A warning about cruise control in the Honda Accord 04 Model

[debbierlus]

I just read the article about the family that crashed and was killed in a Lexus because they couldn't stop acceleration.

The same thing happened to us two weeks ago in our 04 Honda Accord. It was a problem with the cruise control. A line had broken and the car accelerated to 90 miles an hour. (Honda has since changed the design of the cruise control system, but this is a warning to those who have the older models, as it appears there is a problem with this that has yet to trigger a recall).

The brakes would NOT work. They were high and tight and couldn't be pushed down.

The car would not go into neutral.

My husband was terrified to shut off the engine as he would have lost control of the power steering and he didn't know if he could keep the car on the road.

We were lucky as we were on a straight away with NO cars coming and had a mile to stop (maybe more). If we had been in traffic, we would have crashed at high speed.

He stopped the car by forcing it into park.

We were very lucky. We had the cruise control disconnected and we aren't going to use it anymore. But, please be aware of this problem, and let anyone you know who drives this model of car that this appears to be a problem with this model. I expect a recall eventually.

I reported the problem to honda and to consumer safety, but I also wanted to warn those of you on DU.

[robinlynne]

1. wow. that is exactly my car. I drive up to northern california every month to visit

my mom who is sick. I'm talking 9 hours each way of pure cruise control....
How did you get it repaired? honda? mechanic?
Do you know exactly what the broken part is called, so I can take mine to a mechanic to check on this part?
Thank-you.

[debbierlus]

5. It was a line on the crusie control assembly that became disconnected

Apparently a small plastic part broke off causing the disconnection.

They changed the entire design of the cruise control assembly since then...

We aren't getting it repaired as you have to replace the entire unit for 500 buck that we don't have.

We will not use it.

[robinlynne]

7. oh my.

[itsrobert]

2. Thanks, there seems to be a news black out on this

I guess the only time the media will pay attention is when someone dies. Thanks for getting the word out.

[regnaD kciN]

18. No need for tinfoil hats...

Unfortunately, it's a fact of life that some things will break (maybe because of a one-of-a-kind manufacturing defect) on an isolated car or two of every model, or a rock will get caught in the throttle assembly and force the engine open, etc., etc. (There are also many "the car went crazy!" reports that turn out to be driver error, but that doesn't seem to be the case here...And have you read the stories of unintended acceleration in Priuses? Once again, a handful of cases, but no specific bug discovered.) But there's no sign of a systemic problem with Honda cruise controls that make this anything other than a fluke occurrence that, fortunately, didn't result in a collision and casualties this time. For a recall, there has to be some evidence that this is a problem that would potentially affect a number of 7thGen Accords.

The fact is, if we demanded a recall every time a single vehicle displayed even a very serious problem, most of the top selling cars (Accords, Camrys, Tauruses, Corollas, Civics, Focuses, etc.) would be out of action non-stop, just because there are so many of them, one or two are bound to go bad, even if it comes down to the operator at the pressing plant screwing up on one part out of a million.

Also, with user sites and independent forums out there, it would be very hard for any manufacturer to institute a cover-up or "news black out" nowadays. I checked DriveAccord.net, whose members can be quite critical of problems in their cars, and the only problems I could find for cruise control in that model would be cases when it wouldn't work at all, rather than working too well.

I can imagine that problem being quite frightening, and I think Honda should have replaced the OP's defective unit for free. But, unless and until there's a clear pattern of this problem happening often to 7thGen Accords, I think it serves little good to start muttering about how there must be a conspiracy going on to keep this from the public.

[virgogal]

3. My God that's frightening. Glad all worked out okay. Thanks for

the warning.

[regnaD kciN]

4. Did you try hitting "CANCEL" on the cruise control panel...???

:shrug:

[debbierlus]

6. Yeah. That didn't work.

[regnaD kciN]

19. BTW, turning off the ignition would not have disabled your steering...

...since, if you lose power-assisted steering, you still have manual steering control.

That would be the best response to your problem, although I will grant that, in emergency situations, it's easy to get shaken and forget the proper procedures.

[Emit]

8. When he forced it into park, did the car decelerate or did it abruptly stop?

I had something similar happen when I was on cruise control in my Toyota Sienna - but nothing near what you described - it just kept accelerating and did not respond to my first attempt to take off cruise control. I was just curious what it's like throwing a car into park when you are going 90mph - in the event I ever have to do such a thing.

I am glad you are all safe, btw. Sounds scary.

[morillon]

9. I agree!

I can't even imagine what it would've been like to go into park at 90 mph.

I have an '05 Hybrid Accord. I wonder if they fixed the cruise control by that model year? After hearing this story, I'm too paranoid to use it!

[regnaD kciN]

23. No need to be paranoid...

...there's no evidence that this was anything other than a fluke, possibly caused by a tiny batch of bad plastic on one of the parts. You might as well decide not to drive your Accord at all, in case your engine caught fire. What's that, you say, you have never heard anything about '05 Accord Hybrid engines catching fire? Well, you're right. There are no such reports. But there's always a first time! ;-)

[Chemisse]

10. I always thought that would destroy the transmission

And maybe flip the car over. I guess not. That must have been scary.

[armyowalgreens]

12. I'm pretty sure putting a car in park at 90 mph would destroy the transmission.

Either that, or it would lock up the wheels.

[debbierlus]

15. It didn't. We were terrified that the car was going to be toasted

We had it towed back to a garage and we fully expected that it wouldn't be driveable.

The car drives fine, though I worry about it. I wonder how much life we took off it with that episode.

[MineralMan]

13. On most vehicles, engaging Park at speed will simply break the

Park pawl off instantly and will not stop the car. Most cars will not engage Park at all if the car is moving. See my step-by-step instructions on dealing with this frightening situation.

[MineralMan]

11. Your steering will continue to function if you shut the engine off.

It will require more effort, but will still work. Brakes will also work, again with more effort used to apply them.

Shutting Off Your Engine If It Races Uncontrollably.

1. While on a straight stretch of road, turn key to Off position, but do not turn the steering wheel more than a few degrees. That will prevent the steering lock from functioning.
2. When the engine stops turning (wait two or three seconds), turn the key to the On position but do not engage the starter to steer without locking the steering wheel.
3. As the car slows, shift the transmission to Neutral, if possible, and slow to a stop, pulling out of traffic to the shoulder.
4. If the foot brake does not function, use the parking brake, after the car slows sufficiently. Apply it smoothly, whether by hand or foot.

Everyone should rehearse this procedure at least once on a road with no traffic. Too many accidents occur when people panic if their engine operates at full throttle suddenly. This will work on all cars, since safety requirements require that all vehicles be able to be steered and the brakes applied with the engine shut off.

[debbierlus]

16. Good advice - I give my husband kudos though. We lived.

[Chemisse]

20. Can't you restart a car by driving with the key 'on'

and the shifter in 'drive'? I'm pretty sure I have done that, although a long time ago. Maybe they changed it so you can't.

One more reason to drive a standard.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

24. All I can say is that I'm glad I still drive a manual. Under stress, I doubt I'd remember that.

I can see myself locking the wheel as well.

Why not just put it into neutral, pull over and then shut the car off?

[BlooInBloo]

14. Same happened to me a few years back in an Olds - very scary.

[NoGOPZone]

17. You might want to have your transmission examined also

You mentioned that it wouldn't go into neutral. Since you need to pass through the neutral position to get into park, that seems to indicate neutral wasn't functioning the way it should. This is likely something unrelated to the cruise control failure. Glad everyone was OK.

[FarCenter]

22. The shift sequence is drive, neutral, reverse, park

So you have to go through reverse as well as neutral.

[Gold Metal Flake]

21. The braking system is completely unrelated the the cruise control.

Cruise control is simply a vacuum servo connected the the throttle with electronic control of the servo. The braking system is not related to it at all. The brake light circuit is sensed by the cruise contol circuit, but that is all. If you had difficulty braking then you have some problem with the brakes or with the brake pedal and linkages. Antilock braking systems are also unrelated to cruise control. The transmission is also unrelated to cruise contol. Cruise control can not affect the shifting of the transmission except for kickdown but that it related to the throttle position. Cruise control can not prevent you from shifting into neutral.

[regnaD kciN]

25. Yes, there's no cruise-control-related reason why the brakes wouldn't work...

...unless it was simply that they don't work very well when the car is at full-throttle and going 90 MPH. Likewise, there should be no reason why it couldn't have been shifted into neutral.

[FreeJoe]

26. Doubter

While I'm very happy that you are OK, I suspect that the scare of the situation caused you to misunderstand what happened.

As has been stated, CC has essentially nothing to do with the brakes. It's very, very unlikely that your brakes failed simultaneously with your CC failing. A simpler explanation is that your foot was on the wrong pedal. That would explain both failures.

Assuming that your brakes work, they can overpower your engine, even at 90mph. Back during the old Audi 5000 unintentional acceleration problems, several people did tests showing the braking distances didn't increase all that much even with the throttle wide open. Incidentally, it is now thought that Audi 5000 problem was caused by poor pedal design and that it was people stomping on the gas when they thought they were stomping on the break that caused the problem.

Another option would be the emergency brake. It has a completely separate linkage from the normal brake system.

I'm also confused by the claim that you couldn't get the car into neutral but you could get it into park. In every automatic I've drive, you have to shift through neutral to get to park.

[Gold Metal Flake]

27. Welcome to DU.

You obviously meant to reply to the OP, not to my post. Anyways, I agree with you on "unintended accelleration" as well as the emergency/parking brake and the shifter.

Speaking of the Audi 5000 fiasco, Car & Driver did extensive road yests on the 500 and published the results in a June 1987 artical titles "Audi Agonistes, Cutting Through All Hype & Hysteria in Search of the Truth About Unintended Acceleration". I have the copy, but it's in a box somewhere. Anyways among the tests were various barking distance tests under normal and full throttle conditions. Braking under full throttle took longer, but measured in feet. Simply not a significant difference.

The pedal design aspect is that the Audi pedals were more evenly aligned similar to other European cars including sports cars where the three-pedal alignment allowed for easy heel-toe action. It was suggested at the time that Americans who were leaving Impalas and LTDs were mistaking the gas for the brake, then being frozen with panic.

Do you recall that the Audi 5000 was a very popular car at the time? Do you recall that sales plummited after all of the bad press? Remember what car took over the top slot after that? The very similar Ford Taurus. No tin foil, just sayin'.