Runaway 2009 Lexus ES fiery crash kills family of 4

It's a compressed gas reservoir that keeps the braking system up to pressure after engine power is lost.

The brake system on BMWs of that era is... really German. They never use one part when they can use five instead.

--scott

So now you're not content to troll just the Lexus newsgroup, and you feel the need to cross post to four groups? Your unhealthy bitterness toward an auto manufacturer has taken you to new depths. Who'd have thought you could be even more of an asshole than you already were? Congratulations!

You really are starved for attention, aren't you john?

That's a good idea. I used to have a VW Rabbit that had a vacuum reservoir that looked like bunch of plastic spheres. I think it was hooked up to the emission system - not the brakes. How does this nitrogen ball work? The brake booster systems I'm familiar use the engine vacuum to multiply brake pedal force.

As far as German engineering goes, I was very impressed with the rear drum brake system on a Scirocco I used to have. They replaced the standard self-adjusting drum brake wear hardware - starwheel, ratchet, linkages and springs, with a simple wedge and spring. It's a beautiful system. Mostly, I'm afraid of old-school English engineering. :-)

Isnt the nitrogen reservoir limited to abs applications? I may be wrong, but I thought the cars with the nitrogen balls have vacuum assist as well>???

well, that WAS a good adjuster system except they got the geometry of the wedge wrong... if your drums had a lot of miles on them and were worn slightly oversized the adjuster wedge would run out of adjustment LONG before you ran out of brake shoe, so the brake pedal got real mushy. I know this from personal experience :) Of course rear drums for those cars were like $25 apiece back in the day...

nate

I would tend to change out the shoes before they needed to because I'd already have the parts and as long as the drum was off it seemed like the easier way to go. I sure wish I had one of those first series car again - but they don't seem to have survived this new century due to their old-school rust protection. The one I had was riddled with holes. People would laugh at me. Well, at least the brakes and drive train was fine. :-)

First of all it's unfortunate what happened to the family. So I wouldn't want to second guess what was or was not done at the time.

But according to the CHP Academy web site. Each cadet will have 27 weeks and 1,000 hours of training. Some of which include Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC).

Now my question is that if a CHP officer with EVOC training can't stop a runaway Camry (Lexus ES), who can?

The Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC) is famous throughout the world as the finest law enforcement driver training program available. The course consists of a 2.3-mile, high-performance driving track, two skid recovery practice areas and a defensive driving course. Additional riding facilities are provided for the Motorcycle Enforcement Training Course.

I sold an '84 'roccet - my last A1 chassis VW - back around 2004 or so for $600. It was still quite solid. I think I sold it just because I was paying more for insurance on it (I lived in a "high risk" area at the time) every year than the car was worth, and it was my second car. If I'd kept it I'd probably still have it today, as I now have a company car, so it'd be perfectly acceptable as a personal use vehicle.

I think the only major problem I had with it was a worn bearing in the trans that caused it to keep losing its gear oil through the output shaft seal at about 200K miles. Not bad for a little econobox, and it was a kick in the arse to drive and all-day comfortable. I drove it for MANY trips to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and once to Vermont in December. No problems/worries ever about driving so far in such an "old" car. I miss that car.

nate

No doubt it's a car that one remembers fondly. I used to sit like a king in a semi-reclined position in that thing - something not possible with the other cars I've had. The car had the standard engine and a 4 speed. It could have been dumb luck but I don't think I've ever had a manual transmission car where the engine and the gear ratios and the driver were so perfectly matched. Oh well, what can you say? That was then and this is now... :-)

I heard the call. Not sure if you did. One of the first things the 911 operator said was 'can you shut it off?'....

ASSuming it works. If it fails, braking gets real squirrely.

nate

If my 1985 Corolla GTS 4 cylinder twin cam hit 130 on a flat run between Kinston and Oshawa ONT, then I think a 6 cyl Lexus should probably be able to surpass that.

Whatwas the matter with him? Drunk? ALL State Police officers undergo a 40 hour advanced driving skills class. A CHP officer allowing a car to get out of control doesn't seem very likely.

Shifting into low and hitting the brakes will.

THAT'S what the hell that thing is!

Or Lucas, the Prince of Darkness...

Another fatal crash @ same intersection last night... Talked to a Lexus tech and: Pushing the ignition button on the Lexus does not lock the steering, and the car can be shifted to neutral while driving. Something was up with that guy...

reminds me of the runaway Audi stories...

in the Audi case the gas/brake pedals were too close together and not aligned with the seat like other cars so drivers were simply stomping on the gas when they thought they were on the brake. (Manual shift Audi drivers loved the pedal placement, of course.)

in this case the fault is said to lie with improper floor matts; not with a driver too dumb to recognize the problem and place his foot under the gas pedal and pull it up to free it from the matt. I had this happen to me years ago in some borrowed car.

My Toyota car has a nice hook to hold it's driver's side floor matt in place. That's more than I can say for my Honda or GM products.

No throttle cable. It's "drive-by-wire". Pulling up would do nothing.

Anybody post this link? The boss was reading through it today. Seems there's been a lot of complaints about the same thing.

Let's see... Cruise control -- computer decides how fast you want to go. Drive-by-wire -- computer decides how far to open the throttle. ABS -- computer decides if / when to allow the brakes to work, based on whether it "thinks" 1 (or 4) wheels are locked up and sliding.

Some kind of random massive computer glitch that affects all these systems, and the car takes off, disables the brakes, and you pray.