Problems with 2009 Toyota RAV4 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING

Had just pulled slowly into a parking space, i took my foot off the accelerator and applied the brake. as i was applying pressure to the brake, the engine sped up to more than 7,000 rpm. (my foot was not on the accelerator. it was on the brake only.) i continued to press the brake which started to slip, and then i immediately put the transmission in neutral. as the engine reached maximum rpm's, it died back to an idle. this identical incident happened twice within 10 minutes. my parents and wife were in the car and can vouch for me. note: two months prior, this identical incident occurred while i was stopping at a busy intersection while preparing to turn left. there was a stopped vehicle in front of me which i nearly hit. my wife was in the car and can vouch for me.

10 month old toyota rav-4 caught fire under the hood while sitting in parking garage and burned. *tr

As i drove into our parking lot at work after lunch, i was idling engine with foot on brake as i pulled into a parking spot. i was already making my turn into the parking spot with foot on brake and engine idling when my car began to rapidly accelerate. i responded by applying foot brake and grabbing and pulling the emergency brake but only had about 15 - 20 feet before hitting a concrete wall at the bake of the parking spot. i managed to not hit hard enough for the air bags to deploy but there is damage to my front bumper and hood. this is the only time my car has done this. i bought it new last aug. 09 and it has approx 12,432 miles. toyota took it to quality imports toyota and "investigated" it and has found no defect. i talked to the inspector over the phone and he explained that he spent a few hours going through a series of tests attempting to find or reproduce a malfunction with no success. he told me that while my report is quite common he has never found a defect to explain sudden unexpected acceleration and that he thinks my car is safe and "he would let his daughter drive my car." i attest to the fact that a sticking accelerator and/or a slowly returning accelerator cannot explain this experience and is no "fix" for my accident. my education is in mechanical engineering and i have been an equipment mechanic on machinery for 15 years. i do not believe that just because you cannot reproduce an electronic problem in a matter of hours that the conclusion should be that there is no defect. it does not excuse the fact that there is a major problem and nothing serious is being "investigated." *tr

My wife was sitting at a signalized intersection in our 2009 toyota rav 4 on tuesday february 2, 2010 with her foot on the brake, when the vehicle suddenly lurched forward. she was able to keep the vehicle from traveling further by applying more pedal pressure on the brake and then shifting into neutral. while in neutral, the engine revved loudly for about 10 seconds before returning to normal idle. she brought the vehicle home but was visibly shaken up from this experience. i immediately called the toyota dealership and was told to take the vehicle in for them to check. they could not replicate this condition and thus said there's nothing that can be done at this time. this is one of the vehicles that does not have the so-called faulty sticking accelerator pedal, and floor mats did not cause this issue, so this leads me to suspect that an electronics problem is the cause and that toyota is refusing to come up with a viable fix for the situation. i called the toyota main office this morning, but was not given any satisfaction regarding this issue. meanwhile, we are stuck with a vehicle that we are both afraid to continue driving. *tr

New toyota electronics problems my rav4 sometimes does have intermittent accelerator 'sticking' problems, even though the accelerator pedal has fully returned to idle conditions. during the winter i often where sorels. i thought that because of my boots i was hitting both the brake and accelerator. one time i even had to push the transmission into neutral to make a stop, cursing the toyota designer who put the brake pedal so close to the accelerator (another pedal design flaw?). from then on i was very careful to keep my foot on just one pedal. however, i still noticed problems sometimes, and now this "pseudo recall" has solved a dilemma i had. the problem is not with unintended acceleration, it is with impaired deceleration. the engine is fighting against the braking system because the engine does not return to idle soon enough. with the old manual accelerator linkage systems, you could feel when you let off the gas. now instead the computer is deciding how to slow the engine. this is where the problem lies. what "bone headed" toyota engineer allowed both the accelerator and brake to work at the same time on a "drive by wire" system? there is no mechanical linkage to undo, so hitting the brake should defeat the accelerator (i.e. quickly return the engine to idle mode). that is all that was needed to prevent this problem. this is at least one problem with the toyota electronic throttle system. it is a toyota 'myth' to insist there is(are) no electronic problem(s). what other more complex problems are there in the electronics, if this basic problem was not accounted for? *tr

I purchased my 09 rav4 in june 2009. i noticed an odd odor a few times while running the air conditioner & assumed it was from the exhaust form the cars in front of me. when i began using the heat in the fall, i started smelling a bad, burning, almost chemical smell coming out of the vents. on dec 29, 2009, i took my car to the dealership & toyota told them to replace the evaporator, cabin air filter & disinfect/deodorize the vents & that would fix the problem which they said was mold in the system. it is now feb. 23, 2010 & the smell is back & my car is sitting at the dealership because it makes me sick to drive it. the service manager is waiting to hear from toyota what to do next & says it is a problem with alot of toyotas. why hasn't there been an investigation &/or recall for this problem? it is a health issue for anyone inhaling that disgusting air from those vents. i think it needs to be looked into since i have found other complaints on-line about the same issues. is the health/safety of toyota owners not important to toyota? other than this issue, i love my rav & i really would like to be driving it instead of the yaris they loaned me until mine is fixed. *tr

Sporadic burning smell when the heat is turned on. event has happened at least 6 times now and it only happens when the heat is turned on (vehicle was purchased dec 2008 and current mileage is 12,200). it has happened when running at low and high speeds - very sporadic. and it's not the air coming from the outside or from other vehicles because we've immediately stopped to check when it occurs and it's not a smell from the outside or from other vehicles. *tr

We noticed that we started our 2009 rav4 in the morning after sitting all night, there was a rattling type noise coming from the engine. this noise only occurs after the car has been sitting. we took it to the dealership we bought it from (toyota) and after they checked it, determined it was a bad cam shaft. i asked if this was normal on a 2009 rav4 and if it was a recall. the lady stated "it is a type of recall, but not all cars are affected, so they did not send out notice to all owners." really? isn't that a "back door recall"? they are ordering the parts and will repair it under warranty. *tr