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Did NHTSA know of Toyota woes back in 2004?

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/28/did-nhtsa-know-of-toyota-woes-back-in-2004/

From the "This story just keeps getting uglier" department comes a new bit of information concerning Toyota and its growing sticky pedal problem. The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Toyota and the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration were looking into the problem back in 2004, but an interesting twist led the investigation down a path that ultimately turned up nothing.

The Freep says that this early investigation was strictly limited to incidents of unintended acceleration lasting one second or less, which strikes us as odd considering prolonged periods unintended acceleration are a lot more dangerous than a blip of the throttle. And this is where the story gets a bit tricky. The Freep reports that a 2008 lawsuit stemming from an alleged unintended acceleration-related death of a woman driving a 2005 Camry says that the decision was made to limit the investigation right after a former NHTSA employee, Christopher Santucci, took a job with Toyota.

The lawsuit alleges that the new Toyota employee negotiated a deal with his former coworkers at NHTSA to limit the investigation of unintended acceleration claims to instances of one second or less. Santucci said in a deposition that the NHTSA investigation involved 2002 and 2003 Toyota Camry, Solaras and Lexus ES300 models. NHTSA had reportedly received 139 complaints in the 2004 investigation, but found no defects.

Now that Toyota has officially recalled millions of vehicles, the question remains whether these older models will eventually be recalled as well. The short answer is that we have no idea, but former NHTSA head Joan Claybrook feels that the government safety agency should have taken unintended acceleration claims more seriously in the past.

[source: Detroit Free Press | Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty]

Funny Comment = "the further you sweep defects under the rug the more issue you have with the rug catching the accelerator..."

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We have a 2009 Camry. I have to say, it kinda worries me.

If I had one, I wouldn't be so worried. If it sticks (doubtful until it gets some age an wear on it from what I've read :dunno:) just turn the ignition back one click to the off or acc position, and be aware that the power assist is no longer there for the steering or brakes, and get it to the side of the road. You could also just pop it into neutral and let the rev limiter do it's job, while you keep power steering.

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If I had one, I wouldn't be so worried. If it sticks (doubtful until it gets some age an wear on it from what I've read :dunno:) just turn the ignition back one click to the off or acc position, and be aware that the power assist is no longer there for the steering or brakes, and get it to the side of the road. You could also just pop it into neutral and let the rev limiter do it's job, while you keep power steering.

Better yet, realize whats going on, shift it into neutral and still have power steering and brakes. Sure the engine is going to sit there on the rev-limiter but that's okay until you can get the situation under control and turn the car off. Lack of power steering and brakes is bad in an emergency situation.

EDIT: Didn't read your last sentence there.

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Since I'm oretty sure all these vehicles are throttle by wire, I wonder how many other manufacturers used parts from the same supplier? I hear something about chinese full-sized Ford trucks being in question for this reason.

Sometimes I just want a carburetor sitting on top of V-8.... Oh wait, I have one sitting outside! :lol:

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Carbs are ghey. Go LSx or go home. :p

When I started to put this engine together the LS1 had only been out for about a year, and everything was super expensive for them. For what I have wrapped up in my 350, I could have a LSx swap now. I wasn't about to wait for the LSx to mature enough to be affordable. If I had it to do again now, I would most certainly go the LSx route..

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I'm just screwin' with ya. Carb'd V8s have their place. I'm just a fan of the preciseness offered by a good fuel injection system.

Which is why it will be getting EFI installed one day. I have many of the parts, electronics, etc... I just need to get the intake (to fit vortec style heads, planning on using the stealth ram) and fuel rails and pump.

I am thinking about a 350 or 4.3 for my jeep. The gnx motor was juat a flat out a bad idea in a offroad vehicle. 3 weeks to build, and about 1 hour to blow it up.

Wow! I would've figured a GNX motor would've lasted longer than that.

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