Public Safety Announcement.



So here is what happened. I was at a party yesterday, nice day, friends hanging out at the beach, we had a nice parking lot right on the beach so we were all showing off our cars. I of course was showing off the Trans Am GTA and the new carpet. Great day.....

But on the way home I gave the car a little goose on the last long road before my neighborhood just to hear the engine roar and feel the power.....and boy did it roar and take off....

The gas pedal got stuck and the car took off like crazy. I'm actually very good at reacting quickly to situations like this, especially when it comes to operating cars and boats. Most people would have panicked and crashed.

I applied the breaks which slowed the car down but not enough. I instantly put the car in neutral at which point the engine red-lined. At that point I knew the pedal got stuck somehow so I reached down with my hand and yanked it up and everything returned to normal. I carefully drove the car home which was only 1/2 mile away.

So what happened? I was showing off the new carpet and took the floor mat out a bunch of times so my first thought was I put the mat back in in a way that caused it to wedge the gas pedal somehow. But after thinking a minute I knew that couldn't be the case because when I yanked up on the pedal to free it, it made a click sound and had solid resistance, not like a floor mat would cause.

Once home I shut the car off, got down there to look at the pedal, I pressed it by hand and watch it. As it got to a certain point I watched it snap behind the damn plastic cover that goes up under the dash.

After the carpet job I put this panel back in and I guess it was out of place just enough to catch the gas pedal.

Very scary and thank god I was on a long road with no traffic. Had this happened in heavy traffic I may have slammed into the back of someone because when it happened the car took off and if there was a car within 100 feet of me I would have hit it. The entire ordeal lasted less than 3 seconds but it seemed like an eternity.

When removing and replacing the plastic panel under the driver side dash, be sure it goes in absolutely PERFECT! I'm going to cut the gas pedal notch bigger just for piece of mind should that panel shift without me knowing I want to make sure it doesn't catch the pedal ever again.

The knife shows where the pedal got caught. I'm going to cut it out where I marked it with the gold Sharpie.

 

Did the new carpet somehow change the geometry of the pedal? Scary, nonetheless.


I had this happen when a poorly machined SLP 1000 CFM throttle body hung open. After hitting the gas on my GTA, it was WOT and along for the ride... I returned it, buying an ACCEL to replace...

 

 

Nope....the pedal mechanism is bolted to the metal of the car. But the new carpet may have protruded higher up causing the panel to not seat just right. I looked closely at it and the notch in the panel is really to small and dangerous. Granted, if the panel is installed perfectly then it will not be an issue, but should that panel shift even slightly, it can pin the arm for the gas pedal.

Here is how it looks after I cut the notch bigger. This makes me feel much better. Before the pedal arm was actually touching the panel.

 

How did the pedal get caught under that? It doesn't look like it even comes close to it in the pic you just posted

 

That's the picture after he cut it bigger.

 

 

I realize that. However look at the pivot point of the rod vs the location of the section he cut. They appear to be nowhere near each other. I think this has more to do with the cover coming off the post, rather than the cover actually posing an issue installed properly

 

happened to me in my trans am back in 2013. showing the car off to a friend and it got stuck in WOT. ended up being that the hose clamp that clamps the air intake duct to the TPI throttlebody was positioned in a way that the throttle would bind up against the screw body of the hose clamp and get stuck

 

The above picture is after I cut it. The red line in the picture below shows where the panel used to be. The pedal arm got pinned behind where the arrow is pointing. The panel was shifted to the right.

It wasn't the actual pedal, it was the arm that got pinned behind the panel.

 

Oh yah been there. The day after the old man getting a preowned '12 CTS-V I of course go and take it out for my first goose. Gunning along the highway suddenly it's trying to kill me WOT. First drive, so I'm like "wtf is going on?!". Long story short the idiot salesman threw the winter mats over the summers so they slooowly nudged up over the gas pedal. Luckily it was night with less traffic and on a highway. Normal road Ida totaled me and someone else. ..i went and let the sales guy have it a week or so later. He's like 'how bout a caddy hat?'. I was pissed and said no on principle. ..in retrospect shoulda taken the hat

 

you can hit the gas all day long and not hear or feel any chevy thunder from the 2.8 in a camaro,you are completely safe and will never be at risk of speeding,doing burnouts or looking cool(just messing with you)i had an iron duke 4 cylinder/4 speed camaro and i loved it,then a 2.8 carbed camaro,then a 305/lg4 berlinetta(10 yrs as a daily driver) then a 5.7 tpi iroc and now a 305/5speed trans am.

 

What your supposed to do is throw it in neutral and turn off the car.

 

somebody is thinking....good call unless you are going 85 mph down the freeway,lol

 

Yes, but don't turn the key back far enough to lock the steering wheel.

 

No.... you throw it in neutral, come to a controlled stop, and then shut off the car. Never lose engine power if you don't have to. The engine is not going to be hurt on the rev limiter for a little bit.

Highly recommend against fiddling with the key switch while moving. Fine motor skills like that go to pot in emergencies.

 

Agree with QwkTrip. Leave the engine ON. Keep your P/S and P/B. Don't risk overshooting the key position in a panic and locking your steering column.