Cruise Control problems of the 2003 Audi A4

While driving my 2003 Audi A4 on the mass pike freeway into boson, as I approached a toll booth, I tapped the break to disengage the cruise control. The car slowed down so that I passed through the toll both at approximately 18 mph. After passing through the toll booth, I again started to accelerate, but once touching the gas pedal, it seemed to go down on its own, and the car accelerated, not under my control. I immediately stepped on the brakes to slow the acceleration, but as soon as I took my foot off the brakes, the car continued to accelerate to about 60 mph, at which point I applied the breaks again. Luckily, traffic was minimal, and I was able to keep constant pressure on the brake pedal to keep the car speed down, and avoid other vehicles while the brakes and accelerator worked against each other. Initially, there was nowhere to pull the car off the road, but then as I approached a small pullout, I moved the car into the outside lane and turned off the engine. I thought maybe the cruise control had malfunctioned, and by turning off the car, it would be reset. So after setting several minutes, with the car in park, I tried starting the car. The engine immediately revved up to full speed, so I again turned the car off. After setting another 10 minutes, I tried starting the car again, and it started normally. I was able to drive the car home without experiencing any additional acceleration issues. Audi looked at the car and determined it was a faulty brake switch that prevented the cruise control from disengaging. However, the cruise control was not active when the uncontrolled acceleration occurred, and their own mechanic said the faulty switch would not explain the full throttle engine start after shutting off the engine. They said they replaced the brake switch but will take no further action. Based on the Audi mechanics comments, I do not feel the issue has been resolved.

My 2003 Audi A4 on two different occasions has started to accelerate to high speeds on it's own. The first time it happened I was pulling out and I pushed the gas and it just started to pick up speed I pulled over and then tried to pull out again and it started again to pick up speed I noticed the cruise control was on and so I turned it off and then it was fine. The second time I was pulling out and pushed the gas to speed up and again it started to accelerate very fast and so I pulled over again and thought I must of hit it into speed control again, but this time with cruise control off it still continued to accelerate and it was harder to get the car to stop I had to push the brake pedal really hard and I thought it wasn't going to stop. Then when I did get it to a complete stop I put the car in park and the engine continued to rev, as if I were pushing the gas pedal. This could have easily resulted in a crash. If it were in the winter months I would have crashed, and I had my one year old boy with me this was very frightening for both of us.

As I was driving on the highway and accelerated to about 65 mph, the gas pedal would lift slightly away from my foot (like I just turned on cruise control, but I had not touched the cruise at all) and when I lifted my foot completely away from the pedal, it would stay steady at 65 mph. I braked to slow the car down, and the car would slow as long as my foot was on the brake, but once I let off the brake, the car would maintain the lowered speed. This happened several times and I felt that I had little control over the acceleration/deceleration of the car. At one point, I slowed the car down completely to a stop and had my foot on the brake, the car was still in drive and though my foot was on the brake, the rpm's were still around 2000. I immediately put the car into park and the tach revved up to between 4500 - 5000 rpm, as if the gas had been pushed. I tapped my foot on the gas a few times lightly and the gas pedal seemed to come unstuck and the car went back to idle rpm's (<1000). I turned the car off and pumped the gas pedal a few times, then cautiously drove home.

On July 2, 2005, at approximately 11:00 a. M. , I was driving with my two children (ages 7 and 9) north on interstate 5 near lajolla, CA. I was traveling at approximately 70-75 miles per hour. Suddenly, my car began to accelerate. Thinking that the cruise control had engaged, I stepped on the brake to disengage it. Although my car slowed a small amount, the engine continued to rev higher. I then took my foot off the brake (fearing that my brakes would wear out and were not very effective in any event), and the car acclerated again. I succeeded in moving toward the shoulder, put the car in neutral, and applied the brake. While this succeeded in stopping the car, the engine continued to rev up as I was stopped in the emergency lane. With my left foot on the brake, I used my right foot to step on the accelerator in an effort to disengage it. After approximately a minute, the accelerator disengaged, and the engine rev'd down. After the incident, I drove the car home at a significantly slower speed, and the problem did not recur. On Tuesday, July 5, I called miramar Audi and reported the problem to ben boswell. He asked me when and where the incident took place, and whether there was any construction in the area. He explained that Audi north America had instructed him to ask this question, because they had received other complaints of Audi A4s with the same problem. (there was no construction). He also told me that he had 4 or 5 A4s in the shop with the same complaint. My car was at miramar Audi from July 5 until July 13. On Monday, July 11, mr. Boswell told me that they had run a computer diagnostic on my car, and could not find any problem. He also told me that he had had extensive communications with Audi north America, and that he had been told to release the car to me. After several contacts with Audi north America (which I can provide in detail), I was told that the problem was most likely caused by my floormat being out of position.