2002 Toyota Echo Transmission and drivetrain Problems

“My 2002 Toyota ECHO on nov. 16th 2010 while driving on the freeway in the county of los angeles ca. Went into reverse while still in drive. There was traffic ahead of me so I was only driving about 2 MPH when it went into reverse while the automatic shift was still in drive. I went to put on the brake but the brakes did not work. I turned off the car and put on the hazards. Two minutes went by when I turned on the car and it went into drive. …”

“I shifted into reverse to back out of a driveway when the car suddenly accelerated on its own. It crossed the street and ran over a brick planter box, knocked down a crape myrtle tree and finally hit the neighbor's SUV. I applied the brakes to no avail and had no time to shift into neutral or turn off the ignition. After the accident, I checked the gas pedal to see if it was against the floor or if the floor mat was interfering with it, but found nothing wrong. The car was totaled and my back was injured.”

“1. Approaching a left turn at 15 to 25 MPH, gap in on-coming traffic, press accelerator and turn left. 2. The car decelerates as the transmission takes over and lethargically downshifts, 98% of the time, causing near misses. 3. I doubt anyone cares to consider it a problem. So, how many more broadsides occur with echoes than the average for other cars, or has no one ever checked?”

“Vehicle would intermittently jump out of drive into neutral when applying the accelerator pedal from a stop/slow motion or from increasing the speed to high levels. Vehicle had been to the dealer on three occasions, and they were unable to duplicate the problem.”

“While driving and without warning the clutch would go to the floor, and would become hard to stop. The dealer was notified. The clutch had to be released to height before the vehicle moved (no remedy), hard start at anytime, alarm went off by itself at anytime (no remedy), would not start and or crank (remedy-replaced the starter assembly/problem-starter relay), alarm had gone off randomly, wouldn't shut off and completely shut down, head lights flashed, alarm would come on, sometime the clutch would have to be played with in order to restart the vehicle (problem-switch…”