Does all of this seem confusing? Opinions everywhere, pieces of facts here and there. Even suggestions of possible fraud in some cases have now surfaced in regards to some of the crashes. From a technicians viewpoint, I have to draw the line at personal experience with these cars and this problem. I have not observed a throttle sticking on one, so therefore I have not had the chance to actually search for the cause on my own. All I can do is rely on the information that basically everyone is getting to hear both from on the news and snippets from techs around the country. Remember all of these are also going to dealers to be fixed under warranty, the aftermarket (independent technicians) are not involved at all with this. One Toyota tech even did a video of how the repair is done and you can find it on YouTube which essentially amounts to removing the pedal assembly. The tech then measures a gap between two portions of the pedal assembly, and then he/she installs a shim to take up that space and that causes more spring return pressure in the pedal assembly. The push for years has always been to have techs that would robotic-ally simply identify a failed (failing) part, remove it and replace it. Remember its all about price, no matter how expensive one may think auto repair labor fee's are, I've said it many times it's under priced by a significant margin. Six months ago, the repair would again have been to replace the part if they found one sticking, and this may well have happened many times. I have never seen information to support or deny how often that may have occurred if it did much at all. The diagnosis and replacement of the pedal assembly likely paid a technician about 1/2 an hour's time for the job. I could very well imagine someone else at another time looking at that pedal assembly, and if they could not prove that it was faulty, they would back flag the dealership for the repair, who would in turn take back the pay that the technician got for doing the repair back off of him/her. Many people would take the position that the tech ultimately not being paid for that repair isn't their problem, and in a direct fashion that would be true on that day. But eventually these actions erode the technician talent pool, and is the fundamental cause of many of the anecdotal stories of poor service you have ever heard of, read or told. Lastly, there have been many times that I have seen people condemn American car manufacturers about quality, and they point to recalls as their proof. It really was just a numbers game before one of the imports suffered a big issue, Toyota's quality hasn't changed because engineering underestimated what appears to be the spring tension required on one specific part. GM and Ford especially were never as bad as consumer reports wanted to make them look. JMHO. Now the Prius brakes issue where there can be a delay under certain circumstances due to a rough road? I can picture what is occurring, the rough road bounces a wheel up and and immediately locks with almost no braking pressure. That would look like a need to begin an anti-lock function to the computer. This isn't something that a dealer technician could fix on his/her own. The fix would have to come in the form of software for the HV, and ABS computers. They could in some cases require a redesign of, or potentially add a yaw sensor if the car didn't come with one. They could even incorporate suspension height sensors to help detect road surface conditions. The wheel speed sensors alone do allow for detection of rough road conditions. There is a resonance to the lock-up that is occurring the system will recognize as not matching the anti-lock systems function, and be scored as road surface, which results in less ABS activation. In Toyota's case that time period must be significantly long which is allowing the drivers to observe it.

Your description allows for at least two, if not several more potential issues. The first one being that the PCM is detecting an issue with the gas pedal, or throttle body and is commanding "limp-in" mode. The second could be something causing a genuine engine performance issue such as a clogged catalytic converter, or a restricted fuel or air filter. Is the check engine light on? If so can you report what code is setting? Beyond that, a technician will have to look at this and analyze the issue, its not something that anyone could just say what is wrong based on the description alone.

One time, I had a problem like this with and outboard motor. It took me a week to solve it. The culprit was the oil used for the gas-oil mix. A well known brand went overboard with the wax in the oil. (I read about the recall after my vacation was over.) When the oil was mixed with the gasoline, the wax began to come out of solution forming worm-like detris which proceded to suck up against the intake screen. The fuel starved engine would bog down and quit. When it quit, the suction on the pickup tube was relieved and some of the gunk dropped off allowing the engine to start again only to quit soon after. Now think what could happen if you had a plastic baggie in your fuel tank, or some other debris. The likelyhood of this is very small, but I mention it because it is possible. The sock over the fuel inlet may be partly fouled and if there is other filmy gunk in the tank, it can get completely shut off when this gunk gets sucked against the sock. And some of that gunk can fall off after the suction is removed. However, I hope this is not the case. It seems like an intermittnet electrical problem. The tachometer sensor is suspect. The fuel pump may be intermittent. How is a loose gas cap sensed on this vehicle? There may be a problem in this circuit.

They did nothing wrong. Emission testing has nothing to do with your heat controls. Things do wear out and break.