Cruise Control problems of the 2007 Toyota Corolla

I have a 2007 Toyota Corolla which upon cruise control activation and/or reactivation speeds up to desired speed (normal) but then feels as if it is stuck in the accelerate mode and will continue to accelerate until it finally thumps or thuds into cruise. I've noticed this about 90% of the time when I impose cc. I have done nothing to attempt to correct the problem.

We have a 2007 Toyota Corolla. We had been on the highway using our cruise control. When we came to the exit, my husband stepped on the brake and disengaged the cruise control and we stopped at the light. We were sitting there with the engine idling, my husband's foot was on the brake, when all of a sudden the motor roared and the car began to surge forward. He stepped hard on the brake and it stopped. Scared us to say the least. It has not occurred again, but sometimes when we are on the highway, with the cruise control on and it accelerates, it will not back off and the car will continue to accelerate until we step on the brake. If you step on the brake and disengage the cruise control the acceleration will stop. In light of the recent incidents we felt we should report these incidents. We read the report on the runaway prius and that you could not duplicate the incident. I am convinced, based on our experience that you will not be able to duplicate the incident. We feel strongly, based on the performance of our own vehicle that it is a computer/electrical problem of some sort and that it could be connected to the cruise control. As I said it has not happened again, but I wonder if it will at some point. We were very fortunate that no one was in front of us or we would have hit them.

Something is wrong with my car's acceleration and cruise control mechanisms. Sometimes, if I've been using my cruise control, and I'm coasting, the throttle will suddenly engage on its own and rev as if the gas was floored. In seconds the tachometer will climb toward the redline. Every time this has happened (about 5 times) I've hit the clutch and it has stopped immediately. I've never been in any danger yet, and it usually just leaves me scratching my head.

I was driving coming from my sister in laws house at grandview, washington leaving around 7:40 am heading home to seattle going west to interstate-82 on Friday, August 22, 2008 with my three kids. I was using my cruise control and stayed on the left lane for about 20 to 30 minutes. We just left yakima city and headed to the fred redmon memorial bridge at around 8:30 am going up hill, in which I saw two tractor-trailer far in advance and both were driving on the right lane. The left lane was open as I drove in to the bridge but then the other tractor-trailer made a change to go to the left lane. I was probably 50 feet away when the other tractor-trailer made the change to the left lane. I was cruising about 50 to 60 mph in which I have to put my right foot on the brake pedal. At first, I thought I step on my gas pedal because the car did not slowdown a bit. I pressed the button to turn off the cruise control and hit the foot brake again and again. I then realized that my brakes did not work. As I was getting too closed to the left lane truck, I panicked and made a change to go to right and rear-ended the Volvo tractor-trailer.

I have been having two separate problems with the acceleration of my 2007 Toyota Corolla le. The first problem is with my gas pedal. I noticed that over the last several months my gas pedal has been becoming harder to press down. When I am pressing down the gas pedal I also experience the problem of the vehicle "jumping" and suddenly accelerating quicker instead of smooth acceleration as Toyota has said vehicles should have. This problem began about 8 months ago and has only been getting worse the second issue is with my cruise control. My mother actually noticed this problem before I did when she was driving my car but I have seen it happen a few times when I've been driving on the freeway. When I set my cruise control and there is any type of hill my car naturally decelerates slightly before my cruise control steps in and compensates for the incline. When I return to flat ground however, I would expect my car to return to the speed that I had set my cruise control to. Most of the time it does but on more than one occasion instead of picking back up to the set speed my vehicle has actually accelerated faster than the speed I had set. This problem first occurred within 6 months of the purchase of my vehicle. I didn't notice these as a problem because I had already checked to make sure my Toyota wasn't under any current recalls and it wasn't. My mother however pointed out that both of these things are abnormal and I needed to take them in to Toyota and file a report with you. I have a scheduled an appointment with Toyota for 10/22/10 but was told if they find a problem with either of these things it may not be covered because my vehicle isn't under the recall.