Gas Pedal Problem

[catsgalore]

I hope my post will help others. We left on our RV trip on March 21st in our 1999 Fleetwood Southwind Storm. We left from Arkansas and we were headed to California. We reached Santa Rosa, New Mexico and took the 54 Southwest to the 70 into Las Cruces, New Mexico. The road has a few large climbs with long downhill grades. We were just about to go downhill when our gas pedal got stuck on the firewall in the floored position. My husband tried to slow down the RV but it was a lot for the brakes as we were towing our vehicle in the back as well. We were going downhill so fast and luckily no one was in front of us. We got off at the very next exit and the RV was still racing we pulled into a dirt area and the RV finally stopped. The brakes were no longer working. After we calmed down we called our Roadside Assistance who after a few hours told us they could not get anyone to help us. We stayed in a parking lot for the night but neither of us had any sleep. The next day I called Roadside Assistance again and this time they sent a mechanic who tried to move the gas pedal over with a crow bar and added brake fluid for us. He told us our brake pads crystalized which is to bad for us because they were fairly new. The mechanic took cash only and also charged 75 dollars an hour with a two hour minimum. We proceeded to Tucson and had the brakes pads replaced. The RV ran fine all the way to California and back to Arkansas. I called Fleetwood and asked why the pedal was so close to the firewall and they told me to call Chevy which told me to call Fleetwood. I finally gave up. I'm posting this so that maybe we can help others to prevent a freak event like this one.

[BTPO1]

Executive wrote:


On another note......when the accelerator gets stuck like that, sometimes it's best to simply turn the key OFF rather than fight the brakes and the engine. The power brakes won't work as well but they will work. Better than picking up too much speed and if the brakes finally heat up and fail, you're screwed....glad to hear you came out of this incident ok...must be terrifying.....Dennis

I agree, but make sure that you do not go to the lock position as that will lock the steering wheel. You can also go to the neutral position. Most newer vehicles have a rev limiter I believe. JMO

[Executive45]

Have you determined WHY the pedal stuck? Did it get jammed or wedged somehow? I'm trying to picture why and how the pedal might get stuck.

On another note......when the accelerator gets stuck like that, sometimes it's best to simply turn the key OFF rather than fight the brakes and the engine. The power brakes won't work as well but they will work. Better than picking up too much speed and if the brakes finally heat up and fail, you're screwed....glad to hear you came out of this incident ok...must be terrifying.....Dennis

[1492]

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