A scary thing happened to me (and a warning)

In most cars after the 90s you ether have to turn the switch all the way over to get to the lock position or you have to push tha button under the colom or both.

In the eightys it was real easy. Pushing past nutural to reverse is still simple because must people push the safety release button every time they shift.
 
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The bottom line is that her car malfunctioned in such a manner
to of placed her life in jeopardy. This is not acceptable. Exactly what
part(s) caused the error is totally beside the point at this time.

I am first and foremost, glad that she is safe. There could of been a
totally different outcome.

I personally believe she did the proper thing in maintaining control
untill the vehicle was safely stopped. The next wise thing she did was
to have the Jeep towed from the scene.

I'm sure that while her original thoughts lean toward a malfunction in the
cruise, she will have the entire car checked to actually locate the issue.
Rebel Cowboy is correct that it could be the actual result of several things.
Hopefully her mechanic will find it.

Me, I'm a funny feller. I would refuse to let my family ride/drive in a car I
couldn't trust. I like my wife quite well. Regardless of what I owed on the
car, it would be gone.

(Wife drives a Mercedes...it can not shift from drive gears to reverse. You have
to side-shift the shifter to get to reverse and park. Really, pretty nice cars.)
 
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I think that Mercedes stile shifter is a England mandate. I know you see that safety feature in several cars from there but I have yet to see in in a US manufacturer.

VW in the 70s made it where you had to pull up on the shifter. The US is behind.
 
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Well, as it happens, I went to college for software engineering and I'm here to tell ya -- there need be no friction for a computer program to "stick" or malfunction in any way, and as we all know, cruise control on any modern vehicle is a button we push that sends an event call to the ECM. If, for whatever reason, the shutdown event call isn't received and/or handled by the software in the ECM, the cruise control would almost certainly stay on. Could be a matter of the button or brake pedal sensor failing, or a failure in the wiring between the cruise control input components and the ECM, or even a malfunction the CC handling routine in the ECM which prevented it from receiving/accepting the event call -- any number of things could have happened.

So, no, there doesn't need to be any mechanical friction to cause such a failure.

The butterfly can, the peddle can an the TPS can short an do that but the cruse module can't. An the PC in the cruse cant read position. It reads wheel speed. so it would go to full throttle if it actually came on when stopped.

I have drove all kinds of cars that were shutting off on people. They are not hard to control. Its gets hard to make sharp "U" turns but any 100 pound person can do it. Breaks have to be pumped several time before they get harder. People drove fine before it was invented. The reason people don't want ya turning the switch off is that on older cars it was easy to turn the switch to the lock position. But its also just as easy to push the trans up past nutural in to reverse which will throw the car in to an uncontrollable skid.
I dont tell people do do thing that if done wrong will kill you.

Fine. You can say whatever you want, of course.. I just wanted you -- AND EVERYONE ELSE -- to understand that what you're saying stands in direct opposition to widespread expert opinion on the matter.

I have did both an there is no way I'm telling people to push it in to nutural.

An I didnt say what it was. I said what it was not an to get it checked out well an not to just assume it was the cruse.

Stating, as fact, your speculation on what it wasn't without laying eyes on the car is just as reckless as stating what it is under the same circumstances.​
 
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In most newer cars, there's protection built into the TCU (that's Transmission Control Unit -- another computer component) to prevent cars from actually shifting into reverse if they're travelling forward at a speed more than like 5mph. Soooo, going past neutral to R at highway speed these days would probably not result in much of anything happening except the car shifting into neutral.

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Wait just a minute. If you shift to neutral, the car over rev's causing the the valves to "float" where they come into contact with the pistons causing the engine to die a horrible death, thus putting you in the same situation as shutting off the ignition but without the possibility of being able to do a road side fix. My Baja bug got some sand stuck in the throttle and took me for a ride very similar to this event. I simply turned off the switch and fixed the problem. If I had put it in neutral, I probably would have died of dehydration from the 35 mile hike back to civilization. As far as Chrysler vehicles turning their cruise control back on, this seems like this problem dates back to a certain 58 Plymouth named "Christine".
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The fact that they started again an it went up to a steady 4000 means it was not a computer issue. The computer is only reading wheel speed. It does not read throttle position. To do what it did it would have had to make lots of adjustments to maintain that RPM an without a throttle reference input that would not happen. Cruse is a smart machine but it cant pic an RPM an stay there. At lest not yet. A Kenworth has that ability but cars have not went that high tech yet anyway. Its like you sucking on a straw an keeping a drink half way up the straw. You can do it because you control the vacuum being applied an you can see the liquid But the computer is a a man off to the side telling a blind man how much to suck on the straw. The only problem is the computer is blind too. Its just not happening without a position reference input.

If I remember right the cruse system has its power completely cut when you shift out of drive but I would have to recheck that.


Some new cars may keep you from shifting at speed but I have not drove one yet. I know a 2005 Dodge still will but I haven't had anything newer to "play" with that way.


I do wonder about anyone that thinks its dangerous to shut the car off an lose power steering? If you cant drive a car safely without power steering then are you sure you should drive at all? I mean the only thing keeping the power steering going at any point in time is a inch wide peace of rubber that fails all the time. Its the most common failure component in a car. Most people just keep driving unless on there model it runs the fan an water pump.
 
There are some times that nutural is you best option. Take a diesel for example. You cant shut a diesel off. You cut the fuel to stop them. The problem is that they will run on almost anything. If your turbo starts dumping oil in to the intake it will run away an stay running till there is no more oil. Got to see it happen one time an it was a sight to see. In a road tractor you can just keep the clutch engaged an stand on the breaks an stall it but that really dont work for a automatic car. Its not going to stall out. Not a lot you can do there. That may be why the so-called experts say to shift in to nutural an let the engine go.
 

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