That was driving around in town. Work, and running around. She'd go a month on a tank of fuel. :eek2:
On the highway..her car got about 40mpg. When we went to Ft. Worth, and back, it only used a little more than a quarter.

 

Buddy of mine says the same thing about his F-150 from way back in the day. It's a rust bucket but it still runs great and as much as he'd love to put it out to pasture it's just too good on fuel. He's hanging onto it for that reason because he has a Mustang and Expedition for his other vehicles. Neither come close to touching the fuel mileage that old rust bucket gets. Nobody believes my little S-10 can get 29 mpg when everyone I know struggles to get 23 out of it on the highway. I made a number of trips from VA-MS with it, about 850 miles one way. I would stop just south of Knoxville to fill it up, 425 miles down, 425 to go and only put in 14-16 gallons. I wasn't babying it to get that out of it either.

 

I've been suspecting that Toyota's problems have gone beyond mechanical since the beginning. The gas peddle and floor-mat fixes aren't getting the whole job done, and the "over-ride software" isn't exactly fool-proof either. But, having worked in electronics and electricity for years, I also know that finding something that's intermittent is like chasing a wild goose.

Years ago, it was a standing joke. "IF YOU WANT YOUR TV TO WORK ALL THE TIME, KEEP A TV REPAIRMAN IN YOUR LIVING ROOM." I have no idea how many times I went on a service call to fix a TV and could find nothing wrong. But, when I got back to the shop, the customer called and said it screwed up as soon as I left.

I remember that Mt Laurel Police had a radio in one of their cars that worked fine when one of the techs was there to work on it, but every time they put it into service, it didn't work. I spent more than 3 hours on it one day, taking out every circuit board and inspecting it with a magnifying glass. I found what looked like a hair-line crack in one of the foil strips on one board and flowed a little solder over it. It never went down again. But, today, with the "multi-layer boards" bonded together, you can not do that. You can not tell if one of the foil strips in the center boards is cracked or not. Your only choice is to replace the whole board. But, just a few degrees in temp can make the difference between working or not. Even duplicating the exact conditions of the failure does not mean you're going to see the problem.

The electronics simply is not reliable enough to be used as extensively as it is in our vehicles, especially when lives are at stake. And, there is another factor that I'll bet they are not even looking at.

Back in the 80's, one of the guys in the convoy... Umm... Gathering... had "BOOTS" on his CB. At one point, when a Smokey was passing us, every time he keyed his radio, Smokey slowed way down, and was far more intent on the instrument panel than he was on us. Every time he "un-keyed" his mic, Smokey sped back up. Now, put one of those Toyota's electronic gas peddles in that position. That extra radio emission, and all the spurious harmonics can do wonders for other electronic circuits within range.

One place where I worked, we removed the radio from the old utility truck and installed it in a new one. The next day, they were back. The complaint... Every time they keyed the radio, the truck engine died. The old truck was points and condenser. The new one was electronic ignition. The 90 watt ( business band, commercial ) radio killed the electronic ignition. (Yes, I did have the FCC license to work on them)

Now, put a Toyota (or any other vehicle with electronic throttle) into that environment. Any of you that have had your CB on any amount of time have heard the "cross-channel chatter". You have to be on the same channel to understand what's being said, but you can hear them key up on any channel across the CB band. It's possible for one of those "beefed up" CBs to do that.

When you go into a restaurant, look for the little sign on, or near, the door. "MICROWAVE IN USE". That's for those with PACEMAKERS. Back when I worked for Motorola C & E, we got a memo from Corporate that said we had to make absolutely certain that none of the radios we worked on had any spurious emissions. A radio that was not completely properly set up could kill a pedestrian on the sidewalk by killing his/her pacemaker.

Now, put one of those electronic throttles in that environment. I'll bet they aren't looking at that. In a dealer's shop, or in the lab, you don't have that kind of environment.

The "FLY-BY-WIRE" aircraft, like "AIRBUS", have more redundant back-up safety systems than the nuclear power plants. All for safety. But, in the air, they don't run into the "shade-tree CB shop" beef-up.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35690247/ns/business-autos/

 

Well, Toyota's fix hasn't quite worked like they thought on the pedal override they were installing. They did say last week that it may not work.........someone had a throttle stick a few days ago, rumor is that it was a Toyota mechanic testing a car out to see how the fix was working, scared the tar out of him when he realized it wasn't working and he was quickly gaining speed going down the road. The override finally worked and he got the car stopped but it wasn't like it was supposed to work. It was designed to instantly allow the driver to use the brakes to get the car stopped and disable the throttle at the same time, it took several minutes to finally override. Luckily the vehicle didn't have anything hard around it to hit or get into a worse situation before it worked.

 

C-J-P-O :rofl:
(Call Japan, Plans Obsolute...):thumbsup:

They'll have to have their noses rubbed in it to get them to admit they've got a more serious problem.

 

Read in the local paper this morning about a lady who was killed driving a Toyota that the throttle stuck on it. When paramedics got to her she was already gone but her feet were still firmly planted on the brake pedal, it was estimated she hit the tree still going at least 60.........

 

Oh man! It's almost like a movie, Mr. Ford. How sad.
I tell ya what....they better get a tight reign on themselves. Otherwise, they will have more law suits on them than...I dunno what. :hellno:

 

Yeah, and now... Think about that electronic throttle and the electronic injectors in that 18-wheeler you're driving...

 

Jack, this is a joke anymore of how sad it is to know Toyota turned a blind eye to the problem and allowed this crap to continue. It's not that the media is piling on it just seems that way with how many stories come out daily of a tradegy involving a Toyota throttle sticking. The media did play on GM and Nissan having a steering issue but that hasn't killed anyone and it's only been going on for year while GM investigated it to see what was going on. It also wasn't as big a deal in losing power steering vs a stuck throttle because you could at least get stopped.

 

Quote:

Your Email ID has been awarded £750, 000.00 in the British Toyota Promo. send your‏

From: BT Promo ([email protected])
Sent: Mon 3/08/10 5:14 PM
To: [email protected]

Names..
Address..
Tel..

Didn't take someone long to jump on this, did it?