Random Acceleration Problems with Echo

[liloli87]

I have an 01 2-door echo and have experience a sort of surging once with this car. but it is not the first time, ive experienced it in my sisters 01 4-door echo as well.
it only happens on fairly long distance drives in the heat when the engine gets extremely hot and when im in bumper to bumper traffic. my foot is still on the brake but my car decides to accelerate for a split second.

does anyone know what causes this and if its a potential long-term concern?

[EchoHoLiK]

I assume that both Echos that you drove have an automatic transmission. Two possiblities:

1) Make sure your driver-side floor-mat doesn't shift around to the point where it might catch on to the gas pedal, forcing it to accelerate on its own.

2) There might be a slight "surge" especially when the a/c is turned on, and this is quite common among most Toyotas.

If it's scenario #2 which is most likely, there're couple of things you can do. One is to step on the brakes with more force while the car is on a standstill, so even the "surge" will not overpower your brakes. Second is to use your emergency brake (aka handbrake or even "footbrake" on some model of cars), so it's "insurance" so to speak. Third is to put the gear-level to neutral, so the surge due to the a/c compressor won't make the car "surge" because the car's not in gear. You can do any one of the 3 or a combination of them, but just remember to release the emergency brake and or put the gear back into D when you want the car to go.


Good luck and let us know if there're anymore concerns.

[liloli87]

yeah manual trany. thanks. its probably #2. im pretty sure my floor matt didnt come with my car since i got it off ebay, it doesnt reach up to the pedals i dont think. its only happened once in mine and once in my sister's. i hope it doesnt happen again but ill try the suggestions and see what happens next time i travel home.

[EchoHoLiK]

^^^ Oh, if it's manual tranny then it's much simpler, just either A) step on the clutch or B) put it in neutral during a standstill. For extended periods of stopping (such as waiting for the traffic light to go green), personally I'd put it in neutral, and pull the handbrake (so that I don't have to use each of my feet to step on the clutch pedal and the brake pedal for the whole time). It really depends on the circumstance but that's usually what I do in my manual Echo.

[liloli87]

well, my sister's is manual, mine is auto. so ill pass the info to her