Hello,

my in-laws have a 2005 ES 330 & on 3 separate occasions within the last year, while going slow, the car began to accelerate with zero throttle input.

all 3 times this occurred while driving slow within a parking lot.

once turning, 2 times going straight.

any idea's or known fixes on this board?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I know the old folks are not driving the car due to fear.

The 1st time they took the car to the dealer, they blamed the oem floor mats. the floor mats were removed & the problem still happened.

The lexus dealer doesnt see anything wrong via their diagnostics & didnt experience any issues while the car was with them....

I saw there was a NHTSA thread with 56 complaints, but no resolution listed.

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Lexus/E..._control.shtml

TIA

 

Is the floor mat installed properly?

 

Thanks for the reply.

The floor mats have been in the trunk for almost a year! They were removed & not re-installed after the 1st instance.

So i guess the answer is no

A little more background info.....

Someone ran into the old man prior to all of this, basically somebody turned in front of him & his drivers side front hit the side of the other car.

According to the in-laws, this problem appeared some ~few months after repairs were made to the car.

I wonder if the accelerator pedal position sensors / assembly was damaged/tweaked/torqued somehow by the old mans foot during the collision.

 

Check the throttle cable for binding or the throttle arm or spring?

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but i fairly certain it is a dbw style tb. drive by wire = no throttle cable or electronic tb control.

I see there is an acceleration pedal sensor assembly available & other lexus models have had issues relaated to this style pedal / sensor arrangement, but nothing where the car accelerates.

now if it had an iac = idle air controller & that randomly opened, since the problem has always been associated with with the car in gear & no throttle input, that could be a possibility, but once again i believe it's all controlled by the electronic tb.

 

Did you check to see if there was any recalls or services regarding this problem?

 

The lexus service manager claims that there isnt such for this problem/vehicle.

not sure where to look for them actually. do you know?

I will get their vin #, if needed for reference.

Thanks for the suggestion

 

Check the throttle body, could be dirty, but that is quite the scary experience...