Turning the X5 off in an Emergency

[ABMW]

Originally Posted by motordavid

Good advice I suppose, but from my memory, no one has reported a stuck gas pedal or, unintended acceleration on this,
or any BMW oriented board.

Imo, people ought to practice hard, hard controlled braking, and avoidance steering. Flying floor mats, faulty accelerator
linkages and drive by wire, seem to be all consuming, these days.

Maybe we have all become overly cautious in our approach to living.

MD and you know this how,

You're logically going to get me from point A to point B and tell me that this is not an appropriate subject? That's absurd.

We have no idea if any BMW pedals have stuck, especially if there was a fatality. Who would be left to report?

You're factually misrepresenting the fact that multiple people have died, due to faulty accelerators, and drive by wire. Sure the number is small, but so to is the number of individuals killed in plane crashes per year.

Should we stop caring about those as well?

It's not that we've become too cautious in life, it's that life has become very advanced, with technology increases far faster than some of us can keep up with.

For example 5 years ago, most cars came with ignitions that required a turn of a key, and direct throttle linkage between the pedal and throttle through direct mechanical means.

The average individual buying a replacement vehicle today, will be newly introduced to technologies that were only available on luxury cars a few years ago, such as drive-by-wire technology, and push to start/push to stop ignitions.

There is a need for awareness and not everyone is mechanically inclined or all knowing when it comes to what seem obvious to you: remaining calm and shifting into neutral.

There's no one here in this thread, and certainly no one at Toyota overreacting. There is a design flaw, which is factually known. Your thread assumes an air of arrogance, in suggesting that life is not precious and that those who have perished because they didn't know how to turn their car off in an emergency (which requires 3-seconds of holding the start/stop button down) were subpar, and of below average in terms of their responsibility levels to be drivers of cars in the first place.

MD, a modern lexus, almost every model, save for the SUVS accelerates from 0 to 100 in about 14-seconds on average. Assume one is driving along, at 60 mph, floors it to pass a semi-truck, and all of the sudden the throttle is stuck wide open.

By the time one was aware of a real issue, 2 to 3 seconds later, (the average time it takes for the secret service to respond to an attack on a dignitary during a simulated and real assassination attempt) one would be traveling at 80 mph. 5 seconds after that they'd be traveling over 100 mph, smoothly accelerating up to 120 mph.

Tell me, when in those few seconds is the "average" driver, with kids in the background, or a screaming wife by his side, going to realize to press and hold the ignition switch in for 3-seconds, when he's NEVER done so in the past? I repeat, when he's NEVER done so in the past.

The point is, it's prudent to be safe, prepared, and to spread the word.

Your statement, quite honestly, should be self-deleted.

Your insinuation that because it hasn't happened to a BMW, it can't is nonsensical at best. A modern jet liner the size of the Airbus A300 had never been lost over the Atlantic, but just a few months ago one was, with no communication from the crew, despite safeguards with some systems having up to 5-backup systems.

Machinery and specifically programmed or calibrated electronics can, do, and will fail. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

I think your thread is irresponsible and should be removed, out of common decency, if for nothing else, than to honor those who have passed away due to the very defects we're speaking of in this thread(some very recently, hence the massive suspension of production, and the halt of all sales by dealers) mandated by Toyota itself.

Failures will always take place, it's to be expected, and one product can ever be made to by humans that will have zero tolerance of failure, it can probably be safe to say.

But that is not the case here. There is a known, widespread engineering defect, that can be fixed, and lives can be saved. So, the right thing would have been to fix the problem when it first became known. The absolute right thing to do, is to now fix the problem after several years of publicity.

I highly recommend you practice the above, failure to do so, flies in the face of your complaint about this thread, in that drives must practice more.

So tell me MD, when was the last time you practiced shutting your vehicle down during evasive driving at 80 mph.? Never? That's what I thought.

[spacegraye70]

im confident that our x5 will never have the same throttle stick issue as the poo lexus. if u look at the pedal design on bimmers it seems impossible for it to get stuck, unless u stick a pole there and leverage it against the seat.

[ABMW]

SpaceGraye,

It's not the pedal actually become stuck in some situations, its the electronic servo that is malfunctioning on some vehicles. It is not connected directly to the pedal.

The issue is not revolving around the pedal actually become stuck, but an electrical malfunction in some instances.

In the case of lexus, some gas pedals have actually moved downward on their own, due to the manner by which artificial resistance is communicated back to the driver.

[bigx5er]

Read Car and Driver this month. They just did an article on this.

Number 1 advice is to use your brakes. They will stop the car. They did tests for that. They do not recommend turning the car off until it is stopped since it can impact brakes and other things.

Note that Toyota has a flaw in their drive by wire implementation. Most companies will kill the throttle when the brakes are applied. Toyota did not do that. Car and Driver discussed this also, most every other manufacturer does cut the throttle, I'm guessing BMW does.

[ABMW]

No BMWs do not kill their throttle when the brakes are applied.

[bigx5er]

Yes they do.

Smart Gas Pedals May Solve Floor-Mat Problem - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

[motordavid]

Hey, ABMW...
Where did your arm wrestle inducing post to me, go?!

I was going to respond, after a lil' grilled salmon and a
couple of glasses of '85 Zind Humbrecht Alsace Riesling...

Yes, I have turned off the key, while in motion, on several
of my cars and motorcycles I have driven over the past
46+ years.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by bigx5er

Yes they do.

Smart Gas Pedals May Solve Floor-Mat Problem - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

So it would appear the short answer to this thread, at least for newer BMW models, is to simply put your foot on the brake.

[London Lad]

Originally Posted by ABMW

SpaceGraye,

It's not the pedal actually become stuck in some situations, its the electronic servo that is malfunctioning on some vehicles. It is not connected directly to the pedal.

The issue is not revolving around the pedal actually become stuck, but an electrical malfunction in some instances.

In the case of lexus, some gas pedals have actually moved downward on their own, due to the manner by which artificial resistance is communicated back to the driver.

Please tell us more ? I thought it was a spring.

My Audi reduces throttle if you apply the brakes BTW, but its an automated manual rather than an auto.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by motordavid

Yes, I have turned off the key, while in motion, on several of my cars and motorcycles

Yeah, I can't see it as being much of an issue on Motorcycles, since every bike I have ever owned or ridden has had an engine kill switch near the thumb. I even used it once in my teenage years to shut the engine off, after dumping the bike on a rainy night on a dirt detour on Highway 30 in Nebraska.

When the battery got old and a bit weak on my BMW R1100GS, I had to frequently switch the ignition switch off after I got moving, and turn it back on while still rolling, to get the ABS to reset and work. Switching to an Odyssey AGM battery from BMW OE fixed that problem.

I think for a few years around 2003 or thereabouts, some BMW models had "wizzy" power assisted brakes which took a LOT more effort to use if the engine was off.