Car takes off...

[x63]

My father drives a 93 Crown Vic with the police outfitting and once in a while the car takes off when he lets go of the gas and hits the brakes. I know it's not him because it has happened with me and 3 others as well. Any idea what could cause the car to take off when the brakes are hit?

[landyacht]

That sounds like the problem the Audi's had back in the 80s, where the throttle would flap open and the cars would take off. Caused alot of problems...

You may want to dig into what happened with the Audis, sounds like the same problem. Beyond this i got nothing for you. Hope it helps!

[pollenjesus]

I'm reaching back a few years, but I remember having a similar experience with my 87 crown vic. At times I would be moving along and when it came time to stop it was as if my foot was on the gas and the break at the same time. Freaked me out. I'm glad that the brakes were up to par at stopping the car. The first time it happened to me I figured that I had managed to push the gas and brake at the same time.

A few days later the same thing happened. The car seemed to rev at about 3500 rpm's all on it's own. I dropped the tranny into neutral and pumped the throttle and the motor settled down again. I started looking for vaccume leaks, and throttle stickage and found nothing. I ended up taking the car to the local Ford dealer and it was a transmission problem. Forgive me that I can't rember exactly what the problem was. The dealer wanted to sell me a rebuilt tranny... I laughed and said no way. It's an 87 for #$@#'s sake. They ended up replacing the tranny filter and changing the tranny oil. Since that day it has run fine. I no longer drive the car since I have bought a 2003 interceptor. The money spent on servicing the tranny in the ol' 87 did the trick.

I hope that might help. If not, at least you learned about a problem that can arise with an 87 Crown Vic.

[jasong145]

my dad had a 91 5.8. he was pulling into the banks parking lot and he was turning into a spot, and all of a sudden, the engine roared and we hit a damn tree. i know he didnt hit the gas cause he was applying the breaks, but the engine overpowered the breaks i guess. the whole front end was smashed, bumper, grille, lights, hood. we fixed it tho, saying that a garbage truck had hit it and took off. lol