Dangerous problem

[Satch]

Sitting at a red light, all of the sudden the engine revs to the max. bang into guy in front of me. had my foot on the brake and at a complete stop. anyone know what would cause this? thanks for any help. satch

[vt_maverick]

Sitting at a red light, all of the sudden the engine revs to the max. bang into guy in front of me. had my foot on the brake and at a complete stop. anyone know what would cause this? thanks for any help. satch

I've found that occasionally my shoe catches both pedals at the same time. The engine's stout enough that it will move the vehicle even if you have the brake to the floor, so that might be it. Been thinking about getting some higher grip pedals, maybe with a more narrow accelerator myself.

[circmand]

what was happening was the floor mat was sliding forward. At times it would go forward far enough to hit the accelerated and rev the engine. Almost got into a few accidents and paid some cash out before I figured out the problem. It also was a problem reported on click and clack auto show

[pbkid]

throw the VX into neutral at this point???

[Riff Raff]

I've found that occasionally my shoe catches both pedals at the same time. The engine's stout enough that it will move the vehicle even if you have the brake to the floor, so that might be it. Been thinking about getting some higher grip pedals, maybe with a more narrow accelerator myself.

VT MAVERVICK--- Bingo, you're a winner!!! That is the exact problem. The gas pedal and brake pedal on the VX are closer together than found on other cars. It's extremely easy to depress both pedals (gas & brake) at the same time if your not paying attention.

It happened to me only once to teach me a quick lesson. When I first got my VX from eBay and got in it for the very first time at the D.A.S. shipping terminal, I depressed what I thought was only the middle (brake) pedal, but my big foot also caught the edge of the gas pedal at the same time. The engine RPM's immediately raced up and the VX lerched forward (thankfully I was in an empty parking lot). It scared the ba-jesus out of me!!! I got out and examined the layout of the pedals and found them closer together than on other cars.

I've got very big feet and wear a size 12 shoe; so what's the cure??? For me, the cure is whenever I want to depress only the gas, I make a concerted effort to rest my right foot along the extreme edge of the transmission housing thereby missing the brake pedal. Whenever I want to depress only the brake pedal, I lift my right foot and "hover it" over to the extreme left, thereby completely missing the gas pedal. After a while, this "foot placement" practice becomes habit and now I do it even without thinking about it.

In addition, whenever I come to a Red-Light, I keep my foot on the brake and move the transmission lever to Neutral by pushing the lever forward without depressing the detent button. By not depressing the transmission detent button prevents the lever from accidentally going into Reverse (very important). Then when the light turns Green; with my foot still on the brake, I merely slide the lever down into Drive (again, without ever depressing the detent button). Then I move my big right foot over to the extreme right side next to the transmission hump and off I go.

[TheGanzman]

As a former go-kart racer, I'll tell you MY trick for driving ANY "2-pedal" (automatic transmission) vehicle - use TWO feet! Constant TOTAL control over the vehicle, MUCH quicker reaction time, and a scenario like this can NOT happen! Also, I drive barefoot as much as possible, and wear narrow shoes when I can't (I'm a size 12 also)...

Takes a couple weeks to "retrain" yourself - then I bet you NEVER go back!

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

As a former go-kart racer, I'll tell you MY trick for driving ANY "2-pedal" (automatic transmission) vehicle - use TWO feet! Constant TOTAL control over the vehicle, MUCH quicker reaction time, and a scenario like this can NOT happen! Also, I drive barefoot as much as possible, and wear narrow shoes when I can't (I'm a size 12 also)...

Takes a couple weeks to "retrain" yourself - then I bet you NEVER go back!

ditto, plus when I modded my pedals with MOMO ones...I "moved" the brake pedal pad further to the left away from accelerator...works great for me!

[crotchrocket]

GUYS,

i have to tell you your incorrect!!

I had this issue twice but not to the extent satch has. I threw mine into neutral expecting it to rev straight up to the limiter but it didnt. The minute i threw it in neutral the revs died back down. My initial thought was the throttle suddenly jamed open but as i said it died back down in neutral. Thankfully i didnt hit the car infront of me i jammed my foot harder on the brake and grabed the gear lever.

Soon as i put it back in gear it was fine.

it has done it twice now and it was just gentle the second time. No idea what it is though, i know the engine compensates when the fan comes on or the aircon kicks in and wonder if that was the sudden increase in revs?

I tend to put it in neutral when i stop now anyway and havent had the problem since.

it never reves without imput when its in nuetral so cant be anything to do with idle control valve etc so it must be an auxillary thats taxing the engine and the engine imediately tries to compensate by increasing the revs?

Anyone got any ideas??

[Robbomaz]

As a former go-kart racer, I'll tell you MY trick for driving ANY "2-pedal" (automatic transmission) vehicle - use TWO feet! Constant TOTAL control over the vehicle, MUCH quicker reaction time, and a scenario like this can NOT happen! Also, I drive barefoot as much as possible, and wear narrow shoes when I can't (I'm a size 12 also)...

Takes a couple weeks to "retrain" yourself - then I bet you NEVER go back!

Left foot braking an auto is awesome:bgwp:
Trying to train myself to do it in my play car at the race track - harder in a manual!

[SomeBeach]

I'm glad someone brought this problem to our attention. My son is learning to drive and he has size 12 shoes. I'm gonna make sure he is aware of where to put those big feet when braking. You may have saved me an accident.

[vt_maverick]

ditto, plus when I modded my pedals with MOMO ones...I "moved" the brake pedal pad further to the left away from accelerator...works great for me!

So how did you "move" it?

[Ldub]

So how did you "move" it?

By removing the stock rubber pads, which protrude from the edge by almost 3/16", & replacing with aftermarket, which are installed almost even with the edge of the pedal, you can effectively gain almost 3/8"...

It helps with my big clod-hoppers...

[BigSwede]

GUYS,

i have to tell you your incorrect!!

I had this issue twice but not to the extent satch has. I threw mine into neutral expecting it to rev straight up to the limiter but it didnt. The minute i threw it in neutral the revs died back down. My initial thought was the throttle suddenly jamed open but as i said it died back down in neutral. Thankfully i didnt hit the car infront of me i jammed my foot harder on the brake and grabed the gear lever.

Soon as i put it back in gear it was fine.

it has done it twice now and it was just gentle the second time. No idea what it is though, i know the engine compensates when the fan comes on or the aircon kicks in and wonder if that was the sudden increase in revs?

I tend to put it in neutral when i stop now anyway and havent had the problem since.

it never reves without imput when its in nuetral so cant be anything to do with idle control valve etc so it must be an auxillary thats taxing the engine and the engine imediately tries to compensate by increasing the revs?

Anyone got any ideas??

Hmmm, maybe a bad throttle position sensor?

[WormGod]

I had a shop mechanic drive my VX through toolboxes and the cinder-block wall in his bay last year because of something similar (I heard it happen but didn't see and the sound alone was painful). He tried to blame my brakes but the fact is, his big old work boots caught both pedals and the more he thought he was stomping the brake, the more gas he gave it.

Needless to say, I had the brakes looked at when she was in the body shop (their treat of course), and there were no brake issues. Still, almost $4k in damages.

[Riff Raff]

WORMGOD--- Damn, that's absolutely terrible to hear. I remember when I first took my newly purchased eBay VX into my local ISUZU authorized GM dealer for its initial mechanical evaluation. I specifically told the service write-up rep & the actual service technician to be extremely careful of the gas/brake pedal proximity, as I had just experienced the scary "double-foot" incident. It was a good thing I did, because they had never saw a VX before in their shop, and it's quite easily possible my VX could have suffered just as yours did.