Runaway 2009 Lexus ES fiery crash kills family of 4

I drove (rode) my BMW dead-stick down a mountain road for about 7 miles. Steering was no problem, brake effort was high, but not a problem.

No, but with the engine bouncing off the rev limiter you can coast to a gentle and controlled stop.

PS - using the brakes!

I betcha a dollar that downshifting at full throttle will indeed slow a car down. Try in on your car.

I've had my master cylinder fail on 2 cars. I must be unlucky. One was a Plymouth Caravan and the other was a Chevy Cavalier. luckily, there was a tree nearby to stop the Caravan. The only good thing about that option is that there's no question that you'll come to a stop. :-)

On the Cavalier, I used the handbrake to drive to work. I knew a guy with a jeep that drove with no brakes. He just downshifted when he wanted to slow down, then again, that pig was geared kinda low...

I'd rather try it on your car, my car has a clutch that will alter the effects. I'm pretty sure my car will stop under full throttle, and if it remains in 5th while attempting to stop, the engine will stall eventually where an automatic will simply downshift and try to overpower the brakes.

It won't slow as much as selecting N and mashing the brake pedal.

I'm confused - you wouldn't leave a manual transmission in 5th gear if you wanted to stop. I'm assuming that the brakes don't work so the only way to slow down a car would be to downshift. You could use the parking brake - assuming the new fangled Lexus has one of those. My guess is that downshifting would work better at high speeds. Anyway, you'd probably find yourself going sideways if you applied the handbrake at over a 100 MPH.

You are confused. I'll go along with that.

The conditions are, the throttle is stuck on full, and the car is doing 100+ mph. What are you gonna do?

I'm gonna stand on the brakes until it's stopped, and select N somewhere along the line. I would give serious consideration to turning the engine off.

I'm not going to consider downshifting because if the engine is going at full throttle, the car is not going to stop because of the power multiplication that happens when the gear ratio is lowered. Indeed, the brakes have a far better chance of overpowering the engine if the transmission is in a higher gear rather than a lower one.

I owned a Jeep that I could not stall if the transmission was in 1st and the transfer case was in LO range. The torque was far greater than the ability of the brakes. I could stall the engine with the brakes in 4th and HI range, but in LO range, I could get out and walk faster than the Jeep would go by itself, but I could not stop it with the brakes without depressing the clutch pedal.

A car that is barrelling down the highway at 100+ mph has very little torque, and the brakes can easily overpower the engine. The problem will become -- as some point -- that the lowered speed will force a downshift that can exceed the braking system. At this point, you should be able to kill the engine and stop the car. You could probably run into something to stop the car and live to tell the story.

I was assuming that the brakes didn't work. If they do work, there's no problem as far as I can see.

I haven't seen a car yet that you can't slip into neutral and disable the engine by shutting it off. You should not see the steering lock up unless it is in park. This is a standard safety feature since forever..This guy was a former cop and couldn't handle this situation..?

What was he doing on the cell phone. The last thing I would do in 'that' situation is make a call on a cell phone. ' Hello my accelerator is stuck can you come over here and unstick it.. How long do you think it'll take for you all to get here.' -WTF?

The only one who could help you in this situation is you.. As others have said, it doens't add up..

Did you not actually read the article?

or neutral,

It sure does sound like an internet hoax.

I'm no 100% sure, but with the Lexus style of push button ignition, doesnt the steering lock after the engine shuts down???

Same problem as the (lack of an) ignition switch. These new computer controlled cars won't go into a lower gear if the ECU decides it will make the engine over-rev. You can select it, but nothing will happen.

Wait - were the brakes inoperable too? Because shifting to neutral and braking normally would have worked just fine.

The brother in law was on the phone, not the cop.

The steering lock works by the key position, this car does not use a key. The owner has a dongle that is an RFID device that the car recognizes, and enables the START button. When the car is started, the steering unlocks.

The sixty four thousand dollar question is if the steering locks just because the START button is held long enough to kill the engine, but before the car is put into Park. (Does the Lexus ES even have a manual transmission as an option?) There is speculation in the story that the steering locks when the engine is off, which makes sense if the car is parked at the time, but presents a host of problems at 100+ mph.

Shoulda got an E28. You get several minutes of braking with the engine off, courtesy of the nitrogen ball.

--scott

I had several minutes of braking with my E36, but at 60mph deadsticking down the hill, it goes away long before the hill is gone.

PS You dont get several minutes, you get several applications, and dead-stick driving tends to use them up sooner than you might expect. When the motor is running, I can select a gear that lets me do the same hill and use the brakes just a few times in 7 miles, but when the engine is off, the need for brakes is much higher ;-)

When I tried it with a brand new ball, I got 26 applications. I think the manual says you are supposed to get 12.

--scott