Sebring---- SUDDEN ACCELERATION

Our 2002 Sebring Coupe with 6cyl- 3.0 engine suddenly accelerated while backing up in a parking lot causing a wreck. It lurched backward at top speed. Has anyone heard of this happening?

Reply to
jonz6
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Yes, it happened with several Audi's many years ago. The cause then was likely the same as the cause with your Sebring ... the driving mistakenly mashing the throttle thinking they are hitting the brake.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Nope i didn't happen that way. My wife was backing up with her foot on the brake. She must not have been braking that hard.. but she says she had her foot on the brake pedal and when shifting forward on the shift lever into drive & past neutral is when it SUDDENLY jumped backward and fast. She then smashed on the brake pedal at the same time she crunched into another car.

Reply to
jonz6

If you're paying $50K for a car, you've been royally ripped. But assuredly if that were built the way you want to be, they'd be $100K. No thanks!

Reply to
James C. Reeves

Yes. This happened to Audi's a while back. The government did a lot of reasearch. In all instances the brake system was still functioning properly. In all instances the drivers states they were stepping on the brakes as hard as they could and the car kept going. The government came to the conclusion that this was a case of pedal mis-application. That means that driver was stepping on the wrong pedal. I don't think that is what you wanted to hear.

-------------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

Yes. It happens when you aren't sitting as squarely in the seat as you think you are, and the pedal your foot was on was really the gas.

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

I haven't driven a Sebring, but all floor mounted automatics that I've driven have P-R-N-D-2-1 with Park at the front (towards the dash). So, if your wife was backing up, that suggests she was in reverse. If she moved the parking lever forward from there, she would have engaged park not drive or neutral. If the shifter is column mounted, then it is moving left/right or up/down, not forward/back. Something isn't jiving with this story.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Nobody wants to hear that, but that is the fact. Also, there are very few cars that have an engine that can overpower the brakes. And you'd likely need AWD as in FWD or RWD, two wheels locked will keep the other two wheels from moving the car at any rate of speed in any event. When I first heard the Audi stories years ago, I knew they were bogus without even doing an investigation. Simple physics showed that you couldn't possibly have a car that couldn't be controlled using the brakes at full application. Of course, if there had been a defect in the brakes, then the claims would have been plausible, but that was never found to be the case in any of the cars.

Nobody wants to hear that the problem was them, but that is usually the case in these sudden acceleration cases. I'm not saying there isn't the potential for this to happen, as anything is certainly possible. It is possible that the brakes could fail at the exact same time that a software bug in the ECU commanded full throttle, but that is a long shot beyond long shots.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Reply to
maxpower

Servo? Yes it has cruise

Reply to
jonz6

Reply to
maxpower

Nope, it didn't happen that way. Your wife hit the gas without knowing it, period. I know it's less embarrassing and less expensive for her to blame it on the car, but cars do not behave so much as they are behaved upon.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Yup. The hysterical media reports nearly ruined Audi, though.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Ah, right, here we go with the "sudden, full, completely unintended activation of the cruise control despite the car being in reverse, below the threshhold speed AND the brakes allegedly applied" theory.

Have you ever heard of Occam's Razor? It's a scientific principle that says the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Now, which is simpler? A or B?

A: Your wife stepped on the wrong pedal.

B: The cruise control on/off switch, the cruise control "set" switch, the brake light and cruise-kill switch, and the SBEC "no cruise control under

30MPH, and only in the Forward direction" programming all failed at the same time, the cruise control engaged and pulled the throttle wide open.
Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

If you want to make any kind of a legal case, you will have a major uphill battle. As others have stated, the AVN ("Audi Victims Network") legal campaign went down in flames when multiple and overwhelming sources of evidence showed to everyone (including consumer organizations) that driver error was at fault. Drivers inevitably swore they did not commit pedal error, even when it was conclusively demonstrated they had. Additionally, a high proportion of the drivers involved were either menopause-age women or seniors of both sexes.

Please don't take this as a challenge to your (or your wife's) honesty, merely a "heads-up" about the historical background.

Reply to
Dave Gower

To Road&Track's credit, they took an Audi and tried it. The result was a driver that was convinced he'd experienced it (and was positive his foot was on the brake), and an observer that said, "no, it was on the gas...."

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

My 1991 Dodge Monaco used to do that. The cruise control would just all of a sudden make the car accelerate. I don't touch the cruise buttons anymore. However, I don't drive it much anymore either.

Larry Behold Beware Believe

Reply to
Larry Crites

Not below 30 mph with your foot on the brake and the trans in "Reverse", it wouldn't.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Yes, I don't think it is an honesty issue. I believe that many, if not all, of the Audi drivers really believed that they were mashing the brake, when they were, unfortunately, mashing the throttle. And this gentleman's wife very likely also believed that as well. However, that still doesn't change the fact that it is about 99.44% certain that she hit the throttle by mistake, especially if she was twisted around looking backwards when backing up.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Reply to
maxpower

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