronic throttle jobbies. The loud pedal is connected to the carb by a series of linkage rods (length of metal with a ball joint at either end). Unbeknown to me, one of the ball joints was worn and decided to jam... resulting in the engine red-lining in rush hour traffic. As the throttle was jammed wide open dipping the clutch stopped me shooting forward into the car in front but didn’t stop the engine revving scarily.
Fortunately I was only doing about 15 mph so I killed the ignition, pulled over and made a temporary repair at the side of the road and then carried on home.
Didn’t drive the car again until I had replaced all the linkages - I now check them regularly (and carry spares) in case it ever happens again. When I examined the faulty part I found a tiny piece of grit in the joint, which is what must have contributed to the failure.
irocfan said:
well as it says above...
I was coming out of a small side road an audi tt went past and, with no other traffic on the road, I decided to boot it a little for some fun . So far so good, tail drifts ever so slightly out - this is fun, the car leaps forward catching to the audi so I let up off the throttle... and then it happens - I let off the throttle the car on the other hand has other ideas and it still on nearly full throttle and rapidly closing on the audi, stamp on the brakes still accelerating (though not as quickly) at this point the air isn't even blue as I'm too busy filling my pants! Foot now jammed on the brakes harder than I've ever pressed a peddle before I mange to knock the gearbox into neutral and then suddenly the revs die down to idle. Home is 1 mile away so I get home at a crawl (ready to knock into neutral asap) with no problems.
Cause of this potentially serious mishap? The over-mat had slipped off the tethering hook and the throttle peddle had wedged itself underneath
Moral of the story - CHECK THAT YOUR OVER-MATS ARE SECURE!!!!
Or, don't mash the throttle to the floor whilst drifting out of a side roadI was coming out of a small side road an audi tt went past and, with no other traffic on the road, I decided to boot it a little for some fun . So far so good, tail drifts ever so slightly out - this is fun, the car leaps forward catching to the audi so I let up off the throttle... and then it happens - I let off the throttle the car on the other hand has other ideas and it still on nearly full throttle and rapidly closing on the audi, stamp on the brakes still accelerating (though not as quickly) at this point the air isn't even blue as I'm too busy filling my pants! Foot now jammed on the brakes harder than I've ever pressed a peddle before I mange to knock the gearbox into neutral and then suddenly the revs die down to idle. Home is 1 mile away so I get home at a crawl (ready to knock into neutral asap) with no problems.
Cause of this potentially serious mishap? The over-mat had slipped off the tethering hook and the throttle peddle had wedged itself underneath
Moral of the story - CHECK THAT YOUR OVER-MATS ARE SECURE!!!!
Many moons ago my Astra GTE16V had an annoying 'main dealer untraceable' fault with the ICV which resulted in either unwanted acceleration or revving at the traffic lights making me look like a tool wanting a race, or stalling on gear changes. The first time it happened with the sudden loss of power steering and I nearly took out a lamppost trying to haul it around.
This happened to a customers Saab many years ago.
Unfortunately they were stupid and tried to stop the car on the brakes, occasionally dipping the clutch. I recovered the car and it was, well, a bit dead. Told them to throw it away, but they wanted it repaired. Soooo, new clutch, head overhaul to replace bent valves and new pads and discs. Much money.
2 weeks later get a call to say it's "making a funny noise". Went out to it and started it and it was making a clunking and chirruping noise. Oh dear, broken crank if ever I heard one.
Car was written off.
Unfortunately they were stupid and tried to stop the car on the brakes, occasionally dipping the clutch. I recovered the car and it was, well, a bit dead. Told them to throw it away, but they wanted it repaired. Soooo, new clutch, head overhaul to replace bent valves and new pads and discs. Much money.
2 weeks later get a call to say it's "making a funny noise". Went out to it and started it and it was making a clunking and chirruping noise. Oh dear, broken crank if ever I heard one.
Car was written off.
jonah35 said:
irocfan said:
well as it says above...
I was coming out of a small side road an audi tt went past and, with no other traffic on the road, I decided to boot it a little for some fun . So far so good, tail drifts ever so slightly out - this is fun, the car leaps forward catching to the audi so I let up off the throttle... and then it happens - I let off the throttle the car on the other hand has other ideas and it still on nearly full throttle and rapidly closing on the audi, stamp on the brakes still accelerating (though not as quickly) at this point the air isn't even blue as I'm too busy filling my pants! Foot now jammed on the brakes harder than I've ever pressed a peddle before I mange to knock the gearbox into neutral and then suddenly the revs die down to idle. Home is 1 mile away so I get home at a crawl (ready to knock into neutral asap) with no problems.
Cause of this potentially serious mishap? The over-mat had slipped off the tethering hook and the throttle peddle had wedged itself underneath
Moral of the story - CHECK THAT YOUR OVER-MATS ARE SECURE!!!!
Or, don't mash the throttle to the floor whilst drifting out of a side roadI was coming out of a small side road an audi tt went past and, with no other traffic on the road, I decided to boot it a little for some fun . So far so good, tail drifts ever so slightly out - this is fun, the car leaps forward catching to the audi so I let up off the throttle... and then it happens - I let off the throttle the car on the other hand has other ideas and it still on nearly full throttle and rapidly closing on the audi, stamp on the brakes still accelerating (though not as quickly) at this point the air isn't even blue as I'm too busy filling my pants! Foot now jammed on the brakes harder than I've ever pressed a peddle before I mange to knock the gearbox into neutral and then suddenly the revs die down to idle. Home is 1 mile away so I get home at a crawl (ready to knock into neutral asap) with no problems.
Cause of this potentially serious mishap? The over-mat had slipped off the tethering hook and the throttle peddle had wedged itself underneath
Moral of the story - CHECK THAT YOUR OVER-MATS ARE SECURE!!!!
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Which one of you had the chain?
straight over a mini roundabout, my face must have looked like something out of planet of the apes...