seeing how our sn-197's are controlled by the electronic gas pedal will we have the same fate as
lowly toyota? now that we dont have the drive-by-wire and its all computerized what will be the outcome years down the road when we still have our beloved cars? anyone else concerned about this?

 

Well if the mustang is anything like my old Toyota (which it's not) or like my old Buick (which it's not) I would be worried! The gas never stuck on the Buick but nearly everything else eletricly speaking malfunctioned. The doors would lock and unlock themselves, the trunk would pop itself, the radio would change itself, and every once in a while white ominous smoke would rise from the steering wheel! Even if it does happen with the mustangs down the road there is a failsafe built into them that will turn the car off when it happens, the reason why Toyota is in such a problem now is because not only did their fly by wire fail but the failsafe did to.

 

nothing like that is going to happen to these cars. but ford was smart enough to think ahead and designe a fail safe system into their drive by wire system.

 

Mustangs are not immune to this problem. NHTSA has received a number of reports. I looked through the 2007 model year and found 12 reported incidents of unintended acceleration. You can look up the details of the reports here.

Edit: I found 5 incidents with 2008 cars, and six incidents with 2009 cars, along with a comment that the brake and gas pedals are too close together in another report.

 

Fly by wire is a classic example of fixing something that wasn't broken.

One of the reasons car manufacturers are going to the fly by wire throttle systems is they have better control over spark tables, better traction control and by tuning in slower transient responses you also decrease fuel consumption.

However, there was never anything wrong with the throttle cable.

Mustangs use it, the Powerstroke diesel has used it since 95, Corvettes and later model F-Bodies use it. Nearly every BMW uses it. Etc. etc.

It's not even a new technology. Originally adapted from the aerospace industry, military aircraft have been using fly by wire since the 70's.

 

No fear, I will just push in the clutch.

 

I also have no fear! Ive always wanted a cop to ask me if I was ok after getting pulled over at 160 mph. you should hear the crap they say now when I get pulled over at 90

 

I would have preferred a throttle cable with a position monitor tied to the PCM.

 

Runaway unintended acceleration in Toyota's in 2010 is the same as it was in Audi's in 1986, driver error.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...tion-tech_dept

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car...vers-editorial

If you are too stoopid to shift to neutral and apply the brakes, you shouldn't be on the road in the first place.

 

Actually, it was first used in the 50's. That is, until the Arrow was canceled.

 

I like the quote from the second article:

 

my gas pedal has stuck a few times only for a moment, untill I hit the brake pedal.

 

Exactly! All of these idiots not knowing to just depress the clutch if a manual, or just push the shifter in to neutral if auto.

 

Gas pedal cables and/or the throttle body springs has also been know to malfunction...nothing is foolproof.

 

Well I'm approaching a million miles and in all those years I had a throttle cable break once on a British ragtop. Carb springs took it to idle (and a piece of string allowed me to drive home LOL). In contrast, if my fancy shmancy Ford drive by wire throttle screws up, who knows whether it will default to idle or accelerate with 315 horses. And it will be a tow truck getting me home not balin' wire & duct tape.

Never had a manual throttle stick to wide open and turn into a runaway...

 

I had one stick wide open many years ago. I just shutting the key off and on untill I got home. It was pretty funny too

 

Nice to see some intelligent comments in here backed with fact. As a lover of both Ford and Toyota, some of the posts I've seen are merely childish gloating over an affliction that can affect any large company in any industry...corner cutting.

Although, I do feel like Toyota's troubles are very similar to what Tiger Woods is experiencing...they sold customers an image, a promise...and now it doesn't seem to be holding up. Personally I bought two Toyotas solely for the 5.7L motor, I could care less about the "safety" aspect of it

 

Don't you love how the press loves to bash Detroit for building all those huuuge trucks & SUV's.... when the fact is, they (and non Detroit Auto Companies) built them because people wanted them! I mean that Toyota truck is huge! (And a 5.7 ain't no fuel miser... )

 

couple comments-

I think another reason for servo on throttle is emissions is, ever notice how RPM hangs at lifting the pedal? it helps mimimize high vacuum situations that can increase oil consumption a tiny bit...closed throttle engine braking pulls peak vacuum- mine takes 6 seconds before engine braking fully kicks in, coasting down a long hill, you can hear/feel when the throttle finally shuts all the way...

on the neutral thing- some cars wont shift into neutral at high throttle to protect the drivetrain- read several toyota models had this 'safety'...many cars had similar safetys so like rou cant select reverse when rolling forward, etc...new autos dont have linkages, they have switches and solenoids run by a overseeing big brother...remember the airbus that went down at the farnborough airshow due to computer saying 'no' to the pilots full throttle input because it though te plane was going to land? too much tech can cause bureaucratic decisions in software that dont involve those it effects...like pilots or drivers...

the accelerator isnt 'sticking' per-se, but for some reason the throttle just opens up...why? who knows, but it shouldnt happen...sure sounds like failsafe didnt catch a failing sensor. there was a guy on the news last week(think he went to the govt hearings) that showed he could short out a wire and car runs away- shut it down, and scanned for codes- no errors in the PCM- thats BAD.

the pushbutton start cars dont have a key to turn off, and if moving forward have a safety to prevent accidentally shutting off- to override you would need to press/hold button for over 3 seconds...its documented in the owners manual somewhere, but finding the page with stuck throttle could be a issue...I believe NOW all toyota owners know this, but prior to the truth coming out, likely 2% of average folks actually read their manuals...

Sadly if a cop and his family didnt die while on the 911 call, this would still be a floormat issue- maybe undeserving of even the wire tie fix they decided on after that crash...up till those cars started running away too.

a 'throttle servo' to me sounds high tech...I work rebuilding CNC machinery, automating with Fanuc industrial robots, and to me a 'servo' typically weighs 50+ pounds, has ball bearings, sealed encoder, etc...I saw Fords cutaway at the cleveland auto show early '09, and there was a cutaway throttle servo- suprised at the 'cheep' look to it- looks like a old brushed DC motor from a kids toy, I was expecting a Aevox(model airplane three phase motor) looking 'servo' with hall effect sensors or something...nah, these 'servos' are pretty cheap- looks like a power window motor, but smaller...at least it appears Ford has not had the runaway issues of toyota...and from what Ive read they fault into limp mode pretty reliably if fault/mismatch occurs...heres a pic of the throttle servo on a 5.4 F150 cutaway:

 

Except my 80's carb vehicles did that - but with vacuum servos - not fly by wire computer stuff... it burns the rich fuel mixture at sudden throttle closure rather than letting it pump raw to the emissions sniffer. And it reduces the amount of vacuum pulling crankcase blowby like you said.
Doesn't really make the engine less polluting, its just a trick so the tailpipe reads cleaner for inspection. Like adding the air pump back in the 80's... didn't really reduce engine pollution but diluted the exhaust by the time it hit the sniffer. Smoke and mirrors to conform to gubmint regs.