Sudden unintended acceleration in the second generation Tundra.

I know most of you love your Tundra as I did too at one time. I purchased a 2007 Tundra Limited Double Cab in July of 2007. In 2010 I received two recalls due to sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The first recall indicated the floormat was the cause, but my floormat was locked in place making it impossible to slide into the accelerator. The second recall said the original accelerator was the cause so I took my truck into a local Toyota dealership as soon as possible where they installed a new accelerator and assured me this issue was now resolved. I never receives anything else from Toyota regarding the issue. In February, 2023 my truck with 164,000 miles almost killed my wife when this happened to her. She was 20 yards into her trip and still in the circle of our driveway when the truck took off as if she had pressed the accelerator to the floorboard. In panic mode she turned into our yard where the truck knocked down four small trees before being stopped by a large hardwood tree. When the truck hit the tree off center the rear bounced into the air and landed about six yards to the left of its original path. Because the truck could not move forward due to the tree, both rear wheels actually dug into the ground. My wife often buckles her seatbelt as she is moving slowly up the driveway so her seatbelt was not fastened when the truck took off. The impact without a seatbelt along with the airbag threw her to the right and forward where her forehead broke the rearview mirror lose and the base made a deep gash in her forehead. She sustained a bruise on her right thigh from the center console and her right hand from the shifter. The impact with the base of the rear view mirror actually fractured vertebrae T-1, T-2 and T-3 of her spinal column. I paid to have an engineer obtain the details from the truck's black box. The black box indicates the truck went from 1.2 MPH to 42.3 MPH in less than five seconds. The sudden unintended acceleration only lasted 3 seconds before the crash. The truck had only traveled about 60 yards from the start of the trip to the crash. The black box and photos prove the rear wheels continued to spin after the truck was stopped by the tree. I notified Toyota in hopes they would take responsibility for my wife's injuries. They responded that their engineers had determined my wife was pressing the accelerator instead of the brakes because the black box showed the brakes were not applied and was also responsible for her injuries because she had not fastened her seat belt. Even more disturbing is my research uncovered the fact that Toyota was investigated by the DOJ for their poor response to this issue and ended up paying a $1.2 billion fine in 2014 to avoid criminal prosecution. After my wife's accident I recalled attending the funeral of one of my first cousins. Despite the fact that he had 25 years of experience as a police officer, he was killed while driving his 2011 Toyota Tundra when he lost control entering a curve at a very high speed. All this time we thought he must have suffered a medical condition but after my wife's experience I believe he had the exact same experience as my wife. As if our experience so far hasn't been bad enough, every attorney I have talked to has declined to litigate against Toyota. Toyota runs up the cost of litigation with a team of expert witnesses who will testify the accident was caused by driver error (pressing the accelerator instead of the brakes) and not unintended acceleration of the vehicle. One attorney told me the only way they would litigate against Toyota would be if my wife had not survived the crash and another attorney told me the litigation cost to a law firm could easily exceed $300,000 and the most they could hope for was to break even. As for my cousin, his crash occurred in 2018 so the statute of limitations has already expired. I'm in hopes owners and drivers 0f 2007-2013 Tundras will read my post and know that the only way you can safely stop a vehicle experiencing sudden unintended acceleration is to shift into neutral and then apply the brakes. I reported both my cousin's and my wife's accidents to the the NHTSA and while they promised to investigate the have not responded to two different Freedom of Information request. Finally, if any attorney knows how to litigate successfully against Toyota I am more than willing to listen.

 

Taking Toyota on is a tall hill to climb, almost nobody will be willing to try it.

Where is the precrash data table from the black box? If you paid an engineer to access it he should have given you a pdf report.
The data will show throttle application %, Engine RPM, Brake On/Off and Vehicle Speed at every 0.50 seconds for 5.0 seconds. If Throttle % is up high, engine rpm is up high and no brake application her foot is most likely on the gas pedal. The throttle value 0-100% is generated directly at the pedal.

I have seen several times where a throttle application happened instead of a brake. Generally this leads to cars inside of buildings ect. Most common when people are trying to park. It happens more that you would think.

Honestly the the damage to the front of the truck doesn't quite look like a 42 Mph impact into a tree. You would expect to see more damage/deformation of the front body panels at that speed, the grill doesn't even really look broken.

1 Mph to 42 Mph in 3 seconds is a pretty good acceleration rate however, like a 0.60 g

 

Great post. I litigated against Toyota once but it wasn’t a sudden acceleration issue. I think our case costs were about $275k.


@Oconeeplayer - sorry this happened.

 

I must say I am somewhat surprised by the Toyota defenders when this has happened to thousands of American drivers of Toyota vehicles. I suspect you would feel differently if one of your first cousins had been killed or your wife seriously injured by this known hazard that Toyota purposely hid in order to increase company profits. This is especially true for me as Toyota replaced the original accelerator in a 2010 recall and assured me the replacement accelerator completely eliminated this hazard from my truck. To all of the doubters I going to provide my proof that this was sudden unintended acceleration and not driver error by the attachments to this post. FYI, when I told the service manager at my local Toyota dealership about my wife's accident he responded that his Toyota Rep had told him Toyota had investigated every one of these accidents and all were found to be driver error, pressing the accelerator instead of the brakes. Of course I told him this was not the case in my wife's accident. Now for the proof. The first attachment is an email from the engineer who obtained the black box data along with his interpretation. His comments are in red. As can be seen from the data this accident happened in slightly over five seconds from the start of my wife's trip. She was in the circle of our driveway when the sudden unintended acceleration began. At such a slow speed there would have been no reason for her to slam on the brakes. She even remembers glancing down at her foot to make sure she was not pressing on the accelerator when the truck lunged forward. When she looked back up she realized the truck was headed straight toward an electrical transformer box located next to our driveway because our house has underground utilities. In panic mode and knowing the likely results of crashing into an electric transformer she made the decision to turn the truck into the woods to try and stop the truck with a tree. While the black box also shows she did not attempt to stop the truck by applying the breaks, this would have been useless as Toyota elected not to spend the money to equip these trucks with a safety device that would have stopped or slowed down the engine when the brakes are applied. The black shows the truck reached a speed of 42.3 MPH in less than 5 seconds which is in line with a Road and Trach Magazines test which showed this exact truck has the ability to go from zero to sixty MPH in 6.3 seconds. Had my wife continued up our very long driveway the speed would have likely been is excess of 80 MPH and she most likely would not be here today. We had never discussed the correct way to stop a runaway truck (shifting into neutral and then apply the brakes) because Toyota never warned us the issue still existed. As can be seen from the black box data the heavy accelerator input continued after the truck had been completely stopped by the tree. I have attached photos of both the left and right rear wheels proving they continued to spin when the truck could no longer move forward. I have also attached a photo of my wife from the day after the crash showing the severity of her injuries from crashing into the rear view mirror at 42.3 MPH without her seatbelt being fastened. In addition to the photo, an MRI showed the impact with the mirror base was significant enough to cause three vertebra to fracture. In order for this accident to have been caused by driver error my would have had to continue pressing on the accelerator after the crash which caused her injuries. I don't believe this feat is humanly possibly, especially by an average 74 year female. As a side note, after letting the truck sit in my yard for ten months I decided the NHTSA had no intension to investigate the accident especially when they did not respond to two formal FOIA request for the status so I decided to make my insurance company process my collision claim Despite the damage shown in the photos the truck was considered a total loss as the repair came in at just under $12,000. If I accomplish nothing else with my post I'm in hopes those those who read this realize that if this were to happen to them please remember how to stop their runaway Toyota truck by shifting into neutral and then applying the brakes. I had driven my truck 164,000 without issue until this happened to my wife.

 

The computer shows the brake was never activated. See the brake switch “off” entries? Saying someone is trying to stop but never hit the brakes doesn’t make any sense. I know it all happened very quickly but the evidence isn’t favorable and the burden of proof falls on the claimant.

 

I suspect that any attempt at litigation would be thwarted by the fact the the driver was not wearing their seatbelt prior to the vehicle being placed in motion and that fact would be maintained as the cause of their injuries.

I've not read of a claimed case of unintended acceleration of a Toyota truck, only passenger cars.

The human brain's memory is not considered to be reliable, particularly post head injury.

I am sincerely sorry for the experience that you and your family have gone through, but in my humble opinion, I don't think that you would have a leg to stand on and that might be considered reinforced by the fact that a lawyer can't be found to pursue Toyota for responsibility.

 

I will say two things:

1. I am really sorry to hear about your wife’s injuries and the ordeal that you both are going through.

2. ANYTHING you post on the internet is admissible and could be detrimental to any possible claim. Asking for advice on a forum while providing the detail you have is a recipe for disaster. If you REALLY want to continue to pursue this, you should be talking to law firms and cold calling every personal injury lawyer. One of them MAY take it. But as you are finding out, Toyota and other large corporations can wait you out and know the law wayyyyyyy better than most. Also, as much as anyone would hate to admit in cases like these there may have been operator error.

All the best to you and your wife.

 

So sorry this happened to her, I’m sure it was scary as hell. Hard to believe the truck accelerated that fast, especially on non-pavement. You would think the rear tires would be spinning. I have never been in a vehicle could over power the brakes, but I’m sure it’s possible. In my 45 years of driving, I have accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the brake a few times and was fortunate not to crash. Every time was when I was barely moving. I too, would have expected much more front end damage at that speed. I hope you get this resolved and your wife heals quickly.

 

I am in no way defending Toyota nor am I trying to downplay your wifes injuries. I completely agree with you that these kinds of incidents are more personal when it is someone you know or love, part of the family.

I myself am one of those engineers and I have been investigating accidents for years most of which involve a fatality. I actual know of Collision Data. I have downloaded hundreds of passenger cars of all make and model including many Toyotas. As far as taking on an OEM, as I said that is a hard hill to climb. I know one incident that left a young lady paralyzed due to an alleged airbag fault. Her attorney is worried about trying to take on Toyota. Its expensive with low odds of a favorable outcome. It just a sad reality that ligation against big business is very difficult.

A few things about your data. Time 0 the last data sample is the time the airbag deployed, there is no data recorded after the impact with the tree. You get 5 seconds of data because that is what is mandated and required by the recorder in all vehicles. This event started 2-3 seconds before the impact with the tree. No brake application at all, heavy accelerator input starts and continues to the end. The voltage signal 0-5V is created by the throttle pedal on the floor. To get a change in reading the pedal has to be depressed. Engine RPM shoots up to 4,000.

Impact speed is more like 20-25 Mph, your engineer even comments the 42 Mph reading is likely wheel spin, which it is. Wheel speed drives the Speedometer gauges on these trucks, them spinning in the dirt with no traction creates higher reported speed than actual speed. The vehicle can not accelerate from 19.9 Mph to 42.3 Mph in 1.0 second this would be over 1.0 G acceleration rate and not even high end sports cars can pull that off on a dry pavement surface. A truck certainly can not do that on an off-road dirt surface.

The report will show a longitudinal delta v or instant change in velocity at impact. This should also be 20-25 Mph, meaning when truck hit the tree it was going 20-25 and at the end it was going 0. The change instantly is 20-25 mph. This is measured by the accelerometers in the ecu that was downloaded. I should also add it could be a tree she impacted prior to the one the truck is up against triggered the airbag. If so the truck rolled to a stop up against the a secondary tree in the photo. This scenario would be a lower delta v as the truck doesn't instantly go to 0 mph at impact.

I am truly sorry your wife had to experience this. As I said I am not here to take any sides, I will however provide some observations on what I see to help give some insight.

I would also agree that if an unintended acceleration event ever occurs getting the vehicle into neutral to cut power to the drive wheels is a good idea. Just do not try to turn the key off to kill the engine, the last thing you want is the steering column to lock with the vehicle traveling at speed.

 

I got that stupid recall done on my old Crewmax even though I think that was all bullsh%#t hype created by trial lawyers to get people who hit the wrong pedal a pay day.


My truck was fine but I had family nag me into getting it done. The pedal fix actually made my pedal extremely sensitive to the point where the truck lurched violently if I didn't feather it. My wife would yell at me for lurching haphazardly over bumpy pavement and I'd have to tell her my throttle was messed up by the recall and i couldn't help it. The condition the FIRST pedal procedure put my truck in made it borderline dangerous in some scenarios.

Which then if I remember correctly Toyota remedied with another fix for the pedal itself, a PART II if you will. Two pedal procedures separate from the floormat thing. There was a shim involved at some stage and then a pedal replacement, don't remember which was which. Might have been shimmed first, then got a redesigned pedal.

It was the 2nd fix that got my throttle behavior back to normal. I wonder if the OP only got Part I and left it at that.

Lol I remember In the end the attorneys were down to talking about a potential fantom engine computer glitch that materialized out of nowhere and could not be detected after the fact.

 

OP - sorry to read this.

@Jeff_5_7, is the 5V accelerator ever converted to CAN and then acted upon by other ECUs, or is it straight to ECM where the ADC occurs? In my novice electronic projects I've had data corrupted by bit slip post conversion/during transmission.

*By no means am I suggesting that happened here.

 

Yeah here you go, after lots of complaints about dangerously sensitive pedals Toyota took the shim out and replaced the pedal itself.

 

Yes it is converted to a digital CAN signal.

The way I understand it, the accelerator pedal is drive by wire consisting of a two potentiometers operating on a 5V scale. The voltage varies with throttle application and this signal voltage is fed into the ECM, the ECM then takes it and sends voltage controls to the throttle position sensor or butterfly valve in the intake to bring in more air.

The ECM broadcast throttle position on CAN bus but the one I log reports it on a 0-100% applied scale. I assumed the actual voltage values from the potentiometers can be read as well as this download data is stored in the SRS airbag module. The CAN would be the only way for the voltage value to make it from the ECM into the SRS module. There is an entire 8 Byte data packet related to throttle only broadcast by the ECM on CAN. (Msg ID: 0x2C1)

I had thought I read once that the Toyota unintended accelerator was a code error "bit that flipped" scenario inside the ECM. Meaning you could remove the voltage signal from the accelerator pedal but the ECM passing the data onto the throttle failed to removed (or inverted) the voltage signal keeping the butterfly valve open in the intake. If this is true the pedal would be near 0v (less than 1v) while engine RPM was still high or climbing.

 

That's what I was getting at. A14 is analog to the ECM where digitization occurs. Since D9 is commanded by CAN 0x2C1, a bit flip/rot scenario seems possible for inverted output, but you'd expect accelerator position to then be 5V or 100%; not the shown 3.44-3.67V. That's also why I mentioned bit slip, since a hiccup in clocks can result in varied output. I'm curious to know if the pulled accelerator data is analog or CAN. Given Toyota's stance, it seems like analog is reported, not CAN from the SRS module.

 

My interpretation is that D9 is also analog potentiometers controlled by the ECM. In addition to that the 0X2C1 message is sent out to all the other Ecus on CAN.

All of the data from the "download" is stored in the EEPROM of the SRS (also called airbag control) module. It receives vehicle parameters (Speed, Rpm, Brake, Throttle ect.) via the CAN bus as it has no other direct link to the ECM, ABS or other Ecus. Acceleration data is received from internal accelerometers in the SRS module. The SRS modules decision to deploy the airbag is also the trigger for it to save the CAN "buffer" data into the EEPROM to create a "downloadable event".

 

And they can hold up to three events, correct?

 

Generally speaking yes. 3 events can be stored in the SRS module. If an event is the result of an airbag deployment it is “frozen” and can not be written over.

If an event is the result of a non deployment trigger (the module felt something abnormal but not serious enough to deploy the airbag) it will be stored but unlocked and can be overwritten by a newer event in the future.

 

I don't know if full throttle is 5 volts on the tundra. Many low voltage sensors don't peak at 5 volts so i wouldn't make that assumption, but what does interest me is the flucuation in the voltage when the throttle is alleged to have been pinned wide open by a computer flaw. The freeze frame data shows 3.67 volts, then 3.44, then 3.59 (twice). Part of that makes me think it wasn't a glitch, but the 3.59 twice makes me think otherwise. I'd guess that it's more sensitive than that. To be able to have the exact same reading 1 second apart on the throttle as the truck is launching into the treeline. It would be interesting to have the voltage data for the throttle graphed on the truck to try and replicate it.

Edit: nevermind i just saw the 3.59 numbers are only 0.1 second apart. The flucuation in the throttle input voltage makes me think operator error. 74 year old woman driving an unfamiliar vehicle...uhhh sorry man. That's why all the pharmacies and post offices here in FL have giant bollards in front of the handicap parking spaces. To keep the old people from crashing into the stores.

 

For sure, I was oversimplifying. Anything 4.7ishV+ (assuming it is a 5V line) would be "pinned" IMO.

 

Pinned is in the upper 3V range.

 

You know sometimes I do notice a sudden acceleration, more acceleration than what should be.

 

I didn't read every post except the initial but wouldn't a class action suit better serve you?

I've experienced rapid acceleration from time to time. It's very violent and only occurs upon initial acceleration from a stop. And I'm VERY light on the gas too. It's the oddest and most embarrassing moment because you can see my truck jerk up and down, and accelerate violently. It makes me look like I'm doing it intentionally by getting on the gas the off then back on.

I have over 114k miles and it not as frequent like before where it would occur almost every day.

 

One thing I don’t see mentioned in this thread is that the recall involved both a software change to prioritize brake over acceleration, and the brake pedal shim. The recall TSB instructions state that if the shim causes issues proceed to replace the pedal assembly.

If the recall was completed fully the software would have been updated and stepping on the brake would cut off the accelerator signal. I’m the second owner of my 07 and I didn’t like how the accelerator pedal worked (recall was performed by Toyota at request by dealer who sold me the truck). After a few months of owning the truck and having a crappy pedal I tried to buy the most recent accelerator pedal. I had the recall TSB with me and my local Toyota dealer replaced it at no cost. New pedal is superior to a shimmed pedal, but still touchy.