Just read this story

A routine road trip became half an hour of horror for a Melbourne man this afternoon when his four-wheel-drive's cruise control malfunctioned on the Eastern Freeway. In a scene reminiscent of the blockbuster thriller Speed, the Ford Explorer's cruise control jammed on at 80km/h as attempted to take the Burke Road exit from Kew to Greensborough, in Melbourne's north-east, at 12.40pm. The 22-year-old called triple-0 to report his predicament and two police vehicles used lights and sirens to clear a path along Eastlink as the driver struggled to stop his vehicle.

rest of story here

what the f*** would you do?

my first thought would be to buckle up and go into a guard rail

or lean on a truck and have them brake

80kmh impact would really f*** up your day

Um, wait for a straight stretch off road, jam the f*** out of the brakes and turn the car off when u get down to like 50ks?

1)turn the f***ing car off and or put it in neutral.
2)dont be a noob

Get the vehicle driving straight then turn the key off.
Or use the handbrake gently.

Senior Constable Adam West said the man attempted to stop the four-wheel-drive by braking, knocking the four-wheel-drive out of gear or removing the keys - all to no avail.

In a last frantic attempt to stop the vehicle, the man jumped up and down on the brakes and pulled the handbrake, finally coming to a halt on the wrong side of the road, just over a railway line, at Frankston around 1.10pm.

??

rip the gear into reverse... sure to f*** your gearbox.. but would stop the car nontheless. LOL

my question is... he was on a freeway only doing 80km/h?

Seems like an odd type of accident, you'd think cruise control would have a lot of safety features built in for this type of incident...

didnt everyone see the footage of the lexus with the floor mat jammed under the accelerator trapping it down?

dude called the cops and was on the phone to them when he plowed into something and died.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f8b_1254173935

apparently there was a heap of similar incidents and toyota/lexus had to do a massive recall

i dunno much about ford explorers... but how can a faulty cruise control stop the brakes from working? especially the hand-brake?

but if that did happen to me... speed locked on 80kph & no brakes & no wy to disengage the transmittion... i'd point her at some cyclists n then bail out :D

ford explorers sure are rackin up a tally of fail

all i know is someone will get sued...

There was an episode of Lois and Clark like this. Luthor rigged Jimmy Olsen's convertible so his brakes wouldn't work and the car would keep the accelerator on, or something to that effect. He yelled and screamed for superman to come and rescue him. Superman did hear him, and flew over, and landed in the passenger seat, looked over at Jimmy like he was a noob, and turned the car off with the car keys.

I think this has to be the best quote from the article...

Desperately trying to avoid a crash, the driver crossed over the road into oncoming traffic

"hello my skyline's cruise control appears to have malfunctioned, it keeps on accelerating and decelerating rapidly"

heave the car left to right so you start doing fishtails all sick, then throw into an infinite donut spin


OR

in the case of mine, gas it up until something blows and kills the engine, shouldn't see past about 4,500rpm

turned the car off with the car keys.

dunno about ford explorers but my old man's honda odyssey has a lockout so you can't turn off the ignition or remove the keys unless the transmittion is disengaged. stupid i know but there ya go!

had an accellerator jam on on me once
shoved it in neutral
turned car off and braked
big deal


thermite you're a worry


and they're not called a ford exploder for nothing

last edited by hardware at 17:37:24 15/Dec/09

edit: damn you sppooook
beaten

edit x2: Wasn't there visuals to go with that audio spook? Or did I watch an re-enactment or some s***. Was on TV a while ago.

last edited by ctd at 17:41:31 15/Dec/09

If my cruise control locked on first thing I would do is make a post on QGL about it.

the answer is obvious:

1. pop the bonnet release
2. stick a clublock through the steering wheel and brace it against the dash/window to keep the wheel straight
3. open the door and climb onto the bonnet
4. shimmy down the bonnet and swing over to hang on to the front bumper
5. open the bonnet
6. climb into the engine bay
7. locate the fusebox
8. rip out the fuel pump fuse
9. wait for the fuel to cut out, bringing the car to a smooth halt
10. jump out of the engine bay and high 5 the police escort

last edited by orbitor at 18:07:58 15/Dec/09

This information actually makes me a little scared to use my cruise control. Esp. since it's not one made for the car.

Said driver must have been a complete noob, ford exploders are s*** but there is no way the brakes wouldn't have worked.

put the f***ing brake on?

There was a thread on here a while ago about turning ignition off. You lose almost all break power if you turn the ignition off don't you?

you still have 1 good pedal push left after turning keys off.

cruise control locks on - what would you do?

Usually it's about the time that I swerve up onto the pavement and take out the big line of Hare Krishnas.

GOURANGA!

You lose almost all break power if you turn the ignition off don't you?

If the engine has been on and you switch it off, there should be enough vacuum left within the booster to depress the pedal enough to bring you to a stop.
Even if not, it's not *too* difficult to apply enough pressure without power assisted brakes to bring a vehicle to a stop, not as quickly as with of course.

Have had accelerator lock with myself once.
Clutch + Ignition off, Neutral + Brake, crisis and newspaper story averted!

Explorer, it'll be auto so turn it off & let the torque converter take care of the rest.

edit: My cars get 2-3 pedal depressions before all boosting is gone if I turn the engine off.

last edited by whoop at 19:05:12 15/Dec/09

drive down to sydney for a surf and f***ing hope there was no traffic on the way

yeah, i wouldn't turn the car "off" just to "Acc" cause steering lock at 80kph is bad.

I'd just turn off the button that says "Cruise Control".

I would increase the cruise control speed

I can't wait till some nub has this happen down the remarks access road in their rental. Lets hope its a common exploder fault

I have a feeling the drive is a complete and utter noob that was doing something wrong.

On a related note of car noobs, was driving on the gateway 30 mins ago... there was an asian girl, lights off/blacked out, going 40km/hr, covering 2 lanes (2 right lanes out of 3, obvious she wasn't attemtping to pull over, just driving :S). WHAT THE f*** :S way to nearly cause a massive accident every 5 seconds you noob.

engage low range imo

teq you could always run the c*** off the road, wonder if your hilux would put the smack down on the exploder

If it can collect lots of coconuts, it can handle an Explorer.

of course it would, it's unbreakable

It's pretty funny he went all the way to Frankston on Eastlink. They could have just had him doing loops around Eastlink exits until he ran out of fuel if things were so bad. Eastlink is a monster with huge looping exits that you could probably take at 100km/h if you were desperate enough.

This happened with the old man driving about 10 years ago in a Rover 75 we hired to cruise the Great Ocean Road in. Basically went along the lines of: Coming up a hill with the cruise on, everything sweet... Hill levels out and soon after noticed we were doing about 140... Tap the brakes and speed keeps going... Jam the brakes, takes it to about 90, speed keeps going up.... Dropped it to neutral, and slowly stopped to the side of the road (brakes were almost cooked at this point, at least going to neutral kept the power steering/brakes going) with the engine bouncing off the limiter.

We popped the bonnet and saw the solenoid which moves the throttle for the cruise had gone all the way to full noise (to go up the hill in 5th) then popped out of its housing and jammed. We pushed it back in and everything was fine for the drive home, needless to say we left the cruise disabled.

Was pretty scary at the time and if we were anywhere other than a straight country road with no traffic it could have ended in a serious accident. We told Avis and Rover after we took the car back but I've got no idea if anything was done about it.

I'm a little skeptical about his story of why he couldn't stop. I don't use Cruise Control ever so this would never happen but f*** you'd assume smashing the brakes and or the hand brake would stop you. Why he went onto incoming traffic I don't know.

The only thing I could think of would be the obvious -

First, brakes to slow (probably instant reflex styles) ...

TURN IT OFF?!!?

I guess some cars would have a "Lock out feature" just as most cars do to stop you from going into reverse in an auto.

If it didn't turn off, obvious would be neutral.. f*** the engine.. your life and others is way more important.

Other than all the obvious, I guess i'd probably just hold on for the ride.

Brake, Turn off, neutral, handbrake, crash into river!! yeee!

I bought myself a vl berlina, less than 100,000kms on it... been hiding it away, took it for a drive the other day and the accelerator got stuck on full bawl lol, kinda freaked me for a second.. push it harder, then it released.. otherwise would have moved my foot above pedal and pulled it back!

Reminds me almost of those "Darwin Awards" - That dude who had a campervan etc put cruise control on and went out the back to make a coffee... (need to say more?) he sued, got like millions and millions.. all because it didnt say you had to still drive!

i remember a thing about audi in the US in the 80's where a 60mins (biggest baloney show i've ever watched) show 'revealed' these automatic audi 5000's have sudden unintended accelleration, that even when in park they'd lurch forward and kill people, somehow, no matter how hard the driver had their foot on the brake. Because Audi knew this was utter BS, they took a 5000 and did repeated stops from 100kmh with both feet fully planted on respective pedals and the car came to a stop in almost the same time as just using the brake pedal. The brake will always win, you can't drive a locked wheel, simple as that.

I bet if old man river in the exploder had just slipped it into N (or even P!!!), killed the motor and jammed the foot and hand brakes on, he'd be right.

Handbrake is an isolated, solely mechanical system that has nothing to do with the cruise so if nothing else this woulda stopped him up pretty well.

i would drive the vehicle through construction barriers onto a partially completed piece of elevated highway.

i would drive the vehicle through construction barriers onto a partially completed piece of elevated highway.

hahaha "i think it was called, the bus that couldn't slow down"

i would put it netural if that didnt work then turn off the engine if that didnt work slowly handbreak with break... if that didnt work call 000

You don't lose braking force when you turn the motor off. What you lose is the vacuum assist. You can still stop the car just as fast with the engine off, you just have to press harder.

Also, this story is bulls***. What car doesn't let you engage neutral on the move?

cruise control locks on - what would you do?

Did anyone else read the subject with this in their head?

"Pop quiz hot shot, cruise control locks on - what do you do?.....WHAT DO YOU DO!"

THERE ARE MANY THINGS STONGER THAN AN EXPLODER MOTOR, MAINLY:
http://i13.ebayimg.com/05/i/001/3e/9b/af1a_12.JPG

last edited by hardware at 22:28:09 15/Dec/09

Reminds me almost of those "Darwin Awards" - That dude who had a campervan etc put cruise control on and went out the back to make a coffee... (need to say more?) he sued, got like millions and millions.. all because it didnt say you had to still drive!

That story is an urban legend.

See - http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp

TURN IT OFF?!!?

Pretty sure brakes don't work when you turn your car off?

Didn't someone die recently from that exact scenario?

I'm pretty sure you're wrong

Like it has been said before, you just lose vacuum assist, you can still brake. I have had the master cylinder leak brake fluid out and still stopped using what little of the brakes was left + handbrake.

Didn't someone die recently from that exact scenario?

No, that idiot shut off the engine and locked the steering.

Did anyone else read the subject with this in their head?

"Pop quiz hot shot, cruise control locks on - what do you do?.....WHAT DO YOU DO!"

Yep, except I read it as "pop quiz a******"

Pretty sure brakes don't work when you turn your car off?

Didn't someone die recently from that exact scenario?

I've driven cars that have been towed via a rope with no engine meaning no power steering and no power brakes but I can say with 100% certainty that on the cars I've done this on the brakes still work just fine, they're just harder to push.

As for turning the car "off" well on the modern cars I've driven turning it "off" doesn't lock the steering unless you pull out the key as far as I can remember, my HZ locks the wheel as soon as you hit "off" and "acc" is no help because it's back after "off" so it's locked in "acc" as well, the only place it isn't locked is in "on" so I pray the throttle never sticks in that o_0

last edited by whoop at 23:01:49 15/Dec/09

http://www.barryboys.co.uk/photos2/Caps_Lock2.JPG

Speaking of strong things


RB's are the strong s*** :D

Did anyone even listen to his interview with some radio guy. The cruise control was set to 100 and it got to 80 after jamming on the breaks. That stopped working for whatever reason. He said he tried turning it off + take it to neutral and both didnt work. It did sound like he tried everything that is mentioned in this thread. And as for turning into oncoming traffic he said that happened because he ran out of road (caught up to traffic) and had to do something before he smashed into cars up ahead.

Meh from his accounts it sounds like he did everything he could have.

CSIRAC, it does sound like he did everything he could have. But to have ALL measures fail on him? I don't think so. What car doesn't let you shift into neutral? IIRC the exploders have mechanical shifter linkages so it's not an electrical thing. What car doesn't let you turn it off whenever you like? What car has a motor that's stronger than brakes? None that should be on the road. What car has a handbrake that isn't stronger than cruise control? None. So i'd so, so highly doubt 5 things would simultaneously fail on only a 7 year old car.

Were you his passenger MRHardware?

you don't know much about cars hardware

What car has a motor that's stronger than brakes?

anything that doesn't run on LPG

What car has a handbrake that isn't stronger than cruise control?

handbrake only works on your rear wheels, so 99% of them

brake fade = no more brakes until they're cool

I still think he's a knob, theres 11ty ways to stop a car

a handbrake is still stronger than full accelleration even in a front wheel drive car

i tried it once, line lockies in a fwd anyone?

Have had accelerator lock with myself once.
Clutch + Ignition off, Neutral + Brake, crisis and newspaper story averted!

Me too, only happened one time but scary as hell.
Pretty much the steps described saved the day though.

From the article the dude called Ford service while hurtling down the highway? Seriously, a Ford service line? Not much they'll likely do except put you on hold and wait to inspect the burnt wreckage, Fight Club style.

1)turn the f***ing car off

loose power steering and brakes... well done, your dead

try engaging your hand brake at 100km/hr one day mr lpg
it won't do the same thing as when you're doing 30km/hr

i think believing you on this one is a far better option than trying it myself

Trade it in for an E350

@Jimbo; already discussed you don't "lose" them, you lose the assistance of the motor
brakes still works, steering just feels like you're back in your 1980s commodore

F350

driver cracks tanty, "you werent there"

hahah

"I just shut my eyes. I could hear the tyres skidding on the road for what seemed like forever. I thought I was dead.

"When I opened my eyes, I was bonnet to bonnet with the car in front of me."

lol what a nub

driver cracks tanty, "you werent there"

ugh

did anyone read that and picture the driver as anything other than a mincing fairy nancy-boy?

Mr Weir has one message for the knockers: "You weren't in the car.''

The knockers?!!?! Does he own the Anna Bligh Phrasebook?

lol, thermite.^

haha what an asshat