Had a little excitement on I75 last night a hour from home.

[Auggie56]

Just left a friend in Wayne Mi, in my 2001 Ram V8, got on 69 towards I75. All was going well, till I noticed my speed when up to 80 from seventy on the speedo. Thinking the cruise had malfunctioned I turned it off, no effect on the speed, tapped the brake and still stayed at eighty. OK, now I'm concerned, tapped the brakes several times to slow to 70. I drove another may ten minutes to find an exit, and luckily no traffic ahead. Stopped at a gas station, and not thinking I placed it in park and the tach pinned itself towards the high end. Should have just left it gear then turned it off. Opened the hood and started looking for the throttle cable from the cruise control, thinking this was the problem and noticed the air cleaner, was part way off the throttle body. Lifted it up and found the rubber gasket, that goes between the tb and ac was hanging part way down the tb throat holding the throttle plates open. Gee, ya think the tech and Valvolien who replaced the air filter that day, didn't reinstall the ac properly? I know it's a pain to get it back on, but come on son. I called them today and told the man who answered the phone, that I wasn't upset. He was hardly responsive, he apologized, but that was all. OK, so why did I even let then touch my truck? Lack of time to change my own oil for one. And I needed to get to where I was going soon. I always supply my own oil and filter as they don't carry 10-40 weight. Never had a problem with them servicing the truck.

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Boy, dodge a bullet there! Did ya stop at the store for new drawers too?

 

[Nxcoupe]

Just left a friend in Wayne Mi, in my 2001 Ram V8, got on 69 towards I75. All was going well, till I noticed my speed when up to 80 from seventy on the speedo. Thinking the cruise had malfunctioned I turned it off, no effect on the speed, tapped the brake and still stayed at eighty. OK, now I'm concerned, tapped the brakes several times to slow to 70. I drove another may ten minutes to find an exit, and luckily no traffic ahead. Stopped at a gas station, and not thinking I placed it in park and the tach pinned itself towards the high end. Should have just left it gear then turned it off. Opened the hood and started looking for the throttle cable from the cruise control, thinking this was the problem and noticed the air cleaner, was part way off the throttle body. Lifted it up and found the rubber gasket, that goes between the tb and ac was hanging part way down the tb throat holding the throttle plates open. Gee, ya think the tech and Valvolien who replaced the air filter that day, didn't reinstall the ac properly? I know it's a pain to get it back on, but come on son. I called them today and told the man who answered the phone, that I wasn't upset. He was hardly responsive, he apologized, but that was all. OK, so why did I even let then touch my truck? Lack of time to change my own oil for one. And I needed to get to where I was going soon. I always supply my own oil and filter as they don't carry 10-40 weight. Never had a problem with them servicing the truck.

Glad it turned out ok. 75 is usually packed out no matter the time of day since covid. No one works anymore it seems. Rush hour is 24/7 lol.
Sucks that the service person didn't take more care and do a good job.

 

[terrywalker]

I had a similar thing happen to me in my 2015 Challenger R/T on I 84 in southern Washington state a year ago. My car had been into the dealer for a checkup previous to this.
I was approaching a slower semi-truck in the right lane and decided to give it some gas to pass it as I had traffic coming up behind me in the left lane. As I accelerated to 80mph, the gas pedal went to the floor and I was quickly over 100 mph. I couldn't press the ignition button to turn it off as that only works in Park or Neutral. I didn't want to put it in neutral as the engine would over rev. I didn't want to put on the brakes and overheat them. I remembered it was in cruise control so I started hitting decrease on the cruise switch. The car slowed down even though the pedal was still on the floor. I got it down to about 40mph, applied the brakes to get stopped and shut off the engine in Park. The pedal is still on the floor. All of a sudden, there was a "pop" and the gas pedal was back to normal position. I started it, got up to 70mph and did not use the cruise control and drove right to the Dodge dealer. They couldn't figure out what happened. There were several codes that came in (one was Throttle Position) but I told them I had other urgent problems happening and couldn't find the time to write down the codes. We never did figure it out but I believe the position of the cable for the cruise control got pulled in and hung up somehow. I am glad my 16 year old grandson and 16 year old granddaughter weren't driving as they would have panicked and it could have been a disastrous outcome. I never had the problem before the service and it never occurred again after they kept it for a day to troubleshoot. Maybe something with the computer as they did an upgrade? Who knows. I wish it had been something obvious. I tell people I know how I dealt with the problem in case they ever have it happen to them.
Terry W.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Last time my wife's car in a a quicklube place they made such a fuss about replacing the cabin air filter then forgot to torque the lug nuts. They did not hammer them on with impact, they just firmly seated them assuming they were to come back by with torque wrench which didn't happen. Guess I messed up their routine not authorizing the cabin air filter.

 

[toolmanmike]

Wow, that could have gone horribly wrong even further than it did. You should buy a lottery ticket. Luck is on your side.

 

[PlymCrazy]

I worked at one of those places as a kid(17yo). I always felt them hiring folks with no mechanical experience (which is commonplace) was a bad idea. Your experience @Auggie56 is a perfect example as to why. Glad it worked out safely in the end. That could have gone sooooo wrong here.

From employees removing hot pressurized radiator caps to leaving the oil drain plugs loose or cross threaded, I saw enough to make me not let anyone touch my own vehicles...even to this day.

 

[SlingLow]

I haven't been to a quickie lube service since Oil Can Hanks left the plug out of a 5-speed tranny that consumed fluid and it scattered a few months later. That was probably 35-40 years ago. Coincidentally, I am taking my Vette to an auto mechanic today for an oil change since I can't get under it and don't have the proper equipment to lift it (brother-in-law's quick jack wouldn't work either). It's probably the easiest oil change ever, and if my arm was a foot longer and I had a 2 inch high oil pan I could do it on the ground. I'll be checking it over closely after reading your experiences here!

Tomorrow we hit the road for Hot August Nights. Road trip!

 

[Cranky]

I had a similar thing happen to me in my 2015 Challenger R/T on I 84 in southern Washington state a year ago. My car had been into the dealer for a checkup previous to this.
I was approaching a slower semi-truck in the right lane and decided to give it some gas to pass it as I had traffic coming up behind me in the left lane. As I accelerated to 80mph, the gas pedal went to the floor and I was quickly over 100 mph. I couldn't press the ignition button to turn it off as that only works in Park or Neutral. I didn't want to put it in neutral as the engine would over rev. I didn't want to put on the brakes and overheat them. I remembered it was in cruise control so I started hitting decrease on the cruise switch. The car slowed down even though the pedal was still on the floor. I got it down to about 40mph, applied the brakes to get stopped and shut off the engine in Park. The pedal is still on the floor. All of a sudden, there was a "pop" and the gas pedal was back to normal position. I started it, got up to 70mph and did not use the cruise control and drove right to the Dodge dealer. They couldn't figure out what happened. There were several codes that came in (one was Throttle Position) but I told them I had other urgent problems happening and couldn't find the time to write down the codes. We never did figure it out but I believe the position of the cable for the cruise control got pulled in and hung up somehow. I am glad my 16 year old grandson and 16 year old granddaughter weren't driving as they would have panicked and it could have been a disastrous outcome. I never had the problem before the service and it never occurred again after they kept it for a day to troubleshoot. Maybe something with the computer as they did an upgrade? Who knows. I wish it had been something obvious. I tell people I know how I dealt with the problem in case they ever have it happen to them.
Terry W.

Yours isn't drive by wire is it? Don't know when they started that stuff but the more electronics they put on them, the less I want a newer vehicle.

I worked at one of those places as a kid(17yo). I always felt them hiring folks with no mechanical experience (which is commonplace) was a bad idea. Your experience @Auggie56 is a perfect example as to why. Glad it worked out safely in the end. That could have gone sooooo wrong here.

From employees removing hot pressurized radiator caps to leaving the oil drain plugs loose or cross threaded, I saw enough to make me not let anyone touch my own vehicles...even to this day.

After doing repairs on other people's cars that had something wrong from the quick lube places, I continued to do my own oil changes and still do them. Just not sure how much longer I can keep on doing that.

 

[68BabyBlue]

After years of changing my own oil, I started using the quick lube joints during my corporate days as a time saving measure, and continued the habit until fairly recently. Got a drain plug cross threaded on the GTX, and never went back. Currently use a Midas shop that is owned by a guy who used to wrench at the Plymouth dealer back in the day. I can't buy the oil and filter for what he charges, and he has great staff that don't turn over. This situation is hardly typical, and I sure appreciate it.

 

[PlymCrazy]

 

[Triplegreen500]

Yours isn't drive by wire is it? Don't know when they started that stuff but the more electronics they put on them, the less I want a newer vehicle.

Cummins has been using throttle-by-wire for ages. BMW started it for mass-use, in 1988. Even motorcycles started using it 8 or 10 years ago...

 

[dadsbee]

Lesson in all of that... service your own stuff...