My 2006 F-150 decided to take a trip on its own yesterday. I backed out of a parking space, placed my foot on the BRAKE; the car stopped. I put the truck in Drive and let my foot off of the brake to idle slowly across a lane of traffic in the parking lot.
Immediately, the truck revved up like it was trying to go 100 mph (before you ask, I am 100% certain I did NOT touch the accelerator). I stomped on the brakes which sponged down to the floorboard; the truck continued to move forward. I slammed the gearshift into Park; the truck continued to move forward with the back wheels fishtailing as they tried to move against the truck being in park and my having applied the brakes. After about 8--10 seconds, something let go and the revving stopped. I pulled to the side of the parking lot.
My truck is now at the local Ford dealer, who says they can find nothing wrong. I am terrified of driving this vehicle. I had my son in the truck, and I don't know how to handle this. This is a brand new vehicle and I can't even drive it without fear now. Thanks for any help

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just be extra cautious with your son in the truck. And next time turn the key OFF if it starts acting like it again. I'd have them reflash the truck and check the wiring coming off of the gas pedal. This is a throttle by wire system.

 

Man, that's got to be frightening! I know because it happened to me but for a different reason. I was returning from the grocery store and my daughter was holding onto (suposedly) a gallon of milk on the center console. I come to what is usually a busy intersection and the gallon drops to the floor and wedges between the gas and brake pedal Drove me directly across the intersection between crossing cars and over the other side until I got it loose. If there had been anyone at the stop sign I'd a hit and pushed him too. Talk about a freak occurance and luck given the possible outcomes.

****

 

When this happens shift into neutral. Use parking brake to stop vehicle. Pull up on the parking brake release handle so that you can modulate the pressure on the pedal. If you don'T it could lock the rear wheels and casue a skid. Shifting into park locks the back wheels and you loose steering control of the vehicle. Once the vehicle is stopped turn off the ignition. If you turn off the ignition before you are stopped you will lose power steering.

JMC

 

Good point about losing power steering.

 

Wow! If this was me and Ford couldn’t find a problem with the truck I would consider dumping it. Really, if you have kids in your truck its not worth the possibility of something going wrong. What would happen if one day you are dropping the kid off at school or daycare and you truck decided to do this again? You could potentially hit or run over other kids. I truly feel for you here, having a new ride that you cant trust has to suck. You bought a safe truck and its not turning out that way for you. I hope that they can find a fix for this. Isolated or not, if it were me, I would always be wondering when the next time the truck was going to act up. That added stress and safety issue would not be worth it too me, regardless of the price difference of a new ride. Good luck to you.

 

Put it like this...tell them you want the pcm reflash.....and all new wiring and sensors for the gas pedal, since theres no cable.....if they wont fix it I say go Dispute Settlement.

-Master

 

i would have to agree. you never know when it could happen again and maybe next time you will not be as lucky. who knows what would happen

 

That'll likely get you nowhere. It's your word against them, and they can't find anything wrong.

Throttle by wire is inherently safe. The algorhythms that control the system are quite complex so as to be fail-safe, not fail-open. Is it possible that you got a bad unit? Yes. But is it likely? No. There are a lot of systems that would all have to fail simultaneously in order for what happened to happen.

Now, that being said, I've seen mis-placed floor mats cause similar problems.

Should something like that ever happen, shift into neutral, use the service brakes to stop the truck, or emergency brake if necessary, and let the engine rev. You won't hurt it.

The whole story sounds fishy though.... this hasn't happened on a a vehicle since the Grand Cherokees started spontaneously running through garages back in the mid-80s.

-Joe

 

Electronics can be sensitive and funny things can happen to them.
At work, a cat haul truck destroyed the transmission and almost threw the operator through the windshield. What happened was the trans shifter from 6th to 1st. even if the operator had tried to do this the ECM's wouldn't let it happen. They later found out the truck was driving under High Tension power lines and an EMF prolly caused a glitch. New flash files and different wiring will help buts its impossible to alleviate every possibility.

 

Ford has had numerous occasions on later models where the TPS sent an signal to the PCM and created the vehicle to take off unexpectanly. So it is likely to happen but not sure on the newer models with the wire throttle. if the dont fix it, drive it through the front door and say it happened again, maybe themn will they believe you

 

GIJoe - The Grand Cherokee "launching" wasn't until the late 90's early 00's.

 

Can someone be a little more specific about the Grand Cherokee thing if possible? My wife regularly hauls around my 3 boys in her '94, 5.2L Limited. I've never heard of this and it makes me a little nervous, to be honest...
Anna, I understand your feelings, and wish I has an answer. I don't so you and yours will be in my prayers.

 

The Grand Cherokee would come out of park easily they would say, like without any pressure on the brake. I think it happened like 6 times out of the millions of ZJ's sold. And I think it was on the newer models, like 95 or newer, whenever they received their makeover. Basically they installed a device that made it harder to get out of park, I mean I really had to give it a tug when it was first installed. But now it has loosened up a bit, but it's still tough. Call your Jeep dealer I guess.

 

Expanding on that, I've had issues in the past with an older car that had the gas pedal hinged on the floor. The mat would slide up the pedal preventing it from being completely released. A couple years ago I almost drove through my garage when it slip up suddenly, and then less then a year ago the same thing happened, except I was on the freeway and I hit a patch of black ice at the same time. The car? Totaled. Make sure there isn't anything mechanically blocking or obstructing your pedals!