= Cars Stalling today leads to crashes and lawsuites =

[Username1]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep;
Chrysler invented power steering!

Chrysler Made Perfect power steering systems....

[egrand]

Originally Posted by Username1

Chrysler Made Perfect power steering systems....

Squirrel, I hate to tell you this, but Mopar used GM's Saginaw power steering units from the early 60's to the 80's. They were the same "canned ham" pumps that GM cars used. What might have been different were the boost pressures. Those units used different springs and shims in the valves to change the pressures. I'd have to look it up, but Mopar might have used higher pressures.

Originally Posted by tvtimeisfun

When my brother went to buy his first new truck the dealership told him that the rear bumper was not included with the truck his face turned beet red whenthey said that a bumper was an option so whats up with that

Yup, rear bumpers were an option on trucks. Used to be that factory bumpers weren't considered heavy duty for towing or farm use, and hitches weren't standardized so there were lots of different sizes and placements in the back depending on what you used. Often buyers would swap bumpers from the old truck to the new.

What it turned out to be was a way for dealers to put some extra nickels in their pockets by ordering all trucks without bumpers and selling them aftermarket. For some reason it seemed to be more common in the South, and usually the dealer had their name engraved into the bumper as a nice rolling advertisement that you paid for.

[Rusty34]

Originally Posted by egrand

Squirrel, I hate to tell you this, but Mopar used GM's Saginaw power steering units from the early 60's to the 80's. They were the same "canned ham" pumps that GM cars used. What might have been different were the boost pressures. Those units used different springs and shims in the valves to change the pressures. I'd have to look it up, but Mopar might have used higher pressures.

Chrysler made their own steering gear (Chrysler called them "chucks") but did use both Chrysler made pumps and GM Saginaw pumps during that time frame.

[Rusty34]

Toyota was doing a pretty good job of grabbing all the headlines a few years ago with reports of sudden unintended acceleration events pouring in. As GM is currently being blamed for their handling of the switch problem the Toyota PR department also initially tried to minimize their involvement by first blaming floormats and then by issuing gas pedal recalls but the problem reported by investigating engineers turned out to be somewhere else. The issue came to light after a Camry was found upside down in a pond with four fatalities inside and the cars floormats were inside the trunk. Toyota circuit boards are assembled with lead free solder which when exposed to certain environmental conditions would allow "tin whiskers" to grow and eventually form a bridge between solder joints. In some vehicles which involved fatalities it was the perfect storm sequence of events, if you will... circuits would short together and trick the ECU into signaling the drive by wire throttle to go full open. Shifting to neutral wasn't possible since the gear shift handle is no longer connected to the transmission with a mechanical linkage but the gearshift is now a switch which signals the ECU to command a shift via the motorized gear range selector. Attempting to switch to neutral wasn't working because it was connected to a runaway ECU.

A major clue here is the fact that every driver who survived an unintended acceleration event reported being unable to stop the car with the brakes. This might point to a corrupted ECU also interfering with the antilock brakes module which regulates brake pedal hydraulic pressure to each of the four wheels to prevent wheel lock-up. No matter how hard the driver stomped on the brake pedal the car kept accelerating.

There is another important point to keep in mind. Every car sold in this country regardless of horsepower is equipped with brakes powerful enough to bring it to a stop with a stuck wide open throttle. Consumer Reports recently tested this on several different makes and found it to be true. In addition they tested them with full throttle at 100mph and the brakes still stopped the car.

This might be something for hotrod builders and those who have old cars with 700hp crate engines installed to bear in mind, will they stop under these conditions?

Ford loyalists would also do well to remember the Ford ignition switches of the 70's and 80's which would overheat and start a fire. Major recall with many lawsuits over that one too.

Cars manufacturers all operate about the same. Depending upon the price range you end up having about the number of problems you paid for. All manufacturers occassionally build a great car but they always manage to screw it up by replacing it with the next model they hope you will trade for.

[maxhifi]

Originally Posted by Rusty34

Toyota was doing a pretty good job of grabbing all the headlines a few years ago with reports of sudden unintended acceleration events pouring in. As GM is currently being blamed for their handling of the switch problem the Toyota PR department also initially tried to minimize their involvement by first blaming floormats and then by issuing gas pedal recalls but the problem reported by investigating engineers turned out to be somewhere else. The issue came to light after a Camry was found upside down in a pond with four fatalities inside and the cars floormats were inside the trunk. Toyota circuit boards are assembled with lead free solder which when exposed to certain environmental conditions would allow "tin whiskers" to grow and eventually form a bridge between solder joints. In some vehicles which involved fatalities it was the perfect storm sequence of events, if you will... circuits would short together and trick the ECU into signaling the drive by wire throttle to go full open. Shifting to neutral wasn't possible since the gear shift handle is no longer connected to the transmission with a mechanical linkage but the gearshift is now a switch which signals the ECU to command a shift via the motorized gear range selector. Attempting to switch to neutral wasn't working because it was connected to a runaway ECU.

A major clue here is the fact that every driver who survived an unintended acceleration event reported being unable to stop the car with the brakes. This might point to a corrupted ECU also interfering with the antilock brakes module which regulates brake pedal hydraulic pressure to each of the four wheels to prevent wheel lock-up. No matter how hard the driver stomped on the brake pedal the car kept accelerating.

There is another important point to keep in mind. Every car sold in this country regardless of horsepower is equipped with brakes powerful enough to bring it to a stop with a stuck wide open throttle. Consumer Reports recently tested this on several different makes and found it to be true. In addition they tested them with full throttle at 100mph and the brakes still stopped the car.

This might be something for hotrod builders and those who have old cars with 700hp crate engines installed to bear in mind, will they stop under these conditions?

Ford loyalists would also do well to remember the Ford ignition switches of the 70's and 80's which would overheat and start a fire. Major recall with many lawsuits over that one too.

Cars manufacturers all operate about the same. Depending upon the price range you end up having about the number of problems you paid for. All manufacturers occassionally build a great car but they always manage to screw it up by replacing it with the next model they hope you will trade for.

Makes me consider installing some kind of manual "kill" switch. I never believed that the Toyota problem was a real problem until reading your above explanation, thank you for that.