Prius Surged Forward - Really

Hello,

I've been a member since my purchase of a 2006 Prius in 6/06. I love my Prius. It has 12,000 miles in almost 3 years -- I live on Long Island and take the LIRR to work every day. It's the greatest car in the world. Period. I've bought the hoodie, sun visor and side mouldings along with the great rubber mats that are so much better than the originals, although I still have the originals.

Anyways, last Friday 3/20/09, the Surge Forward happened to me. I am not a troll and I hope I won't be met with suspicion or doubt.
I am simply worried and hoping to get some decent advice from this group as you are the experts on the Prius. There are 2 different threads on this subject in 2008 "Prius Surged Forward".

I was at a light stopped dead. Not in neutral. I accelerated when the light turned green. The car shot off like a bullet. Much faster than I would ever take off. I was approaching a small town bridge and although I was scared, I kept my cool and rode the brake to slow the car down. Very quickly after the bridge, I pulled over safely into a parking lot and turned off the car. Started again and no problem. Nor have I had one since. I did research and found one article on the consumeraffairs.com website with similar stories, although some of those ended with accidents. I was lucky.

I called Huntington Toyota (great dealership) and although I didn't speak to a mechanic, I spoke to someone who said bring it in and we'll check it out.

Now the article I found on consumeraffairs.com (google -- Toyota recalls floor mats) says that the mats were recalled (I vaguely remember reading about this in the press at the time in 2007 but thought nothing of it at the time) but people aren't convinced it was the mat or driver error. As I say above, my mats are the rubber, all weather kind. Nothing was remotely near the gas pedal.

The real fear I have is that this could happen anywhere anytime - in a shopping center, near a school whatever. I will be vigilant, but one never knows -- it only takes a second.

This is the first and only issue I've ever had with my Prius. The article I mention above says that an engineer (not a Toyota engineer) thinks it may be related to cruise control. I have never used cruise control in my life, on the Prius or otherwise. That makes sense to me as the 3 minutes or so that I was zooming forward and riding the brakes it felt like the car was maintaining a fast speed.

Anyways, I'm seeking advice here and hopefully someone will have ideas.

1) should I bother with Toyota who will inspect everything and tell me everything is ok? There is also a Toyota Customer Experience Center toll free # to document issues like this and sometimes a recall results if enough people experience a similar issue.
2) is it possible to have Toyota disable cruise control only? I never use it and it would make me feel safer
3) any other thoughts or ideas?

Thank you in advance for any ideas or opinions and please realize that I am not bad mouthing my Prius or Toyota or Prius' in general. I simply don't want to experience that runaway acceleration again. It was unnerving.

Karen

 

I'm 59 years old. I drive with one foot. The rubber mats don't seem to engage with the hooks, but in the daylight tomorrow I will throughly investigate. Understood about the problem codes perhaps being cleared.
Thanks,
Karen

 

I didn't slam my foot on the brake as I assumed the car behind me (this is Long Island!) would crash into me if I stopped dead. However, if you are saying that by hitting the brakes hard, it knocks the car back into normal behavior but doesn't stop the car dead, then I will try this one out. I'll go to a deserted area and test this tomorrow. I understand that the issue is not with the Prius but can be any car and thanks for the tip about consumeraffairs.com.
Thanks,
Karen

 

Thanks so much for the comments about the cruise control. I'll stop thinking about that. Interesting that you experienced a surge yourself -- and I will hit the brakes (instead of slowing and riding the brakes). I will definitely remove and thoroughly inspect the mats to make sure they are not a problem.
Thanks,
Karen

 

I wasn't really startled and on one level, I felt entirely in control. But it was scary as I was afraid perhaps the car wouldn't turn off or something, but once I pulled over and could safely stop it was fine. As I said, I simply rode the break -- it wasn't for long. As I was entering a bridge I didn't want to stop on the bridge and cause a problem, so I exited as soon as I was off the bridge.

There's no debris -- I keep the car neat as a pin, but will check out the mats very closely tomorrow. I will go to the dealer tomorrow and have them check out the pedal just to make 100% sure and I feel better about the cruise control and understand now that it's not the issue. I got the Package #5 including the GPS system but not the DVD player so I don't think it's the base model. However, I don't use the cruise control - so no issue there. Long Island is stop and go where I live, which are perfect driving conditions for the Prius as we all know!.

Thanks again,
Karen

 

At the dealer tomorrow I will check out the car and especially the pedal. The mats I'll check out before I go, but I'm sure they will too.

Thanks again,
Karen

 

Hi Everyone,

The Huntington Toyota dealership in Long Island, kindly took me immediately yesterday, and they wrote down the issue as "Customer states that 1 week ago gas pedal stuck down - check". The response on the paperwork is "Could not verify complaint at this time found floor mat not on hooks and resecured mat". This was a no charge visit which was nice.

So the upshot is, nothing wrong with the gas pedal, and the rubber Prius mat was secured (I never saw that there was a way to secure the mat, so I learned something). Although I checked the mat immediately after this happened and the mat didn't seem close to the gas pedal, I agree anything could be true and now it's secured so I feel good.

I get my usual 6 month maintenance in June 2009 so I will report back if something else occurs but I'm confident this is the solution.

Again, thanks for listening and explaining so much.

I'm going for a drive on this beautiful 60 degree sun-shining Long Island day -- have a great weekend everyone.

Karen