Chittichitti BangBang

While driving on the "Eastern Shore" to see some of my cousins, our van started accelerating. By itself. This seemed somewhat concerning to us. Ron put on the brakes, pulled over & started trying different things to get the van to slow down. The van was acting as if we had put the peddle to the metal but we hadn't. We got it to kind of go down a few gears. But without using the gas we could go about 50 km/hour. We took it into the mechanics the next day. We had actually had this problem before - & taken it to the mechanic for it before. It only happens when we use the cruise control. We told the mechanic & he shook his head. "Couldn't be the cruise control. There are so many fail-safes on a cruise control. You may think it is the cruise control. But it just can't be." OK, we said, as we shrugged. We aren't the mechanic after all. The mechanic called back a few hours later saying, "we can't find the problem." We said, "take it out on the highway, put the cruise control on, and you will be able to reproduce the problem." A few hours later they called & said, "we were able to recreate the sudden acceleration & you can't have your van back. It isn't safe to drive it. But it isn't the cruise control." We said, "OK". They decided to order a second hand cruise control, just to confirm this wasn't the problem. It took a while to get. When they went to take the old cruise control off they found corrosion - which was causing the problem. By this time the van had been in the repair shop for 6 days (not really their fault - weekends happen & New Years was in there too). I think the mechanic was a little embarrassed - but we were gracious. We had gotten along OK - since we can walk to the grocery store & live near a busline, who cares? All's well that ends well. AND the bill was only $200. Not bad for a week in the repair shop.