Car Accelerates On Its Own problems of the 2004 Ford F-150

The contact owns a 2004 Ford F-150. On several occasions, when wearing insulated or heavy work boots, the shoe would inadvertently engage the accelerator pedal. He also experienced sudden acceleration when attempting to apply the brakes because the shoe was too big and would also depress the accelerator pedal. The contact stated that the brake and accelerator pedals were too close to one another. The vehicle was not inspected or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The current mileage was approximately 110,000. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000.

Consumer's vehicle experienced three instances of spontaneous acceleration. One time it happened while consumer was backing the vehicle out of the garage. Consumer turned the key off. Vehicle had a 4th acceleration episode while the vehicle was parked. The consumer saw the acceleration on the tachometer.

While parking a 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck I experienced an unintended acceleration incident. This occurred as I was engaging the brakes of the vehicle. As I applied pressure to the brake pedal, the engine revved up and the vehicle lurched forward. To stop the vehicle from accelerating I took my foot off the brake and let the vehicle stop on its own. I later told the owner (my uncle) about the event, and he immediately told me that he had a similar occurrence while backing up the vehicle. He told me what was happening was my foot was touching both the brake and accelerator pedals at the same time. I examined the distance between the brake and accelerator pedals and sure enough my foot would bridge the gap between the two, engaging both at the same time. The following day I had the same situation occur again, but this time I was able to get the vehicle to stop by moving my foot leftward on the brake pedal. A personal note about my experience with Ford full size pickups, I have been driving various models since the mid 1970's and have never had an unintentional acceleration occur. This particular model comes equipped with adjustable pedals that may play apart in the problem. But I think the size of the accelerator pedal may be the major contributing factor in causing this problem. I feel this is an ergonomics problem that will need to be addressed before someone gets killed or maimed. I have know doubt people would have been seriously harmed had they been within four feet of the front of the vehicle when this unintentional acceleration occurred.

Intermittently, the vehicle began to rapidly accelerate, the consumer had to turn off the ignition switch to stop the vehicle. The dealership kept the vehicle for 15 days, however they were unable to duplicate the problem.