general problems of the 2001 Toyota Celica

I purchased a brand new Toyota Celica in 2001. In 2006 it began sounding strange when accelerating and also when I would back up and use the brakes. It would make a very strange sound and the brakes would not work the same as they used to. I reported this to mechanics at Toyota but they said the car was fine mechanically. On December 24, 2008 when merging on to a exit san jose blvd from 295 in jacksonville florida my car would not slow down it actually accelerated. The rpm gauge went up instead of down and the pressure was high. My car would not slow down or stop. It was accelerating without my foot on the pedal. I tried to put the brakes on and the brakes would not work. My car would not stop. I was merging to oncoming traffic on a busy road nearing a crash. I then tried to put my car in neutral and it still would not stop. I then put it in park and it still kept going driving. I then pulled the key out because it was my last attempt to stop the car and thank god my car stopped just missing a collision. So to sum it all up, my car accelerated, had high pressure and the brakes failed completely. The engine was revving. It was very scary and if not for my pulling the key out I would probably be dead or seriously injured and could have caused a terrible accident. I had my car towed to ernie palmer Toyota. They claimed it was a faulty accelerator sensor. I sold my car to them because I never wanted to get in or look at that car again. I still have nightmares about it. I do not know anything about how it was fixed because I did not have it fixed, I sold it. However the mechanics later at Toyota told me it was a faulty accelerator sensor. There were no injuries other that my neck being hurt from being thrown to such a quick stop.

As I was pulling into my parking spot in the ramp, my car 'unexpectedly' lurched forward into a concrete pillar on the left and a wire barrier and concrete wall ahead. Damage to the car was $5,647. 92. My air bag did not deploy nor did my seat belt hold me. My head flew forward onto the steering wheel and I required 14 stitches below my mouth and chin on the outside and 12 on the inside.

After only 32000 miles, I had a sudden and severe loss of power in engine almost leading to stalling. The engine went to high revving about 8k rpms and a burning oil smell. With this, climbing hills, evasive manuevers, and other acceleration issues almost caused crashes because they were so suydden and severe. The dealer siad the clutch was burnt, but it was so sudden and without any warning.

I was driving west bound on I-10 near downtown houston, TX when I went to pass a truck and pressed the gas pedal. When I released the gas pedal, the car kept accelerating and the engine went to the redline. I tried the brakes which worked a little bit but the engine was still screaming at the redline. Fortunately the freeway was quite clear as I just kept going faster and faster. I'm a "car-guy" and I'm also a mechanic and since this was my first new car I ever bought, I was worried about the engine blowing up more than I was about hitting someone since the freeway was practically empty. I did get up past 110 mph though before I decided to put the automatic transmission into neutral and turn the key to shut the engine off. I coasted for a little while to reduce speed and then started the engine while still coasting. Everything was back to normal and I put the transmission back into "drive" and went about my way. I had just had my floormats thoroughly washed so they were not in the vehicle at the time since they were drying. There were no floormats in the vehicle. I have never reported this problem because I just thought it was a freak incident but now as I'm hearing more reports on similar issues I thought it would be helpful for other people to know of this incident as well.

The vehicle will not accelerate in hot or inclement weather. The dealership is aware of the problem the mechanic of the dealership couldn't repeat the problem. Ts.