Quick easy way to diagnose the Toyota acceleration problem

[MindPilot]

When the unintended acceleration occurs, turn off the ignition. Without touching anything, attempt a restart. If the problem is mechanical or a hard electronic fault, the engine will restart and continue to run at a high speed. If the problem is programmatic the engine will return to normal operation.

[Vincardog]

1. Your going to turn of the key and lock up the steering at speed?

[FarCenter]

2. Turning the key to "accessories" will not lock the steering

It just turns off the ignition.

[flyingfysh]

4. Key? what key?

Most Priuses don't have a key. What they have is a transponder that you keep in your pocket.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. If my Toyota begins an uncommanded acceleration...

And the key turns off the engine.

I will coast to a stop and not turn it on.

[sailor65]

5. Not likely to work

Most Drive-By-Wire vehicles out there would generate an "Input out of range" error if the engine were started with the mechanical pedal locked down.

[MindPilot]

7. Then you would have a hard fault and know what to fix.

[sailor65]

8. Yes you would

I didn't mean your idea was wrong, only that the car wasn't likely to start accelerating.

[Oregone]

6. How bout putting Toyada in each car they sell as a test driver?

He will figure it out

[IDemo]

9. My two cents

Take vehicles with reported pedal trouble (per the customer) and remove the pedal and wiring from the picture. Using a programmable dual DC power supply, replicate the signal outputs seen at the bottom of the datasheet for the CTS pedal. As seen in the datasheet, there are dual signals, one signal maintaining ½ the voltage level of the other at any given pedal position.

First, connect the 6-pin AMP connector from the signal cable directly to a mating connector on the power supply unit. Vary the DC outputs to emulate the pedal outputs during normal driving (in the garage, not on the road!). If the over-acceleration disappears, the pedal is at fault. If it still occurs, bypass the throttle signal cable and connect the power supply directly to the connector on the ECS input. Apply voltages within the correct operating range as above. If the problem goes away, the cable is at fault; otherwise, there is an issue with the computer hardware or firmware.

This is assuming that the bug isn't so intermittent that it won't reveal itself under a reasonable amount of test time, of course.

http://www.ctscorp.com/automotive/datasheets/703.pdf