gas pedal broke clean in half just a heads up think it could be a little dangerous

[migs647]

Wow great point!!!! I know our Rear View mirrors are specially designed to be breakaway as well. I never thought about this on the pedals. Good idea

[yooyooyoo]

Originally Posted by steinvb12

NO! NO! NO!

Do NOT attempt to fix or alter your gas pedal. This gas pedal was DESIGNED to be a breakaway pedal! If any of you guys actually took the time to look at the pedal, you can see they diesigned it that way. They could of easily made it stronger, for even less money!!! But that would defeat the purpose of a breakaway pedal.

Believe it or not, this pedal is made to save your ankles and legs in an accident. Many people used to break their ankles because the pedal wouldn't move and your ankle is what gave way, not the pedal.

If I had a choice, I would take the breakaway pedal 1 million times over a stiff pedal if it saves my ankles. It is for SAFETY!!!

Close this ridiculous topic. Move on...

aside from visual inference, do you have any other evidence to backup this claim? Is the brake pedal a break away pedal as well from your pov?

[majinfajita]

Originally Posted by yooyooyoo

aside from visual inference, do you have any other evidence to backup this claim? Is the brake pedal a break away pedal as well from your pov?

Bear in mind these articles are not specific to your vehicle or mine but there is evidence for energy-absorbing (and injury mitigating) pedals in motor vehicles:

Hyundai but still relevant to this topic:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6964212.html

Another patent on the design
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/61...scription.html

Study on force-mitigating/breakaway pedals to reduce driver leg trauma
http://journals.pepublishing.com/con...2l5151n643w40/

Volvos also use collapsing pedals:
http://www.volvocars.com/us/footer/a...t.aspx?item=71

Though I cannot find links to it, so do Hondas, Chevys and Chryslers (I remember advertisements about them)....and it's all pedals not just the accelerator....

[asng]

Originally Posted by steinvb12

NO! NO! NO!

Do NOT attempt to fix or alter your gas pedal. This gas pedal was DESIGNED to be a breakaway pedal! If any of you guys actually took the time to look at the pedal, you can see they diesigned it that way. They could of easily made it stronger, for even less money!!! But that would defeat the purpose of a breakaway pedal.

Believe it or not, this pedal is made to save your ankles and legs in an accident. Many people used to break their ankles because the pedal wouldn't move and your ankle is what gave way, not the pedal.

If I had a choice, I would take the breakaway pedal 1 million times over a stiff pedal if it saves my ankles. It is for SAFETY!!!

Close this ridiculous topic. Move on...

hmm... sounds like it make sense... but why just the gas pedal? the brake and clutch pedal will break ankles too.

[Hiboost]

Originally Posted by steinvb12

NO! NO! NO!

Do NOT attempt to fix or alter your gas pedal. This gas pedal was DESIGNED to be a breakaway pedal! If any of you guys actually took the time to look at the pedal, you can see they diesigned it that way. They could of easily made it stronger, for even less money!!! But that would defeat the purpose of a breakaway pedal.

Believe it or not, this pedal is made to save your ankles and legs in an accident. Many people used to break their ankles because the pedal wouldn't move and your ankle is what gave way, not the pedal.

If I had a choice, I would take the breakaway pedal 1 million times over a stiff pedal if it saves my ankles. It is for SAFETY!!!

Close this ridiculous topic. Move on...

There are at least 4 total that I know of now that have had their gas pedal snap off and yes it is indeed an intended design. Personally I would rather have a sturdy pedal since unless all the pedals are break away there is no telling how the firewall is going to hit your ankles in a major crash.

Not sure why you would call this a ridiculous topic... I'm sure if you pulled out into traffic and YOUR gas pedal snapped causing you to suddenly slow down to a crawl in a 50+ mph zone that MOST of the time everyone would see you and slow down... BUT there is always that chance that someone isn't paying attention and nails you at full speed as you are scrambling for the hazard lights. It's definitely a tradeoff for safety in my book.

Previous topics with pictures:

Gas Pedal Broke 2

I have a new one for you guys...don't laugh too hard :(

Are you guys making a better pedals for Evo X???

I remember seeing others here and at other sites but these are the most comprehensive.

The best solution to maintain the break away feature is to simply install some sort of rubber stopper so that the pedal can't flex past it's intended travel and weaken the break away section of the plastic over time. I braced my new pedal with an aluminum bracket as an added measure because I wasn't convinced at the time that the stopper would be enough.

Good luck out there.

[yooyooyoo]

Originally Posted by majinfajita

Bear in mind these articles are not specific to your vehicle or mine but there is evidence for energy-absorbing (and injury mitigating) pedals in motor vehicles:

Hyundai but still relevant to this topic:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6964212.html

Another patent on the design
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/61...scription.html

Study on force-mitigating/breakaway pedals to reduce driver leg trauma
http://journals.pepublishing.com/con...2l5151n643w40/

Volvos also use collapsing pedals:
http://www.volvocars.com/us/footer/a...t.aspx?item=71

Though I cannot find links to it, so do Hondas, Chevys and Chryslers (I remember advertisements about them)....and it's all pedals not just the accelerator....

just because something is designed to be break away does not mean that it should break under normal usage. I've never heard of another car with such a problem.

You guys with this problem should report it immediately to the DOT NHTSA here:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site...6df1020008a0c/

[migs647]

you know, it makes me wonder if the NHTSA even cares or not .

[Rex915]

Originally Posted by odub

how is that scary? There's no way a case like that would hold up in court because honestly, what's the danger of the gas pedal breaking? If it breaks, the car slows down. Wow, so dangerous. The only thing that would be dangerous is if the brake pedal broke, or even if the clutch pedal broke in gear. The gas pedal breaking is annoying sure, but not dangerous.

+1

[kobi2002]

I don't see how you guys don't see the danger in a pedal that breaks. I remember my integra that was turbo'd bogged out in an intersection and i almost got t-boned. This is the third case. and whether or not the are flooring the car, this should be the last thing on your mind. All I can say is better do somthing before somthing bad happens.

[gizmotoy]

Originally Posted by kobi2002

I don't see how you guys don't see the danger in a pedal that breaks. I remember my integra that was turbo'd bogged out in an intersection and i almost got t-boned.

Yea, I don't get it either. Some people either can't fathom all of the possibilities, or refuse to acknowledge them.

I remember one time awhile back I let my Dad wash my car. After taking a look under the hood and noting how dirty it was, he proceeded to spray it down. Shortly after, I took it out and turned on to a road with a 55mph limit, where the car promptly refused to accelerate past 20-25mph as a car quickly approached. I was fortunate in that the guy was paying attention and slammed on his brakes. The skidmarks were there for weeks. I got some choice obscenities and hand gestures at the next light

That's just one possible situation. Intersections with 2-way stops would be bad. Or how'd you like to be in heavy traffic on a nice multi-lane highway when it fails? Getting stranded in a center lane is sure to be quite safe for you The possibilities for danger are endless.

[sonicrx]

do you have a picture? i would like to see where it broke

[xi]

I see the point about having it break-away but from an engineering point of view, it makes no sense that it broke in this manner.

But the strength required to break an ankle it's a much higher force than you'll exert by pushing down on the pedals during hard acceleration and it should never fatigue away and break under normal usage. If a pedal did indeed break, a quick examination under an electron microscope can tell if it was due to yield or fatigue.

[tipoytm]

Were you at part throttle or WOT when it broke? Sorry, might be a dumb question, but didn't see that anywhere on the thread and just wanted to be sure.

[06MR6]

Okay, so it is PLAUSIBLE that a breakaway pedal could snap under the foot of someone who doesn't realize the car goes just as fast with the gas pedal gently touching the end of it's range of movement and likes to hammer the whole weight of their leg into the gas pedal, and even add some extra muscle to the load?!?!?!?

Whoa whoa whoa...

Now fathom this, if you pull out in front of somebody thinking your turbo will correct for your poor judgement, you're an idiot.

If you pull out in front of someone with PLENTY of SPACE then they'll have PLENTY of time to see you and move or brake.


(I AM a hypocrite, believe it or not, I pull out like a jackass too sometimes, but at least if my car malfunctions and I get hit, I'll admit to being an idiot instead of blaming an automaker)

[06MR6]

Originally Posted by gizmotoy

Yea, I don't get it either. Some people either can't fathom all of the possibilities, or refuse to acknowledge them.

Or how'd you like to be in heavy traffic on a nice multi-lane highway when it fails? Getting stranded in a center lane is sure to be quite safe for you The possibilities for danger are endless.

To qoute one of the other broke pedal threads (WITH pics):

Originally Posted by Hiboost

I drove 35 miles back home without too many issues, although trying to push down on what was left of the accelerator arm proved challenging with an ACT 6 puck clutch! Luckily once at speed I was able to just use cruise control without any issues once I hit the highway portion of the trip.

So it would seem that with a little quick thinking that you could very easily clear yourself outta the middle LAME... I mean, lane.

hhhmmmm. I guess I must not be very analytical though huh?