RE: Unintended flames

[Daniel Hussey <GY3WSX@UNIVSCVM.CSD.SCAROLINA.EDU>]

     Eric,

        I couldn't agree more!  In fact, when these claims were made, Audi spen
t millions of dollars doing R&D into the problem, and trying to find a source.
You know what they came up with?  Nada!  I hate to say anything disregarding wh
at other listmembers have said, but if Audi didn't find the problem, I doubt an
y listmembers have found the "golden egg". If it was something as small as the
idle control, that would have been discovered in Audis reasearch and, like ever
yone already said, the brakes would definately stop the car.  No question there
.  The people who made these claims, claimed that they were on the brakes, and
the car just kept going (well, that is technically not possible).

       Well, what was discovered by Audi engineers, was that the brake and the
gas pedal were very close together.  Audi, when converting from the stick to th
e Auto, did not space out the pedals much.  And, as Eric pointed out, the peopl
e who made these claims were basically GM folks, who had bought an Audi.  GM, a
s we well know has thier pedals very far apart.  Also, I believe some of the pe
ople who made the unjustified claims were older people (i.e. old ladies).  What
Audi engineers came up with as what happened, was that people thought they were
hitting the brake, when in fact they were stepping on the gas.  Then, when they
were supprised that the car had accelerated, they just pushed harder on the gas
(which they thought was the brake), and then ran into things (i.e. people, gara
ge doors, pets, etc).  I happen to think that was the problem as well.

       The only thing is that I have driven automatic Audis (5000s autos) and I
didn't find the placement of the pedals to be much of a problem.  Then again, I
like the pedals close together, and I think that GM car's pedals (at least the
older ones) are too far apart.  So, I guess I could see how someone who had bee
n driving GM cars thier entire life could have made this mistake.

       Now, Paul, that example you gave about an early Audi motor flying off th
e dyno during testing sounds like that is something entirely different to me.
That sounds like they were doing some high speed testing, and something went wr
ong.  And, also, on a dyno, and given the testing they were doing, there were o
ther variables involved that we need to take into consideration.  And, as Eric
and others have pointed out, these occurances happened at very low speed, or fr
om a standstill; not at high speeds.  And, again, I see nothing in the engine's
desighn that would cause any sort of an "unintended acceleration".

       You V8 Quattro owners that have experienced simmilar problems, I think t
hat is something entirely different altogether.  Someone stated that they thoug
ht it had something to do with the cruise control box or wiring.  I think that
is another subject entirely.

       Again, these are just my thoughts on this subject given the facts and th
e information provided.  They are my miscelanious ramblings.

                                                            Later,
                                                            Dan