Accelerator Stuck problems of the 2002 Toyota Highlander

The contact owns a 2002 Toyota Highlander ltd (n/a). While driving 60 mph and speeding to 70 mph to pass another vehicle, the accelerator pedal stuck and would not release. The passenger removed the floor mats but the vehicle continued to accelerate rapidly. The contact maneuvered the vehicle to the side of the road by depressing the brake pedal firmly, shifting into neutral and turning the engine off. The rpms continued to increase excessively. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer where the contact was informed that the throttle body had carbon and built up corrosion which caused the failure. The contact called the manufacturer who offered no assistance as the vehicle was too old, too high in mileage and no longer under warranty. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was approximately 218,000.

From a stopped position on a side street, I pressed the accelerator to pull onto a main street. Because traffic on the main street moves rather fast, I accelerated somewhat above normal, but in no way excessive. After getting into my lane, I backed off the accelerator, but the engine acted as if I was flooring it and the car continued accelerating. It was scary. I pushed hard on the break. The car still accelerated. I stepped on the hand brake. It continued to accelerate. Finally, I took the car out of drive and into neutral. The engine continued to scream, but I was able to stop at the side of the road. At some point the engine did come down to normal idle, but I was so shaken, I really don't know when that happened. Fortunately no one was ahead of me, the road is straight and level, etc. Aside from shattered nerves, there was no harm done. But I can imagine all kinds of horrible outcomes had conditions been different. The car acted as if the accelerator stuck all the way down, however I know I didn't press it down that far. Later my husband drove the car home from where I stopped it. With the car off, my husband inspected the accelerator pedal pressing it with his hand and letting it back up. There is a point about half way back up where the mechanism is not smooth. The pedal comes all the way back up, but something inside catches and causes lots of gas to flow into the engine. At least one time he was able to reproduce the problem with the car in park. I am afraid to ever drive it again. This time I was lucky, but I shutter to think. If someone had been in one of the crosswalks. If I had been approaching a red light. When might this happen again?.

The contact owns a 2002 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated while driving at speeds of 70 mph, the vehicle abnormally accelerated. This was the third incident of unintended acceleration in the vehicle. On the first incident, the contact was able to stop the vehicle by applying constant, steady pressure to the brake pedal. On the second incident, the accelerator pedal became stuck in the open throttle position and he was able to manually remove the pedal from the stuck position. The dealer was unable to duplicate the failure and there were no repairs made to the vehicle. The manufacturer advised the vehicle was not under recall and would not provide any assistance. The failure mileage was 114,000 and the current mileage was 114,532.