Stuck in gear till I crashed

EASYTRADER · Mar 22, 2008

Friday I rear ended a car at a stoplight. Luckliy nobody was hurt and there was little
damage to either vehicle (paint scrapes)

so I was slowing down and the automatic
either got stuck in 2 gear or the lock-up torque converter didn't release.

I was practically standing on the brake and the eingine pushed us along at about 2mph
into the other vehicle and then stopped immediately.

The tranny is an Allison 3000rds in a Hino truck.
Has anyone experienced a similar failure and what was the cause.

LDB · Mar 22, 2008

I've never heard of that. Did you pull the yellow brake knob?

EASYTRADER · Mar 22, 2008

I did not pop the E-brake or turn of the engine either of those two actions probly
would have avoided the accident. the truck was rolling so slow right up until I tapped the other bumper I thought it would stop.

charlee · Mar 22, 2008

The hino has a switch...highidle switch....my drivers say it is a knob...if you turn that knob accidently it will make the truck idle high....thus preventing it from going into gear or changing gears. We had the truck sitting in neutral, tried to change into gear and it would not change. Called churney's numerous times...they said it was a allison problem.....was reading the owners manual and sure enough there was the switch....turned it all the way down (which is where it should be) and shifted into gear perfectly fine. I would check that.

-charlotte

Crazynuff · Mar 22, 2008

I'd report the problem to NHTSA . Enough complaints will get a recall

charlee · Mar 22, 2008

it is not a recall issue..it is a feature that the dealerships do not do enough about educating. It is an actual knob in the truck cab so that if you need to high idle the engine you can.

-charlotte

Jefferson3000 · Mar 22, 2008

What a way to find out.........OUCH!

LDB · Mar 22, 2008

Why isn't there an override built in to disable it when in gear or when pressing the brake pedal? Talk about poor engineering. What a great example.

EASYTRADER · Mar 22, 2008

I wasn't the high idle switch.

I suspect there is a bad speed sensor or a shorted wire. It happened again to me after the police directed us to a big parking lot to write their report. The second time I pummped the brake a little and it acted normally after that.

I have been sitting at a truck stop waiting for monday to go to a dealer.

I don't have much faith that the dealer will find anything but I hopeful with a desciption
of the symtoms and a REAL mechanic it should be easy

greg334 · Mar 22, 2008

been there, done that - E450 van I had with a 7.3 had a problem with oil leaking into the intake and it would take off if you didn't have your foot on the brake hard. Easy solution was to turn the key off instead of struggling with the brake.

Turn the ignition key off next time. Saves a lot of time trying to stop the truck.

The high idle switch is supposed to have an override by some law, the same with cruise. Once you engage the brake (got to push it to get air pressure in the lines) or release the parking brakes the ECM is supposed to return the engine to idle.

arkjarhead · Mar 22, 2008

This is a situation where if it was stuck in gear and you had a manual you could have just mashed in the clutch and started coasting then stopped. Is that the same tranny I've people talk about it will jump out of gear going up or down a grade? I know I heard someone say they had an auto and it jumped out of gear going down a grade, I think.

EASYTRADER · Mar 25, 2008

I had a dealer do a code scan on the truck and as I suspected there were no trouble codes.

However the mechanic noticed that I had replaced the tailight bulbs with LED lamps and he told me that they sometimes cause the voltage to vary on the breaklight circuit which confuses the ECM, which then gives bad info to the tranny. He told me he has seen similar problems with the HINO and other weird things like cruise control turning itself while you're driving or the exhuast brake coming on. All of these have to do with how the ECM monitors voltage on the brake light circuit.

So we replaced to bulbs back to standard lamps and the dealer kept the bulbs to send to HINO for further testing.

I also sent a complaint to NHTS.

The mechanics advice was don't change or add anything on your turn signal or brake light circuits.

I used to have an 88 chevy PU which had all kinds of mysterious probles, like if you turned on the headlights the radio would go off, or if you turned on the cruise control the airconditioner would come on. It was random weird seemingly unrelated events.
We replaced three ECMs in the truck before we gave up and decided the truck must be possessed. Then one night I was replacing the battery and after I started the truck I went back to close the hood and every few seconds I saw a flash of lightning jump out of the plug wires. Since I could not afford an exorcism I decided to buy a new set of plug wires. That eliminated the lightning and all the other weird problems. I bet it had a bad set of wire from the factory because once those plug wires were changed it ran better that new.

So I tend to think the mechnic may be right about the taillights

greg334 · Mar 25, 2008

The really dumb question is, did the mechanic check the engine ECM codes or the trans ECM codes. You know the trans has it's own controller?

Oh about your '88 pickup, the '89s were worst. GM knew about the problem in the pre-production models and tried to fix it in '89, some were self starters and others were self igniter and even a few had a mind of their own, always set the parking brake and make sure you have it out of gear or you may be surprised. I worked with a guy who had an '89 and he had to open his hood, dump water on the firewall connection and hoped he got home. The water made some connection that would allow it to start and stay running. GM, go figure.

Broompilot · Mar 27, 2008

[There is no Clutch on an Allison Automatic, as for the High Idle tapping the brake on my Allison Automatically Dissabled the High RPMs? Sounds like the wiring or something that others had said about the knob.

Does not sound like a safe or good design. How much more trust could one put into this?

Shutting it down, or the Yellow Knob one may want to keep in mind. Good Point Leo that is exactly what that Emergency Knob is for DO NOT PANIC React to the situation.