Runaway Ford Explorer - No mechanical faults

[Full Noise]

He just jumped on the picks with all of his ‘strength’ with the hand break on, apparently.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

He just jumped on the picks with all of his ‘strength’ with the hand break on, apparently.

It took 45 mins for him to work that out?

[Full Noise]

Yeah, also, he had to make sure that there was a welcoming committee with cameras and mics waiting for him.

[Interceptor]

Originally Posted by Swordsman88

braking issues. Lack of brake assitance for the 3.0 SIDI models. Basically (as far as i am aware) when first starting up the engine was unable/failed to provide brake pressure so the car had little to no brake assistance. So the brakes would work but be pretty damn hard to push therefore for most drivers (esp if not aware) stopping distances woudl go up.

its the first i've heard of it, and given that i've been working for holden slightly longer than the SIDI's have been out and i'm yet to have any recall bulletins re: brakes cross my desk..... the majority of warranty work is front suspension mounts/bearings/insulators, radio fascia clips and a couple of handbrake mechanisims that have had the ratchet fail..... but nothing there is SIDI specific

[Interceptor]

Originally Posted by djjase

What is ABS? I remember owning a EB with ABS, you slammed the brakes once and then the pedal went to the floor, lucky I knew to pump it to get the pressure back but most people who have driven a ABS car for the first time doesn't know the way they work

umm..... pedal drops to the floor because the accumulators in the ABS actuator open up, giving the modulator a supply of brake fluid with which to trigger the brakes

pumping the brake pedal only serves to confuse the hell out of the ABS system, making it harder for it to do its job and increasing the stopping distance

bloody keyboard warriors **** me off.......

[naddis01]

Originally Posted by Interceptor

its the first i've heard of it, and given that i've been working for holden slightly longer than the SIDI's have been out and i'm yet to have any recall bulletins re: brakes cross my desk..... the majority of warranty work is front suspension mounts/bearings/insulators, radio fascia clips and a couple of handbrake mechanisims that have had the ratchet fail..... but nothing there is SIDI specific

http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/in.../itemId/970920

Holden—VE model—Increased Brake Pedal Effort Required
PRA number: 2009/11279
Date created: 9th December 2009

Product information
Product description
Holden VE models Omega and Berlina fitted with 3.0 litre V6 engines. MY2010.

Identifying features
Campaign number: 09-H-01.
Target number: 3,519.
VIN Range:
Omega. From 6G1EK##F#AL400777 to 6G1EK##F#AL420262.
Berlina. From 6G1EL##F#AL401064 to 6G1EL##F#AL419959.

What are the defects?
On some occasions, when the brakes are used after an initial cold engine start, brake booster power assistance is not available. As a result increased brake pedal effort may be required to achieve the expected stopping distance.

Where the product was sold
National

Supplier
Holden

What should consumers do?
Holden will write to owners of affected vehicles at their last registered address.

[Interceptor]

i'll have to look into that then...... evidently i'm not getting told all i should....

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

It took 45 mins for him to work that out?

Yup, 45 min's to work out the brakes stop the car...
Lucky he called Ford and 000 to work that out!

:

Anyway, why is this thread still going?
Enough already.
We know how to stop a car and Chase has just learned it.

[durtyharry]

I believe its a hoax too, along the lines he thought he went past a speed camera or similar.

But one question, is it possible to get the vehicle into neutral under full throttle

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by durtyharry

I believe its a hoax too, along the lines he thought he went past a speed camera or similar.

But one question, is it possible to get the vehicle into neutral under full throttle

i think if a speed camera was involved we would have heard about it

although i am talking about a borg warner 35 and not a new transmission, you could move them into neutral at full throttle with the speed climbing rapidly. different type of transmission i know, but you would think it would be unsafe to have a total lock out. it was the thing that saved my coupe (and me, other cars and houses) years ago when the carby return spring broke accelerating away from a speed hump with a t intersection no more than 100 metres away. the brand new engine did not like it - a 250 revving to well over 4000, but the other situation was much worse

[TUF_302]

What a surprise, theres nothing wrong with the guys Explorer!, maybe it didn't fail!, stupid guy thinking he can pull the wool over the cops eyes by blaming his car, as has been posted before theres just to many safegaurds on cruise control systems to allow this to happen

[Melz]

Is he going to get fined for driving and talking on his mobile phone, or recklessly endangering life, or driving down the emergency stopping lane..... etc etc???

[MuztangNZ]

It's official, Mr Weir has been diagnmosed with FITH (F#@*#d In The Head) syndrome. This explaines why he could not deactivate the cruise controll. They wont find anything wrong with the vehicle! :

[JC]

Originally Posted by durtyharry

.......But one question, is it possible to get the vehicle into neutral under full throttle

Yes. I had a 2004 explorer (very similar to a 2002 model) until a few days after this incident (me getting rid of it was unrelated) and the gear selector will go between N D 3 & 2 and vice versa with cruise on. Moving from D to N turns cruise off reagardless of throttle position and the engine just sits at idle with the car slowing down.

[Retro Racer]

Originally Posted by Interceptor

umm..... pedal drops to the floor because the accumulators in the ABS actuator open up, giving the modulator a supply of brake fluid with which to trigger the brakes

pumping the brake pedal only serves to confuse the hell out of the ABS system, making it harder for it to do its job and increasing the stopping distance

bloody keyboard warriors **** me off.......

Here here!!!

I had the ABS cut in unintentionally for the first time yesterday... My fault, took my eyes of the road for a second or two to adjust the aircon system to seal out smoke I was driving through, looked up and everyone was on the picks with smoking tyres right in front of me... I was doing ~50, applied quite a bit of brake, pedal then went lower and the modulation came in rapid fire (compared to a much older Ford I had experienced years ago) and pulled me up with less than a foot to spare. I seriously thought I was going in, but I must say I'm super impressed considering it was an unloaded FG ute.

As for this Chase peanut... IMO ,he should be charged with dangerous driving and a condition applied that he can work around this scenario with an advanced instructor before he is let loose in any vehicle again... One less moron to deal with on our roads can only be a good thing IMO. This would have to be cheaper than what may have required massive insurance payouts etc had he not managed to stop the vehicle.

Also... Once again IMO, anyone defending this clown should go do an advanced driver training course too!

This is purely my opinion in on a public forum... but flame on if you must :

[Bobman]

Originally Posted by Retro Racer

Also... Once again IMO, anyone defending this clown should go do an advanced driver training course too!

Can't help but agree with you there. Some of the comments on the 3aw website were interesting. One woman said she'd panic too because she has no idea how cars work.

Why are these clowns even allowed to be on our roads? You wouldn't see pilots start crying and screaming if they had a flame-out on one or two engines.

Advanced driver courses should be compulsory for everyone, but it won't happen because it costs money, which is a real shame.

[Whitey Ford]

Originally Posted by Bobman

Can't help but agree with you there. Some of the comments on the 3aw website were interesting. One woman said she'd panic too because she has no idea how cars work.

Someone's gotta buy Camrys

[fairBA]

Not to pick holes in is story but does anyone know what time Ford service opens? Didn't this all happen around 5-7am??? but he spoke to someone from Ford on the phone first?

[Bobman]

Originally Posted by fairBA

Not to pick holes in is story but does anyone know what time Ford service opens? Didn't this all happen around 5-7am??? but he spoke to someone from Ford on the phone first?

Happened at around 1pm.

[388cube_edxr8]

Something that I have noticed is that he was reported as covering 54km in 30mins. If my maths is correct, that makes an average speed of 108km/h.

I'm going with the theory of "Oh s***, was that a speed camera? I better make something up!"

[XHUTE6]

the cruise control in my old Kenworth K100 used to stay on. the only way to turn it off was to press the button to turn it off. the brakes switch didn't work anymore. And i'm pretty sure that if i was silly enough, I could pull that up with a gross mass of 62 tonne...

[XWGT]

Is there anyway to tell this guy hes a personally? Doing it over a forum just dosnt seem to provide the correct amount of disdain and pure contempt I have for this muppet.

Scammer. Pure and simple.

[MAD]

Originally Posted by djjase

Everyone's comments are based on what they think they would do - not until one faces the same situation should then one state so rational that this is a joke or that this guy is thick - I am sure professional car drivers make mistakes quite regularly - I worked for Fujitsu, one of the sponsors of the V8 Supercar series - I know after seeing these guys on practice days they make lots of mistakes - due to wanting to try something different, push the car this way or that way - they too can loose control of a car very easily

The problem with this comment is that those examples on the race track are NOT mistakes. The drivers are purposely pushing the boundaries to find the absolute limits of grip to get around the track faster.
Yes they may lose control when the car suddenly loses grip, but its not a mistake.

I concur with everyone that this guy is a muppet and should be charged with talking on a mobile phone, driving in a emergency lane, speeding and for just being a moron, once Ford do a thorough examination of the vehicle and find that there was nothing that could have caused the situation that he claims to have been placed in.

Those of you that are supporting the 'victim' plea due to panicking etc should sit back and have a think about how well trained the 000 operators are at getting people to calm down and do exactly what they say in extreme situations.
Many people that have never known any sort of CPR can be instructed how to do so over the phone. Even when it is a loved one that is lying dead in front of them.

[snowcone]

As an Explorer owner I can't say I have ever tried to move the selector lever while driving at 100kmh or with the cruise control engaged. I can however say as a mechanic, that this guy is full of it and he has been caught out. One of the things about the Explorer is that it has one of the worst handbrakes I have ever encountered. Firstly this guy says the brakes won't stop him, but at the finish the combination of the foot and hand brakes was enough. What a load of cr@p because the handbrake will barely hold these 2 tonne things when they are parked. They have very small brake shoes inside the rear discs and would have virtually no braking effect at speed. Not even remotely possible to have the ignition key fail, and the selector gate jam, and the brakes fail, and the cruise control to not disengage all at the same time. The Explorer is the biggest selling 4WD in the world so you think this would be a daily occurrence if all these faults existed, not a one-off in Australia where only a handful were sold compared to the USA

[UNR8D]

Is there anyway to tell this guy hes a personally? Doing it over a forum just dosnt seem to provide the correct amount of disdain and pure contempt I have for this muppet.

Scammer. Pure and simple.

Yep already have.

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?...9524323&ref=ts

look under topics, see my arguement with him... after getting owned he blocked me and wont reply to some very simple questions I had for him... sook.

Ryan Lennon is me.

[SVD]

nice going, that guy is the biggest twat! he should get the Douche of the universe award along with that John Edward guy (you'll know if you enjoy south park)

[xdc351]

Originally Posted by UNR8D

Yep already have.

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?...9524323&ref=ts

look under topics, see my arguement with him... after getting owned he blocked me and wont reply to some very simple questions I had for him... sook.

Ryan Lennon is me.

GOLD!

Might have to see where else he is posting and offer some more ownage. How anyone takes this guy for real is beyond me.

[silvergsvan]

Originally Posted by S3SR

the cruise control bit isnt hard to believe a friends AU Fairlane V8's cruise control sticks ON, the only way to get it off is to jam on the brakes very hard.... its no longer used anymore ....... next time i see him ill try and get some video footage of it just to show the sceptics.......

We've had that problem on both our ELs, there is a module under the brake pedal that requires replacement.

The kindest view I can take of this guy is that he simply panicked and couldn't help himself. I accept that he was genuinely scared and has no idea ewhat happened.

[ST]

I think this thread has run it's course, seems to be going in circles now.

However, one thing i'd like to add is the damaging effect this has had on the public perception of Ford. When the media reports on something like this the general population will often side with 'the little guy' or at least have very little faith in technology.

This has caused a loss of faith in Ford from more people than you'd think, I was surprised how many people discussed this story with me. Most of these people know nothing of cars nor really care for them, but because this story is getting such large coverage they take notice and have a negative view on Ford. Now all of a sudden stories of "my friend had a territory that..." and "my mates Falcon wouldn't..." are told after people hear or read about this and out of nowhere every Ford in existence is plagued with cruise control hiccups (exaggeration but that is my point).

While this is of course far from the truth it is just another example of how easily general news media can manipulate people. The sad truth is this will probably result in lost business for Ford.

[xdc351]

Originally Posted by ST

I think this thread has run it's course, seems to be going in circles now.

However, one thing i'd like to add is the damaging effect this has had on the public perception of Ford. When the media reports on something like this the general population will often side with 'the little guy' or at least have very little faith in technology.

This has caused a loss of faith in Ford from more people than you'd think, I was surprised how many people discussed this story with me. Most of these people know nothing of cars nor really care for them, but because this story is getting such large coverage they take notice and have a negative view on Ford. Now all of a sudden stories of "my friend had a territory that..." and "my mates Falcon wouldn't..." are told after people hear or read about this and out of nowhere every Ford in existence is plagued with cruise control hiccups (exaggeration but that is my point).

While this is of course far from the truth it is just another example of how easily general news media can manipulate people. The sad truth is this will probably result in lost business for Ford.

Precisely why this tread needs to stay open.

If you or anyone else has someone that believes Chase's rubbish, send them here, so they can see for themselves what a load of crap his lies are.

If it wasn't for independent forums like this, the mainstream media could run their mouths with impunity. Just try and find an article (other than the reasonably soft ACA story) on Chase that calls into question his version of events without sensational claims that have no basis of fact.

At least here the truth can be discussed without any agenda and facts can finally get a voice. So far no-one has been able to validate his version of events but there have been plenty of people with sound mechanical knowledge ready to crush his 15 minutes of fame into oblivion.