I have a 2003 G35 Coupe and right around 3000 miles I had an incident on a neighborhood road where I was going around 40mph and as I came to a STOP sign and applied the brakes I noticed the car was not stopping all the way. I looked at the RPM's and the needle was going into the 4000's. I was almost past the stop sign trying to hold this beast back. I tried to think clearly yet quickly..I shifted it into park since it was basically stopped...it didn't change anything. I turned the ignition and stopped the engine. I started it back up and it revved back up immediately while sitting in PARK....close to the redline if I remember correctly. I turned it back off and then back on again. This time it was okay. It has not done that since. It's been a few months and has not done it since. I will be sure to mention this to the service dept here soon when I get my next oil change. Anyone else heard of this happening??

 

Yup, it happened to 3 people I know. My father was one of them and it happened to him twice in his old Honda. Basically, it threw him down his driveway in reverse and he was barely able to keep the car from doing down a ravine into the neighbors yard across the street. Happened to him again at a traffic light without incident.

Looks like you need to take it to the dealer and document this problem IMMEDIATELY. Last thing you want is for this to happen in a school zone or at a major intersection. DO NOT HESITATE TO CALL YOUR DEALER. DO IT IMMEDIATELY.

One more time....IMMEDIATELY!

03.5 6spd DG/G aero pk/kit
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

 

This sounds like a repeat of the Audi 5000 issue of years ago. They called it "unintended accelleration". I believe a computer glitch.
Like Balzac said, get it looked at immediately. It's dangerous.

<font color=green>GSM</font color=green>

 

Failure Analysis Associates found the Audi and Jeep issue were in fact irregularily aligned gas/brake peddles. You would swear you were on the brake, but you werent. It was a matter of your orientation in the seat, you would under normal circumstances be on the brake. Wild stuff. it turned out to be very reproducible. the peddles were only 1-2 inches different than the industry standard spacing.

That doesnt account for other issues people have had, and certainly doesnt seem to apply here.. Drive by wire.. wow, that could get scary.. I guess no more scary than a sticking throttle cable tho.

 

Thanks for the correction bro. I was unaware of the real issue.
Justinl90's problem sounds bad tho. Throttle hanging up somehow.... Not good.....[img]/w3timages/icons/frown.gif[/img]

<font color=green>GSM</font color=green>

 

That may have been the Audi problem, but I'm telling you that the Honda was possessed! I was watching his foot on the brake as the engine raced and tried to push us into a major intersection. He turned it off, started it back up and it was fine. Same thing happened again in our driveway with damage to the car and our family's faith in Honda.

This problem DOES EXIST. Its in the car somewhere. The fact that this happened twice and after you started the car back up, tells me that its in the car and not you. I can only tell you what happened to our Honda, but it almost killed us. Take it very seriously. If it happens after they "fix" it, take it back and claim lemon law if you are within the statutory time period. You don't want something like this happening to your wife/gf/kid/neighbor or some other person who might be behind the wheel or in front of the wheels.

03.5 6spd DG/G aero pk/kit
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

 

No, I didnt mean to minimize his problem, it could very well be the car itself.. I would definately have the throttle position sensor checked. I mean, we have a faulty brake switch :/ so I guess anything is possible.

Another common problem was the floor mats getting over top of the gas pedal. Now we all have those buttons to hold them in place. Actual run away throttle is very rare. Hopefully we dont have a drive by wire bug.. that wont be pretty. Its so hard to prove AND the worst part is that no one will believe it the car and not you. I only pointed those things out so you can counter those claims, because thats what service may say it was.

 

Balzac 72 wrote:

"That may have been the Audi problem, but I'm telling you that the Honda was possessed! I was watching his foot on the brake as the engine raced and tried to push us into a major intersection. He turned it off, started it back up and it was fine. Same thing happened again in our driveway with damage to the car and our family's faith in Honda."

The Audi "problem" was indeed pedal placement. Car & Driver magazine did a full expose' on it in response to 60 Minutes' poorly researched "unintended acceleration" piece on their TV show (which nonetheless ruined Audi's reputation for many, many years thereafter). C&D videotaped drivers' feet as they thought they were hitting the brake, proving in every case that they were in fact on the gas. The problem was that the pedals were placed unusually far to the left, so the gas pedal was close to where one might expect the brake to be (nearly in line with the steering column), and that the gas pedal was unusually stiff in feel, again resembling the character of a brake pedal.

Perhaps the most interesting point in the article though was a demonstration of the fact that NO car's engine, whether it's a '62 VW Bug, a McLaren F1 or anything inbetween, can overpower its brakes at any speed under any circumstances. From a stop, at 150 MPH - doesn't matter. Brakes beat engine every time. Period.

Try it yourself if you like. Floor the accelerator (A/T only of course) with the brakes on hard at a dead stop. Not gonna go anywhere. Try the same thing while in motion. You'll stop. Every time.

This does, of course, presuppose that the car has properly functioning brakes. Thus the scenario you're describing (foot on brake, foot off gas, car goes ahead) can ONLY be expained by SIMULTANEOUS brake failure AND throttle self-actuation. This would seem highly unlikely to say the least, but perhaps there's some common cause having to do with the car's computerized VDC system which after all does control both the throttle and the brakes. Did the Honda in question have a VDC system?

If this is the case, it's pretty damn scary, but the solution would almost certainly be to use the hand brake or parking brake to stop the car. It might take a pretty cool head to remember that at the time though.

 

Maybe the cruise control was either ON or the cruise control computer turned itself on? I had a similar issue in my pickup one time - I had Cruise Control on, then shifted out of 5th and the engine redlined. Normally, the clutch should disengage the Cruise Control, but this one time it didn't.

Something worth checking.

G35 6MT/DG/Fully Loaded

 

YES! That was it, they claimed it was in the cruise control!!! Thank you for bringing it up. They ended up replacing a couple parts and it never happened again.

03.5 6spd DG/G aero pk/kit
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

 

I've seen a few incidents with older model cars where a spring for the cruise control got lodged on something and kicked the revs through the roof - the real bi*ch being that turning the car off and back on again didn't help - the only way to solve it was to dislodge the spring.

I can't recall offhand what kind of car it was, but I believe it was an Oldsmobile - for sure a GM product.

Anyway, with the newer vehicles the cruise control is electronically controlled (I believe), so a spring shouldn't be the issue, probably a computer glitch. One thing for sure, everyone that's suggesting taking it to the dealer IMMEDIATELY is correct. This is not something you want to mess around with - especially with the amount of power the G35 has!!

2003 G35 Coupe 6MT Leather
Premium, Aero
"There is no spoon"

 

During the test drive few days back, i had same problem, once was in sedan and one on coupe! the car just bout to come an stop, the engine rev up bout 1500 rpm (not too sure how much up, as i was too busy try to stop the car!) or so and car took off just a bit, i thought it was my foot had touch the gas paddle, i lQQk down i am pretty sure it wasnt, i dont know whats up wiht that? and salesman didnt say anything nor he feel it at all.

 

Thanks for all the posts to my original one. A few things I should probably add. The car was not in cruise control. My car is an automatic and I was driving as such. Like I said, the first time I started the car back up while it was still in PARK it revved again very high (close to redline). I turned it back off and then when I started it again it was fine. I have an appt now to take it in. I am curious if the car's computer would have logged the incident somehow. Thanks again for the replies.

Justin

 

over on maxima.org, same thing.. exactly what you describe. One owner spent 4 months and repeated trips to the dealer before it happened on a tech. They made up some crap about the cable getting hot and contracting (makes no sense) but basically it boiled down to a cruise control problem. Even tho cruise was not being used (in city, at stop light for instance)

scary..