Cruise Control problems of the 2006 Toyota Tacoma

Tl the contact owns a 2006 Toyota Tacoma. The contact stated that the vehicle cruise control failed to engage. The contact stated that the failure occurred intermittently. The contact was also, concerned that the air bags may fail to deploy in the event of a crash. The vehicle was not taken to a dealership to have a diagnostic testing performed. However, the contact feels that the failure was caused by NHTSA campaign number: 12v092000 (air bags). The manufacturer informed the contact that the vehicle was not included in the recall. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 162,500.

I was driving my 2006 Toyota Tacoma on the interstate at approxiately 65 mph. I was using cruise control and I merged into the passing lane to get over for a highway patrol that had a truck pulled over. I accelerated to pass another truck and when I went to slow down after passing the truck suddenly started accelerating by itself and I could not get the brakes to work. I thought something was wrong with the cruise control so I pushed the button to turn it off but it continued to accelerate. I was suddenly going over 90 mph and I could not stop. I was pushing the brakes and nothing was happening, just fighting against the acceleration. Finally I punched the accelerator with my foot and it felt like it came un-stuck or something. I previously took the truck in for a recall to cut off the gas pedal so it would not get stuck on the floor mat, so my pedal has already been shortened. I have owned this vehicle since it was new in 2006 and have never had anything like this happen. It was as if there was a computer glitch or something and it was just driving itself.

On the 26th of March 2010 about 3:00 pm, I was driving my 2006 Toyota Tacoma and got onto interstate 80 going west and began to merge into traffic. As I accelerated to get in front of a white semi-tractor trailer, I realized I was accelerating faster than I was pushing down on the gas pedal. My truck accelerated as if it wanted to go faster than I did, and so I let my foot off the gas pedal. But, my Toyota Tacoma still increased in speed, and the gas pedal seemed soft as if the truck was in cruise control. Realizing that my speed was 80 and rising rapidly, I pushed down on the brake pedal. The car barely slowed down and sped right back up continuing to accelerate as soon as I removed my foot from the brake. So, I pressed down the brake pedal with all my force, but the truck did not slow down sufficiently to safely pull over. So, then, I put one foot on the brake and used the other to push down the emergency brake. The truck decelerated enough to allow me to pull over into the far right lane. The car continued to roll despite application of both brakes, and so I threw the vehicle into park. This shut off the engine. I had my truck towed to the dealership and nothing has been resolved as of today.

Cruise control: since my 2006 Toyota Tacoma was brand new, when going up an incline such as a freeway overcrossing, or moderate incline, the cruise control will cause the automatic transmission to downshift one gear and many times two gears in an effort to maintain the freeway set speed (I. E. 65 or 70 mph). This cruise control throttle increase and transmission downshifting results in aggressive acceleration which continues past the set speed by a few miles per hour before the cruise control's increased throttle input backs off (since it shot past the cruise control's set speed!) before the cruise control initiates reduced throttle input to try to reduce the vehicle speed back down to the set speed. In addition to the lack of smooth cruise control set speed operation, this condition is especially scary when the incline is also on a curve. As the vehicle aggressively accelerates it can feel as the vehicle is traveling faster than it should for the curve causing the driver to tap the brake to disengage the cruise control to stop the excessive acceleration. To date, all inquiries to northern California Toyota dealer service representatives have resulted in the same response; the 2006 Tacoma does not have a speed control problem and there are no adjustments as it is controlled by the main computer.

I was stopped at a light. 30 or so seconds went by and my 2006 Toyota Tacoma started moving forward, so I looked back & no car was pushing me. I depressed the brake further, now the tires in back started to spin (size 33 inch large off road tires) the brake was not holding my truck back, I started moving into the intersection. I have a lot of off road racing experience. I put the car in neutral turned the truck off. I then put it in park started the truck & drove to the dealership at Toyota of orange. They checked the truck out with a computer, noticed my car floor mat was connected. The dealer would not do anything and told me they could not help. I think its a computer or cruise control issue, because the truck took off after tack was at idle while waiting for the light to change. I finally found this site to complain.

Now that the Toyota problems have received such widespread coverage, I wanted to report what I believe is a problem on my wife's 2006 Toyota Tacoma. On several occasions over the last 3 1/2 years, when using the cruise control, when there was an upgrade requiring the cruise control to increase power to maintain speed, the cruise control would simply start the vehicle accelerating without stopping and I had to turn off the cruise control. I didn't think too much about it until the recalls as I simply don't use it--just thought it was poorly designed compared to every other one I have ever had.

I have a 2006 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck that has had numerous incidents of automatic rapid acceleration. These have all occurred during highway driving and with multiple drivers. Initially, I thought this was related to a cruise control problem since they occurred during highway driving. However, the cruise control was replaced in 2008 and I am still having acceleration problems. At present time Toyota has the vehicle listed for the 90l floor mat entrapment recall only and not the accelerator pedal recall. I do not think this is a floor mat problem, but rather it is an accelerator pedal problem. I have attempted to call and email Toyota corporation several times and have had zero response. The local Toyota dealership service department has indicated that they cannot perform the 90l floor mat entrapment recall service until Toyota releases the VIN numbers and service requirements for the Tacoma. No one seems to know when this recall will be released by Toyota and there doesn't seem to be any urgency for it. In the meantime nothing has been done to resolve the acceleration problems with the Tacoma, and infact Toyota fails to recognize rapid acceleration in the Tacoma. I have listed may 1, 2009 as the approximate incident date. However, as noted previously, these incidents occurred multiple times to multiple drivers over the course of the 3 years I have owned the vehicle.

Vehicle accelerates (surges) on its own and braking does not remedy the problem. This has happened several times when the cruise control is not being used. It also is not attributed to the floor mats as we have carefully checked the positioning of our mats.

Yesterday going home, I took the interstate. Trying the lower speed (for better mileage), I was going 60 mph with the cc set. Traffic came up on me and I felt my truck was in danger, so I used my foot to increase to 70 mph. When I reached 70 mph, I pressed set on the cc switch for it to set the cruise at 70 mph. I removed my foot from the pedal and my truck slowed down to 60 mph, then down shifted and screamed like crazy until it had passed 70 mph, then slowed back down to 70 mph. I was about to reproduce it 3 more times before getting off the interstate. I'm sure it would do the same at lower speeds, but did not have a chance to check it.

Erratic cruise control. Will not set consistently. Shifts and accelerates violently.

Sudden acceleration for the third time in this vehicle. Driving on a mountainous road about 30 mph. Truck moved to the side going up an incline for my husband to pass him. He accelerated and the gas pedal "stuck". Applied the brakes with no disengaging of the gas pedal. Turned the key off and on so as not to lose the power steering. This continued for several minutes. When we were on a straightaway, he turned the key off and finally the gas pedal disengaged. Two times previously Toyota has replaced the cruise control. This is not a cruise control issue. This is a gas pedal issue. I was told previously the mat was under the gas pedal. This is hardly the problem. The brakes were again red hot when my husband tried to stop the truck. We will be in touch with Toyota again this a. M. This vehicle is a death trap and needs to be put down! see also odi 10158925 and 10149327.

Erratic, sometimes dangerous transmission shifting while using the cruise control.

Cruise control very erratic, will accelerate and decelerate violently at times. Especially on uneven terrain.

The 2006 Toyota Tacoma with automatic transmission cruise control is very erratic in operation, sometimes suddenly downshifting 2 gears and accelerating quite violently when climbing a grade. Very startling when it happens and could really be dangerous if the road is wet & slick with rain or snow. I've owned probably 20 cars and trucks in my 43 years of driving and have never experienced anything like it. This is a well discussed topic on forums dedicated to Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks and a lot of people are having these problems.

- the contact owns a 2006 Toyota Tacoma , cab. Cruise control malfunctioned. While driving at 60 mph the vehicle surged at 5100 rpms, and down shifted before adding fuel. The failure almost caused the vehicle to crash into a barrier. A product engineer inspected the vehicle, and stated that it performed as designed and according to the contact the design was incorrect. This failure occurred since August 2006. The contact stated that the door should lock after engaging the gears. The dealer stated it was designed that way, and they're unable to reprogram it to make it auto lock. The owner mailed a detailed failure report to the president of Toyota. The failure mileage was 8000, and the current mileage was 15100.

I purchased the vehicle in oct of 2005, and started to take frequent trips to arizona using highway 40 about nine months after I purchased it. Since its not a densely populated freeway, I normally set the cruise control between 65-70mph. Sometimes I need to decelerate by applying the brake pedal, to change lanes and let someone pass, and when I go to resume to my previously set speed, the Tacoma down-shifts at least one to two gears, revs rpms high, and accelerates, normally passing the original set speed. Normally, I don't resume the cruise control until I am within 3-5 mph of the rate of speed it was previously set for, but nevertheless, it will downshift, accelerate and pass the set speed. This is not happening on an upgrade, but on a reasonably level stretch of road. The cruise control does this every time, no matter the driver of the vehicle.

Second occurrence: may 26, 2006 merging onto main highway into oncoming traffic. Cruise control was not on. Accelerated and gas pedal stuck. Truck continued to accelerate, could not disengage pedal. Brake pedal was also locked and could not depress it. After numerous tries, brake pedal finally engaged and gas pedal disengaged. Called Toyota dealer again and this time they are replacing the non-factory installed cruise control. One week prior to incident, they replaced computer system, something in the gas pedal itself and the cruise control computer.

Cruise control set at 67 mph, traveling in the left hand lane of highway. Car in front slowed down and I moved to the right lane as another car was tailgating me. Stepped on the gas when the car I was trying to get by accelerated. Truck accelerated rapidly to 75-90 mph, stepped on the brake to release cruise control but truck continued acceleration. In front of truck was semi, I hit the brakes to control speed, brakes did not work as automatic brakes but like old brakes, put both feet on brakes but truck did not slow down and continued at 55 to 65 mph. Went into the emergency lane, put on flashers. Brakes were smelling at this point. Put truck into neutral and truck continued moving forward at excessive speed. Put it back in drive and continued to exit ramp which was very long. Finally got off highway and turned the key off. Truck smelled badly from the brakes. Waited about 10 minutes, called son who called Toyota. I carefully put the truck in drive and cruised into a gas station, turned truck off, exited vehicle. Son called back and said Toyota said "do not drive the truck". They sent a tow truck to pick it up. Son and partner got to vehicle and the hub caps were burning hot from brakes being applied. Toyota drove vehicle for 111 miles and checked everything out and found nothing. I called Toyota and have started arbitration for them to buy back my brand new truck.