2012 Toyota RAV4 acceleration problems

Filed Mar 25, 2025 · Acceleration · CO

Over the last several years, I have experienced a minimum of four, possibly one or two more, incidents of this vehicle accelerating at a high rate while I have had my foot on the brake. In all of these cases, I was braking to come to a stop - braking quickly and hard in a couple cases. While braking and slowing, my engine revved/accelerated at a very high rate. In all of these incidents, I changed gears to neutral, and the acceleration stopped. These incidents were random and very far apart from one another in terms of time. In all cases, my foot was firmly (and only) on the brake pedal, and my floor mat was in the proper position and secure. There was nothing in contact with the acceleration pedal. On Monday, March 10, 2025, I got into my car in our garage to go to work. The car started normally. When I put my car into reverse, the engine started revving/accelerating at a very high rate and it was lurching, like it was trying to move. Luckily, my foot was firmly on the brake, and the brake held. I quickly put the car back into park, and the engine began revving/accelerating at an even higher rate. I then turned the car off. Again, I checked my floor mat, and it was in place and secured, my foot was only on the brake pedal, and there was nothing touching the acceleration pedal. This was a frightening experience, and at that point I decided that I would never drive this car again. If I did not have my brake firmly engaged, my car would have shot out of my garage when I put it in reverse. Upon researching the problem, my husband and I read about the unintended acceleration that many people have experienced with Toyotas, causing numerous deaths and injuries, and about the class action law suit with Toyota. Although the investigation seemed to chalk the incidents up to "user error" - foot being on the wrong pedal, floor mats affecting the acceleration pedal, etc. - I know with 100% confidence that none of these were the case. I will be notifying Toyota, as well.

Filed Aug 7, 2020 · Acceleration, Airbags · 167,000 miles · NJ · crash · 2 injuries

On june10th. I had a majoir accident in which both my wife & myself suffered fractured sternums & fractured ribs. What happened was that I pulled into a lot in princeton, n.j. & after stopping to set my GPS, I just tapped the accelerator & the car shot forward, as if shot out of a cannon. While stopped I put the car in reverse & the car shot backwards in the same manner, thereby striking a wall. Now I went forward like a rocket, with no time to hit the brake, thereby going headfirst into a parked construction truck.

Filed Jun 30, 2020 · Acceleration, Brakes · 83,000 miles · IA · crash

When pulling my 2012 toyota rav4 into a parking space at very low rate of speed, I tapped the brake pedal and the engine immediately started roaring and accelerating out of control. The car jumped the curb that was directly in front of the parking spot, crossed the road, jumped another curb, and landed in a muddy ravine. The car was towed to the toyota dealership to be repaired and the tech couldn't find anything wrong with the brakes. I reported the incident to toyota. They sent an investigator. They claim the edr detected no defects in the vehicle and blamed it on either me mistaking the accelerator for the brakes or my custom fitted, lock-in weathertech floor mat which has been in place since day one of owning this vehicle since 2012. I had never had any problems with the vehicle before this and I have always loved my car but am now terrified that it will accelerate on it's own again.

Filed Dec 17, 2019 · Acceleration, Brakes · 33,450 miles · WV

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 toyota rav4. On several occasions, while driving various speeds, the brake pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle independently accelerated. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent. The vehicle was taken to ball toyota of charleston (1905 patrick st plaza, charleston, wv 25387, (304) 513-3777) to be diagnosed, but the mechanic was unable to retrieve a fault code or duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The contact stated that toyota corporation sent an engineer to retrieve data from the vehicle data recorder, but was unsuccessful. The approximate failure mileage was 33,450. *ln *tp the consumer stated inspection was performed in sept 2019 and no defect was found in vehicle. And last incident was on december 16th and brakes/tires were replace a month prior.

Filed Dec 1, 2019 · Acceleration, Fuel system · 53,000 miles · CA

3 weeks after the 50,000 mile service, on october 22 2019, I was driving 35 MPH on soquel avenue, when the car became unresponsive, I lost all power and control of the vehicle, and "check EV system" came onto the instrument cluster. I was able to coast to the side of the road into a bus stop, turned the car off, and had the car towed into the dealership. The dealership was unable to replicate the symptom and informed me that it was due to the 12v battery. They replaced it and assured me the issue would not happen again. On nov 11, 2019, the issue happened again while I was on the highway this time. I had the car towed in again to toyota, who informed me that "some rav4 evs have been in the shop for months, unable to be diagnosed". I researched the symptom online and found that it related to a 2015 recall that related to the electric traction motor. Toyota's description of the f01 recall: in the involved rav4 EV's, components in the electric vehicle traction motor assembly, which is part of the propulsion system, may cause the vehicle to shift to 'neutral' due to a software issue. This condition will also trigger a 'check EV system' warning message on the instrument panel and turn on a malfunction indicator lamp. If the vehicle shifts to 'neutral', this will result in a complete loss of drive power, which can increase the risk of a crash. I informed the dealership that my symptoms matched up with recall exactly, and then was told that it had nothing to do with this as this recall had been performed on april 18 2016 when I had my car in. Upon further questioning, I was also told that some of the rav4 evs had had their motors replaced as part of this recall, in addition to the software change, but mine had not. Toyota failed to recognize this flaw not once but twice and I am seeking compensation for failure to properly recognize and address a known issue.

Filed Sep 5, 2019 · Acceleration · 114,000 miles · MO

My rav4 accelerates excessively out of the blue, in a dangerous manner far exceeding any need to maintain the set speed. Slamming on the brakes is the only way to stop it is happening more frequently. In a day and a half of highway driving it happened three separate and random occurrences yesterday, sep 4th and today sep 5th, 2019. For example I was driving on I-44 eastbound at cruise control of 70 MPH. And as I was going along it had accelerated to 75 before I recognized what was happened and slammed aggressively on the brake pedal or it would have surpassed 85 MPH easily. It put me in danger of having an serious accident with a semitrailer in july. I sought answers from a mechanic today. He said it sounded similar to what has happened to other toyota models. Because of this similarity, I am reporting my experiences to the federal safety agency now. Yours truly, [xxx]. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).

Filed Feb 6, 2019 · Acceleration · 43,000 miles · NY

I was coming to a stoplight and press the brakes the car came to stop then the engine revved up very fast. My foot was on the brakes but the engine was revving very fast that I had to use the parking brake to stop the vehicle from moving forward. I put the car in park then the engine stop revving.

Filed Jan 29, 2019 · Acceleration · 55,000 miles · OR

I was coming to a stoplight and I put my foot in the brake pedal. The car slowed down, came to a stop but then with my foot on the brake pedal, the engine reved up to 3000 RPM. The brakes were barely able to keep the car stopped so I had to put the emergency brake on. I was in drive the whole time. Once the light changed, I took my foot off the brake pedal and onto to gas pedal and the RPM's dropped back to 1000. It hasn't happened since then. Took it to my mechanic and said they couldn't replicate the problem so they couldn't fix anything.

Filed Oct 22, 2018 · Acceleration · HI

Vehicle experienced sudden unintended acceleration when exiting the highway and making a turn. Rpm went up to 7,000 until the vehicle was turned off. The accelerator pedal was depressed fully several times while the car was suspended and turned off and started back on with the brake pedal fully depressed to ensure proper safety measures in case the vehicle jolts forward. No accident or injuries occurred during the incident as the vehicle was put to a stop safely before other parties would be involved. Local dealership doesn't want to take it in for proper inspection without a diagnostic payment.

Filed Jul 24, 2018 · Acceleration · 68,151 miles · NY

I was in a parking area looking for a parking spot. I had just driven up a slight incline and crested the top when I spotted an open space on the left. I braked slightly to turn into the spot, lifted my foot off the brake but kept it covered and made the left turn intending to coast into the spot. In the middle of the turn the vehicle inexplicably accelerated at which point I slammed my foot on the brake ending up cross ways in the parking spot and just short of a parking sign in front on the curb. The engine immediately returned to idle speed. The throttle pedal, which is top mounted, was examined and found to be clear and free. No idea what might be the cause, most likely electronically related. Frightening situation.