Speed Control Cable problems of the 2003 Toyota Corolla

On November 16, 2010, while trying to park my Toyota Corolla 2003, the vehicle accelerated unintentionally crashing into a fence continued by crashing into some wooden pallets. I am the original owner of the car. My daughter a few weeks before noticed that the car will stay accelerated to a minimum of 1800rpm. The air bags were not activated and I did not received major injury. My neck was hurting for a while. I was lucky because there were two propane tanks following the fence. My son notified Toyota in puerto rico and filed a complaint #cr12287. He was told that my car was not included in the recalls because it did not have an electronic fuel control unit and that the gas in my car operated by a cable. The auto shop mechanics that repaired all the front damage of the car noticed the car accelerator too high. On November 24, 2010 the car was picked up by my son and was taken to Toyota for inspection. The Toyota employee tried to convince my son to sign an authorization to access all the data in the car computer memory but will not provide a copy of the data to the customer. My son refused to sign the release form. Waiting for the results of the inspection.

2003 Toyota Corolla le automatic transmission 4 door. First time incident. Westbound highway 401 near woodstock ontario with cruise control @ 100 kmh in right lane and slightly accelerated to middle lane to avoid merging incoming traffic from roadside gas station. Accelerator pedal went to floor without driver assistance. Strong braking did not stop car. Stomping on accelerator did not stop car. Turning off cruise control did not stop car. Fastest speed was 150kmh @ 7500 rpm. Shifted into neutral and when speed at 120kmh @ 4000 rpm, the brakes started working. Slowed and pulled off onto shoulder and parked the car. Two minutes later, still in park, idled at 1900 rpm. Able to drive to work. Over the phone, dan from competition Toyota told me that probably the throttle box or throttle cable had become gummed up and should have been cleaned as part of the Toyota 60,000km maintenance. I have not used Toyota dealer to service the car due to affordability. I do have a regular mechanic who services the vehicle. Took it into competition Toyota and problem was a dirty throttle plate which was cleaned at a cost of $70. Dealer also did a recall repair on a window and said there were too many mats on the drivers side which should be removed. I told dan that driver mats were not the cause and in the presence of two Toyota employees, I showed him photos that I took of the dashboard just after I pulled off the highway. I asked if the car was safe to drive, he said yes, and I have been driving the car since. Reported this incident to transport canada.

I was driving along a residential street (35 mph) and I was stopped at a stoplight. When the light changed, I began accelerating uphill. Once I reached my desired speed of 35 mph, I removed my foot from the accelerator but the car continued to increase in speed (I was still traveling uphill). I immediately put the car into neutral, pulled off to the side of the road, and turned the ignition off. Fifteen minutes later, I turned the car back on and the engine immediately revved up, although my foot was not on the accelerator; based on the sound of the engine, I would estimate that it surpassed 4000 rpm. I turned the car off and 15 minutes later I turned the car on only to meet with the same results. When the tow truck driver arrived, he noticed that the throttle valve was stuck in the open position. He closed the throttle and this fixed the problem. A few days later, I brought the car to a Toyota dealer. They told me that there was a kink in the throttle cable that may have caused it to get stuck. However, they were not able to provide a definitive diagnosis because the problem was not repeatable and, therefore, did not replace the cable. I have had the car for 6. 5 years and this has only happened twice (the other time was in early 2008 and occurred on a highway). In light of recent media reports on acceleration problems in Toyotas, I must note that I have the original floor mats and that they are, and always have been, properly secured in place. I did not notice whether or not the accelerator was stuck, but I was only traveling 35 mph, so the accelerator was not depressed enough to get caught under the floor mat. The parts are still available since I did not replace the cable.