2000 Ford Explorer - Brake Problem

This morning when I was leaving for work, my vehicle actually
accelerated when I pressed the brake pedal. This almost caused an
accident as I shot out into the middle of traffic. Have others
experienced this problem?

During the remainder of my morning ride the brakes were fine. Last
night, I do recall a slight sensation like what happened this morning,
but it was minor in comparison and I had actually thought it was just
my vehicle slipping a bit on wet pavement (it rained all day). After
the occurance this morning, I'm wondering if my vehicle is safe to
drive.

Any suggestions on what the problem might be? Any others with this
experience?

[email protected] wrote:
>
> This morning when I was leaving for work, my vehicle actually
> accelerated when I pressed the brake pedal. This almost caused an
> accident as I shot out into the middle of traffic. Have others
> experienced this problem?
>
> During the remainder of my morning ride the brakes were fine. Last
> night, I do recall a slight sensation like what happened this morning,
> but it was minor in comparison and I had actually thought it was just
> my vehicle slipping a bit on wet pavement (it rained all day). After
> the occurance this morning, I'm wondering if my vehicle is safe to
> drive.
>
> Any suggestions on what the problem might be? Any others with this
> experience?

Most likely you actually had your foot miss positioned so
that it was at least partially on the accelerator pedal.
I've had this happen more than once on a variety of cars. It
can be scary. For my Thunderbird it is very easy to press
the accelerator pedal while pressing the brake pedal. The
brake pedal moves a fair amount before the brakes are
actually applied. During this movement, if you happen to
also press on the accelerator pedal, the car will speed up.
When this happens the natural reaction to release the pedal.
My advice is for you to pay careful attention to foot
placement.

Ed

Same suggestion that everyone else gets when this happens: your foot
was probaly on the accelerator and not the brake. Even I did it once,
and I'm a fairly good driver (no accidents in the last 20 or so
years).

For a vehicle to actually accelerate under the conditions you
describe, you would have to have two, transient, failures at the same
time: your brakes would have to have failed, and your accelerator
would have to also failed causing the engine to rev up.

Chalk it up to life, and be careful...

On 15 Feb 2005 07:08:58 -0800, [email protected] wrote:

>This morning when I was leaving for work, my vehicle actually
>accelerated when I pressed the brake pedal.