Run Away Prius

I thought after all the news of Toyota Hybrid run away in San Diego killing 3 this site would be full of comments.

If there can someone please direct me to that area.

I have removed my driver side floor mat even though it has not been a problem in the past. Better safe than sorry.

The newspaper article said that the Prius manual points out that you can shut down the engine by pressing and holding the START button for 3 seconds or more. I find no such warning in the manual. Can someone show me where it shows that. i have 2006 Prius.

I am sorry to hear about the death of your previous slave.

PriusChat does have some threads about the runaway Toyota in San Diego. Search would be a great way to find them.

Likewise the 2006 manual explains the power down sequence. I could run out to my garage and look it up for you, but then so could you. I think I'll let you do it.

Tom

Please get the story straight, not a Prius. it was a Lexus. Floor mat and probably some sort of issues with the reaction/knowledge of the person driving what was a loaner vehicle.
Read your manual and become familiar with the functioning of your vehicle. This is a different driving system.

Hi Roger.
I think like a lot of these things, the media blows it up to be more than it is. From what I have gathered the problem occurs rarely and may be from people stacking floor mats. Never put 2 floor mats in the driver's foot well. The fix being used is to secure the mats with cable or zip ties.

As Tom pointed out you can find more here: -

My Run-away WAS a 2008 Prius and it was with the " Toyota Prius WeatherTech Premium Rubber Mats " sold on this site. These mats do NOT properly fit the Prius.

About an hour ago, I was entering the freeway and floured the accelerator to merge into traffic, only to have the accelerator get stuck on the mat and my car run down the highway with full accelerator. I was able to keep my wits and place the car in neutral and steer to the side of the highway where I was then able to pull the accelerator off the mat.

Why would this site advertise this item as correct for the Prius when the ones I received were not? Luckily the only damage is a slightly elevated blood pressure. I am 61 years old and have been driving since I was 16. I have lots of experience, but I wonder what would have happened if someone with less experience, like my 17 year old had had this happen to them.

Do you mean the August 28 crash of a 2009 Lexus ES 350, not a hybrid, in San Diego that killed 4 people? Yes, this site is full of comments.

If you know of another runaway crash involving a hybrid, please enlighten us.

I hope you do not mind, but I am going to "Borrow" your pic so when I try to explain, well like yesterday, how to search, a pic will be displayed.
This way the "Web Forums Search Challanged" folk can "Get The Picture"!!!

Now if only folk would "RTFM", what a wonderful world this would be!!!

I still don't see how this is a problem. I have the all weather mats and its securely in place with the clips. It wont move forward because of the clips plus it rests up against the bottom of the foot rest. It will NOT move forward. It is a heavy rubber and it will NOT pull up and hit the accelerator. Yes I did pull it up to see if I could get it to rest on the pedal but there is just not enough mat to push the pedal down. About less than a centimeter can actually touch the pedal. The only think I could get my mat to do was to block the brake pedal. And it would have to be a 1 in a billion chance of that happening.

I want to see pictures or video of a properly installed mat causing the accelerator getting stuck.

unibridgeman you have an aftermarket mat. Those almost never fit a car perfect but I have heard the WeatherTech mats are good ones. Toyota would not be responsible for aftermarket products.

Does your car have the factory installed clips to hold the floor mats in place?

I also have the Toyota weather tech mats, purchased from Toyota and love them. Yes, I have clips which are very adequate for preventing any movement in the mats. I just noticing yesterday how much clearance I have between the mat and gas pedal, and it would be next to impossible to move the mat up to the point where it would interfere with the movement of the gas pedal.

Regarding the runaway Lexus (which was reported to be a hybrid), it was reported that the mats in that car were not the ones designed for that car. This same thing could happen with any number of objects that could fall down into the foot well.

I have the WeatherTech floorliners and factory Toyota clips and there is no way in hell my mats can move in such a way so as to interfere with the gas or brake pedal. It seems the people with issues are the ones buying mats not specificaly designed for the car or they drive a Prius without factory clips.

There is a lot of bad information out there in regards to the floor mat incident.

The information from Toyota is as follows:

The vehicle was a Lexus ES350 loaner car from a Lexus dealer in San Diego. The Lexus dealer put in some incorrect (not designed for the ES350) all weather mats on the loaner Lexus.
The all weather mat did trap the accelerator.

Toyota Motor Company and Lexus issued a customer advisory on 29 September. Advising all mats to be removed from the driver's side. This was amended on 1 October with a service advisory stating that the mats on the drivers side should be made for that year and model car and secured with the clips on the floorboard and with zip ties to the seat braces.


Toyota currently has pulled the entire stock of all weather mats from sale. Carpeted mats are not a problem provided they are properly secured. Do NOT stack mats on the drivers side.

I hope the dealer has a good liability policy but I foresee a bankruptcy in his future.

Wait a sec, with all the conjecture about this case that's been
flying around, how are you confident that it *was* a floor mat
issue, i.e. have you come across an official final report?
Reference, please.
.
[Not that I believe that it was anything other than floor mats,
but I just like to see such contentious things substantiated..]
.
_H*

Was this bleached flour? Whole wheat flour? Buckwheat flour?

I rarely flour the accelerator when merging, although I admit using flour is helpful in keeping gum on the bottom of one's shoe from sticking to the accelerator pedal.

Spelling flames are the lowest form of criticism.

Do any floor mats sold on this commercially-supported site actually not fit the Prius hooks correctly? If so then they should be withdrawn, or at least not advertised as being fitted for Prius. Otherwise, was unibridgeman's experience a case of incorrect installation?

http://i.usatoday.net/money/_pdfs/09-1026-nhtsa-memo.pdf

The only 'hybrid' involved was that the incorrect floormat was from a RX400H.

For Roger3125: All the information you need is here.

Don't be so hasty to criticize. Flouring the accelerator should keep it from sticking to the floor mat.

Tom

Spelling flames are nonetheless a way to try and improve the
general literacy around here just a *teeny* bit, maybe, because
there are some postings that are positively *painful* to read.
.
Thanks for the report reference, btw. Interesting. Toyota and
the rest are gonna have some scrambling to do...
.
_H*