| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 006066964 | Incident Date: May, 25 2006 |
| Consumer's City: HAMDEN | Consumer's State: CT |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: MAN | Manufacturers Name: BMW of North America, LLC |
| Model Name: 318TI | Model Year: 1996 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No | Component's Description: Vehicle speed control:cables |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 0 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: WBACG7328TA | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Jun, 01 2006 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: - |
| Was Original Owner: No | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 4 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: I am an engineer who performs failure analysis - my observations are based on significant experience in this field. the car is a 1996 bmw 318ti with a 5 spd manual transmission. the engine is stock. i was driving my 318ti on the interstate highway and noticed that the speed was increasing without throttle input. i turned the cruise control off thinking that it somehow had malfunctioned - the speed continued to increase. when the speed passed 80 mph, i depressed the clutch, which of course allowed the car to slow, but the engine immediately attempted to redline - as the tach got close to the red line, i shut the ignition off, and steered the car to the shoulder. with the car in neutral, i try to start it again, and the engine speed increased very rapidly to redline. i tried this 3-4 times over 5 minutes with the same result each time. i finally opened the hood and found that the throttle cable had come loose from the plastic bushing on the lever housing. this problem was the subject of a 1997 recall, and my car had the repairs made (metal rings) that were specified in the recall. they seem to be failing now. there is a news article from england that seems to show an identical failure in a 318. the drivers name is kevin nicolle, and the story appeared on this web page ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/11/ntrapped11.xml ). the recall effected 410,000 cars - this recall should be revisited as the repair seems to have created another failure mode that leads to unexpected acceleration. i have a photo of the throttle cable / cable bushing at the time of the failure - i can forward it to any interested parties. *nm |
