I know, right? 19 year old system which has been through what, a couple hundred thousand cycles? Couple million? More? Geez and it had a component failure?

When oh when will those crazy Germans finally get the hang of proper engineering?

__________________
1998 E300 +310,000K
1996 E300 +460,000K

I've never read an account of a similar event all the time I've been on this forum. It would be nice to know exactly what caused it. Misreading of the speed resulting in the cruise thinking the car needed to accelerate? Have you had any problems with the speedometer?
Quick thinking on your part to respond the way you did.
We should all bookmark this thread since it would make a good defense if any of us ever get into a high speed accident

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Might also want to tcheck the floor mat to see if it was binding under the accelerator pedal and causing interference.

had this exact same problem, bought a 300D a couple years ago, driving it back from the purchase, and decided to turn on the cruise control, instantly went to WOT with no sign of slowing down!

Stop position on stalk also did not work like he found, but slamming on the brakes did work. Jumped out and disconnected the linkage that second, never hooked it back up.

__________________
This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

I had that same surging on my 86 SDL renntag
the cruise would work sometimes but mostly no and if it did it would surge and act to funky to use it

I put in a new switch (because the lever felt limp insert joke here) and that didn't work
so I got a cruise amp (sliver box about 8in. x4x 1in.) mine is above e-brake pedal and to the right has like 12 pins connector plug in to it

I got my box out of a 85 300SD and it works I have cruise now and no surging
now if I just had somewhere to go!!

Maybe it has only happened in 240Ds, and nobody noticed?

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

The cruise controls were DOA in all of my 240Ds, and my Euro 300TD doesn't even have it.
Story makes me wonder why some drivers that have experienced the 'accelerator of death' couldn't turn off the ignition or shift into neutral.
There was a footnote in a magazine-article about the lexus unintended acceleration, that claimed there was a delay of a few seconds between the time the electronic ignition-key was switched off and the time the engine actually shut off!

Happy Motoring, Mark

__________________
DrDKW

Awesome !
I have an SD of the same year, perhaps they share the same box.

Thanks for the help.

__________________
83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.

Cruise amp is the most likely candidate. I had exactly the same problem on our 380SL.

Simply disconnect the electrical connector to the cruise actuator in the engine bay until you get around to diagnosing the issue. There are many many excellent posts on the cruise system in here if you use the search feature.

Do NOT expect a cruise amp pulled from a picknpull to be any better than the one you have now. It will have flaws too - perhaps different. A reman, guaranteed unit is the way to go.

I dont think it was the floormat, as I felt the pedal being pulled to the floor. As far as toyota goes, my mom had an 07 lexus during that deal, and we went over what to do many times with her. It was always push the stop/start button, or put it in nuetral and let it blow itself to pieces.
Causes are really gonna be hard to singal out at this point because:

• I have severe vacuum problems
• No tach/sometimes bouncy
• Jumpy gauges(fuel)
• Random electronic failures(radio, window, blower motor)

Also the difference between my car and a prius is that under wot I have lots of black smoke and they have a draining battery

__________________
__________________________________________
1987 300D(Erma)- #14 head, 193k
2003 TDI Beetle sold
1985 300sd sold
1987 300D(Ursala)- #14 head, 157k when sold
1987 300D(Wilbur)- #14head, 356,000+miles, sold after 7 days of owning it.
1992mercedes 300d- totaled and in a junk yard somewhere..
1983 mercedes 300sd- scrapped
1980 mercedes 300sd first mercedes diesel-sold