While I'm out of town on vacation, my independent mechanic has my '93 940 non-turbo wagon to do some work (replace starter, ball joins and other front-end parts).

His dad works with him and took it to the store. When leaving, he had an incident where the car accelerated backwards when it put it in reverse. His first reaction was to put it into drive which caused it to surge forward and knock into a wall. While there is supposedly no damage to the car or driver, there is damage to the wall.

Has anyone had experience with unintended acceleration due to mechanical issues in this, or similar models?

How big are this dude's feet.....size 13+ ?
It sounds like he...being unfamiliar with the car, got his shoe wedged under the brake pedal and on the throttle at the same time.
Then he panicked because he couldn't get his foot off the throttle and onto the brake pedal.

As stated, the brakes on this car are more powerful than the engine.
In a battle between the braking system and the engine...the brakes always win.
If you hit the brakes, the car will stop.
I've never seen it happen any other way.

steve

More information.

The SRS light came on before this happened, and is still on. Not sure if it's co-incidental or not.

The car was parked on an uphill slant and the engine revved when shifted into R.

Since then at least three times the engine RPMs have gone up when shifting into R while parked on an uphill slant. None have been as dramatic as that first one.

The SRS light is on because the mechanic who borrowed your car to get lunch hit the gas pedal either at the same time as brake pedal or in place of the brake pedal, then hit a building. He(or you if you believe his story) is fortunate he didn't set off your airbag.

There is no evidence of "unintended acceleration". Its pedal "misapplication". In the famous Audi problems of the late eighties they showed it was people driving with their left foot on the brake pedal in automatics. Never happens in standards.
Your case is a person driving your car and not familiar with it, doing things they are familiar with in another brand. Then they screw up. Your car will have damage. Be ready to threaten court.
Your brakes are about five times more powerful than the engine, and they work just fine I'm sure. That's all you need to know.
good luck.

you're sure this isn't human error rationalizing into gee whiz the car accelerated all by itself?

i might believe thats possible on a non fly by wire car but one with a cable which requires human applied positive pressure, pardon my sketicism

and what was a garage doing driving a customer car to the store

I believe his dad drove it to the store. But I have to agree. Seen the floor mat get stuck on the accelerator.
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Post Back. That's whats makes this forum work.

The mat was in place and would be very difficult to get under the pedal.

The cruise was supposedly off for the first incident. It has definitely been off for the following ones.

Thanks.

Jeff

The cruise control won't engage below about 27mph.
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john