Agency probes Ford SUV’s ‘lunging’

Ford Motor Co.’s Freestyle crossover SUVs are being investigated by the U.S. auto-safety regulator after 238 complaints about unintended “lunging” at low speeds when the driver’s foot isn’t on the gas pedal.

The regulator is investigating model years 2005 through 2007 after 18 crashes attributed to the defect, including one that resulted in a minor injury, the agency said on its website. A “lunge’’ can be stopped by applying the brakes, “but in some cases the vehicle has moved as much as 10 feet if the brake was not applied, lightly applied, or applied late,’’ the NHTSA said.
Read Article

85bmw745i - 5/16/2011 11:04:20 PM

+1 Boost

I have had that problem in a friends rental car, and what happens is when you tap the gas quickly and let off there is a delay and the engine surges. The problem, I feel, is the slow response of the throttle in quick taps to the throttle. You tap it and let off too quick, nothing happens for a split second then there is an equally quick surge. They should be able to re-program the tcu to ignore certain throttle inputs like ones where you tap and let of really quickly, like when a person goes to hit the gas to pull out into the road but realixes the oncoming car is moving too fast and lets off just as abruptly as they did applying the throttle. it all happens in less than 1 second and the electronic throttle is slow to respond. Wither that or the idle air control valve over corrects after you release the throttle and causes the engine to surge trying to maintain idle.