Gas pedal went to the floor on its own!

[AZ-Yukon]

My wife was driving our 09 Tahoe LTZ (5.3L) on the highway a couple weeks ago. She went to pass somebody and pushed the gas pedal ~1/2 the way to the floor. It proceeded to pull away from her foot and go all the way to the floor on its own. She stepped on the gas pedal a couple times in an attempt to get it to come back up to no avail. She stood on the breaks, which kept her from accelerating any further but would not stop the engine from revving full bore. Quickly approaching traffic that was now backing up, she threw it in neutral and pulled over in the break down lane. The engine eventually stopped revving but she didn't know if it was from putting it in neutral or if it just did it on its own. She called me and I had her turn the engine off and turn it back on. Everything seemed fine as it did prior to the incident. There were no warning lights illuminated. She proceeded to exit the highway and drive very slowly and cautiously to her destination. I called Chevrolet directly and they set up an appointment at a local dealer. I took it in and they couldn’t find anything wrong. There were no error codes. The dealer noted that I had an aftermarket floor mat and blamed the incident on it. I figured there was no sense in arguing the point with somebody that could convince themselves that a floor mat could somehow pull the gas pedal to the floor. Regardless, I removed the floor mat.

My wife did some research online and found a similar incident somebody had with a 2010 Tahoe a couple years ago. They did have an error code. It identified a faulty accelerator position sensor. I could just replace this on mine but I don't want to do that to only have a false sense of security that the problem is resolved. Thoughts??

 

[Regency]

Scary but a floor mat could definitely have caused that.

http://blog.nwautos.com/2010/02/wha...ft_into_neutral_gear_and_coast_to_a_stop.html

 

[GM Customer Service]

My wife was driving our 09 Tahoe LTZ (5.3L) on the highway a couple weeks ago. She went to pass somebody and pushed the gas pedal ~1/2 the way to the floor. It proceeded to pull away from her foot and go all the way to the floor on its own. She stepped on the gas pedal a couple times in an attempt to get it to come back up to no avail. She stood on the breaks, which kept her from accelerating any further but would not stop the engine from revving full bore. Quickly approaching traffic that was now backing up, she threw it in neutral and pulled over in the break down lane. The engine eventually stopped revving but she didn't know if it was from putting it in neutral or if it just did it on its own. She called me and I had her turn the engine off and turn it back on. Everything seemed fine as it did prior to the incident. There were no warning lights illuminated. She proceeded to exit the highway and drive very slowly and cautiously to her destination. I called Chevrolet directly and they set up an appointment at a local dealer. I took it in and they couldn’t find anything wrong. There were no error codes. The dealer noted that I had an aftermarket floor mat and blamed the incident on it. I figured there was no sense in arguing the point with somebody that could convince themselves that a floor mat could somehow pull the gas pedal to the floor. Regardless, I removed the floor mat.

My wife did some research online and found a similar incident somebody had with a 2010 Tahoe a couple years ago. They did have an error code. It identified a faulty accelerator position sensor. I could just replace this on mine but I don't want to do that to only have a false sense of security that the problem is resolved. Thoughts??

Hello AZ-Yukon,

I am sorry to hear that your wife felt scare about the incident that occurred. I am interested in your concern and your visit with the dealer. Could you private message me the details?

Best regards,

Jennifer T.
GM Customer Care

 

[Gzes]

Wow glad finally someone had brains to put in neutral happy she didn't have an accident. I've seen floor mars cause those problems but yea a trip to the dealer could fix it. Could be with the cruise control since the cruise adjusts the gas pedal

 

[strokinpower]

Yea it's easy to sit here and say " I would have put it in neutral" but when you're in that situation it's a whole different story. I don't know if my wife would have done that or plowed over whatever was in front of her.

 

[TheFuzz]

Yea it's easy to sit here and say " I would have put it in neutral" but when you're in that situation it's a whole different story. I don't know if my wife would have done that or plowed over whatever was in front of her.

Same here...my wife is as smart as they come, but who the hell knows how any of us would react in the same situation. Scary, to say the least.

Glad nobody was hurt. I'm betting on the floor mat too. Sounds crazy but it can definitely happen - even if she stomped on the pedal for just a second to get around the vehicle she wanted to pass, that may have been enough for it to catch the pedal. That being said, a bad APPS doesn't sound out of the realm of possibility.

 

[AZ-Yukon]

Scary but a floor mat could definitely have caused that.

http://blog.nwautos.com/2010/02/wha...ft_into_neutral_gear_and_coast_to_a_stop.html

I highly doubt it was the floor mat. I would post pictures of the gas pedal relative to the floor mat if I had that level of access on this website for all to see. For the floor mat to be the cause, one would have to push the pedal to the floor (not half way) then somehow shift the floor mat over so it would sit on top of the gas pedal. There are no mechanical linkages behind the pedal for anything to get hung up on. The floor mat would actually have to get over the top of the pedal. I took a very close look at it myself to see if there was anyway for it to happen. I couldn't reason it as a possibility. Besides, my wife clearly noted that the pedal left her foot as it went to the floor. Could she be mistaken....? It's possible. But if she distinctly remembered it happening, I tend to believe her.

The first thing I asked her about when she called me was to check if the cruise control was on. She said it wasn't. She hates cruise control and never uses it. Besides, cruise control will turn off when you hit the breaks. I figured there was a possibility that wires could be frayed in the steering column so I verified the breaks would disengage cruise control. I verified it by turning cruise on, holding the accel button down, then hitting the break. Cruise shut off immediately.

 

[Big Buttons]

What about TPS sensor? Since it is drive by wire...

 

[Blazed]

My OEM floor mat decided to hold on to my pedal one day while passing I stomped mine and luckily it came back up. I went home and noticed that when I pushed the pedal all the way down every time I let go it popped the mat moved it and its never occurred again