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Toyota Acceleration Problem Seen by Feds in August 2007

Automotive News is reporting this morning that in August 2007 federal safety investigators at NHTSA, the people in charge of motor vehicle recalls, saw electromagnetic interference cause a Toyota-built engine to rev up on its own. But they decided to do nothing about it.

"Federal investigators had just bought a 2007 Lexus ES 350 and were running it through a battery of tests at the government's Vehicle Research and Test Center in East Liberty, Ohio, when they noticed something funny with the electronic throttle control.

"The vehicle was rigged with monitors to root out possible causes of unwanted acceleration. The engineers, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, were testing yaw rate, speed, acceleration, brake pressure, brake pad temperature, throttle-plate position, gas-pedal position and the brake booster vacuum, among other things.

"And when they introduced magnetic fields in proximity to electronic controls for the throttle body and accelerator pedal, the engine mysteriously started revving by itself." Read more here.

The article is from within the auto industry itself and recites a lot of detail that convincingly explains that floor mats and gas pedal shims may not be the real fix for the problem at all, even though Toyota still insists it has found the problem.

Until federal safety investigators get finished going back over everything, including the things they missed years ago, Toyota owners can't be sure. They can only be careful.

If you've got a lemon Toyota, don't take a chance. Get a Burdge attorney and get rid of your lemon. It's what we do. Every day. Since 1978.

Burdge Law Office
Because life's too short to drive a car that won't stop.