2008 Toyota Tacoma: jerking or lurching

Filed May 19, 2016 · Steering · 150,000 miles · NC · crash

I was driving my truck in the parking lot of a shopping center. As I was going through an intersection the steering column fell down causing me to be unable to turn causing a wreck with another vehicle. My insurance company will not pay for repairing the steering column. Toyota has been jerking me around for 3 months. My truck has been repaired as far as body work but toyota tells me that I will receive a letter with their determination as to whether they will repair the steering column. 4 weeks ago they told me that I would receive a letter. I am still waiting. When I call the person in charge of my case at toyota (casey) he never returns my calls. My case number is 1603142032. Casey's number is 800‑331‑4331.

Filed Mar 8, 2016 · Seat belts · OR · 1 injury

I have 98000 miles on my truck, 90% of it freeway miles. Every time I had made a road trip, the back of my neck would burn, and keep burning for weeks after I was back from my trips. Two weeks ago, after driving 1000 miles, the burning increased to extreme shooting nerve needles from the left side of my neck down below and above my shoulder blade, down below and above my rib cage in the area of my heart, and around the back of my shoulder, down through my arm pit, up the front of my shoulder and into my rotator cuff. All of this on the left side of my body, and all emanating from the left side of my neck, all the while the back of my neck was still burning. Please excuse the long sentence. The pain was reduced by 500mg of aspirin and 500mg of ibupropin. The next day I hunted rocks, bending and stretching, and worked most of the pain away by stretching the muscles out. As soon as I started my return trip, the pain returned, all the same as above. As I was rubbing my neck I noticed that my truck does not have a shoulder strap. It has a neck strap, since the entire strap was tight up against the lower part of my neck, jerking my neck ever time the truck made a turn or hit a bump. For that matter, every time I moved my body, the shoulder strap pressed against my lower neck. When I put this neck strap behind my back, the pain subsided almost immediately. Now I have to have the strap behind my back even in the city, otherwise the pain in my neck is there all the time. So, for the last 8 years, all my neck pain has been caused from the defective seat belt, and I want it fixed/replaced. It is illegal to drive with the shoulder belt behind my back. There needs to be a device that moves the shoulder strap from the right side of my body over toward the middle of my body so that the shoulder strap lays across my shoulder and doesn't wrap around my lower neck.

Filed Mar 22, 2011 · Brakes · 45,000 miles · FL

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota tacoma. The contact stated that when the vehicle was at a stop, the vehicle would move slightly forward even with the brakes pressed. Once the failure would occur, the vehicle would then jerk abnormally when attempting to accelerate from the stop. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the contact was told that there had been complaints on the brakes. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 45,000 and the current mileage was 52,000. Updated 05/03/11*lj updated 05/11/11

Filed Sep 20, 2010 · Acceleration, Suspension · 8,360 miles · CA · crash · 2 injuries

We have been having trouble with my 2008 toyota tacoma truck with the engine revving when we first start it up. We took it to the dealer. They said that this is "normal" last week we took it in due to a safety recall notice for sudden acceleration problems that toyota claims is due to floor mats. Dealer cut down the accelerator pedal, reprogrammed the computer control system, rotated the tires. Upon pulling out of the dealership the steering wheel vibrated (side to side) and car bucked (front to back) there were loud grinding and banging noises. Car pulled strongly to the left. I took my foot off of the accelerator . Instead of slowing, the engine suddenly revved up. Due to oncoming traffic on both sides of us, I focused on steering us out of trouble by keeping us in our lane. I did not apply brake. I had thought that without gas, the car would gradually slow down on its own. Instead of slowing the engine revved up! Truck suddenly lurched 90 degrees to left, jerked steering wheel our of my hands vehicle lurched into the oncoming traffic lane, whole front passenger side tire assembly came off and headed one way and the truck went the other. We were thrown forward, down and to the right. The vehicle kept moving until we crashed into concrete entrance/exit of dealership. I put on emergency brake. Dealer says "simple human error mechanic forgot to tighten bolts on tire" I think this goes way beyond a tire problem. They messed with computer control system and the accelerator pedal. I can't see how tires cause engines to rev up. Updated 01/28/11 *bf updated 02/07/11

Filed Feb 14, 2010 · Brakes · 5,000 miles · HI

I'm aware of all the negative news on toyota but the public needs to know. I was running many errands that saturday. It was hot / humid and the A/C was on medium. I was on a slight uphill grade waiting at the red traffic light. I was the first car turning right on the red light. Then my truck lurched forward while I was releasing my brake. So, I stepped the brakes and shifted to netural. The engine revived for a split second then it returned to normal operation. I looked down to check the floor mat and that was not the problem. I consider this a mild incident compared to what I have been hearing on the news. I reported it to an authorzied toyota service advisor and he dismissed the case saying it was caused by the A/C not need more power. How often did it occur? Just that once. What was done to fix the problem? Nothing.

Filed Feb 4, 2010 · Acceleration · 5,000 miles · CA · crash · 1 injury

On 08/24/08, my husband and I purchased a 2008 toyota tacoma truck. On 12/22/2008, he was coming to a stop at a traffic light behind another vehicle. Suddenly, without warning, the engine seemed to engage at full throttle. His right foot was not on the gas pedal, but on the brake pedal as it should be while waiting for the light to change to green. Startled, he put both feet on the brake pedal as the acceleration of the engine seemed to overtake the ability to brake. The truck lurched forward and hit the car in front which stopped the momentum and killed the engine. The acceleration and power of the engine was so great that this all happened in about 3-5 seconds. When he restarted the engine, everything seemed to be fine as the trucks computer seemed to reset itself. He reported this to toyota and asked that the truck be checked out. When we went to pick up the truck at hooman toyota, where a factory tech came to inspect it, he was told that the braking system was fine and acceleration system (pedal linkage) was fine as well. He was even told that the floor mat was unhooked and probably got stuck on top of the accelerator pedal. The floor mats were not unhooked when we dropped off the truck. My husband tried the floor mat on top of the pedal while stepping on the brake and the RPM did not go up much at all, certainly not enough to overpower the braking system as the tech suggested. We believe there was a computer malfunction and not a mechanical malfunction which was that the tech checked out. The case manager was informed of this before and after the inspection. After the recall notice on tv in august, we removed the floor mats from the truck, a second incident occurred 10/19/09 (with no floor mats) which did not result in an accident. We, again, brought the truck into the dealer and it was, once again, cleared to drive with no issues. There is clearly a huge problem with the vehicle and we are scared to drive it. Please help!

Filed Dec 8, 2009 · Acceleration · 30,700 miles · OH · crash

I was stopped at a traffic light when I felt the brake "give" and then the engine began to accelerate. No amount of pushing on the brake would stop the engine. The tires were smoking and squealing and the vehicle was lurching. Only shutting off the engine stopped the racing engine. The floor mat was not involved.

Filed Nov 4, 2009 · Transmission · 2,999 miles · NC

Transmission was slipping and then went it went into gear it jerked you forward because I was pressing on gas pedal and nothing was happening and then it grabbed the gear. Sent to dealer 8/7/08 to 10/30/09. Transmission was fixed so so on 8/14/08 but now the warning brake light and sometimes the warning beep comes on. Started 8/14/08 up to and still 10/30/09. Has been too two different dealers had company send three different tech. To work on and even had a arbitrator with the company, still have problems with truck .

Filed Dec 20, 2008 · Acceleration · 3,000 miles · TX · crash

I purchased a new 2008 toyota tacoma in september 2008. The vehicle had right at 3000 miles when the malfunction occurred. On december 19th, 2008 I was on the way to work when my vehicle suddenly accelerated and lost control, causing me to rollover. The vehicle was still accelerating after the rollover and I had to jerk the gear shift into park to get it to stop. At that time the vehicle made a grinding noise and began to smoke.