Toyota's runaway-car worries may not stop at floor mats-LA TIMES

It's more than just the floor mats. I mentioned this months ago & the Toyota cultists jumped down my throat.

I love Toyota. I think they make the best overall cars on the road. But there are a ton of ppl on this site who are simply perpetual apologists for them & act like they can do no wrong.

 

speculations != facts and data

Bob Wilson

 

I saw someone remark they hope the pedal maker goes bankrupt--wasn't the pedal maker just producing pedals to Toyota's specs?

 

Toyota like all other automakers goes to a sub contractor like CTS, Denso, Aisan and countless others and gives them a set of specifications. These specifications include things like size, type of connector, amount of resistance and dimensions. After that it is up to the supplier to use their expertise, patents and engineering staff to meet those specifications. That is why a Denso manufactured pedal is so different than the CTS made pedal. The external specifications are the same but the interior engineering is completely different.

 

Has anyone been able to get there Gen III into neutral while driving by puting the shift level to neutral position, location? Some say to put it in park position and it will go into neutral. I am a little concerned about doing that.

Barn

 

To shift to neutral, hold the shifter across to the left (left-hand-drive cars; to the right on right-hand-drive cars) for half a second. Just keep holding it there until it shifts. A second is longer than most people think it is, particularly when waiting for some action to occur.

The delay is there because the stick has to go through the N position to get to R or D; the car ssumes that you're going to select R or D so doesn't do anything until you've left the stick at N for a while.

The fact that pressing the P button or shifting to R at speed shifts to neutral is to protect the transmission. It's not an intentional fast way to switch the neutral. I'd still recommend using N rather than shifting to a different position.