Repair parts are en route to dealers and customer letters will be mailed by this weekend informing all U.S. and Canadian owners of 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibes of the repair process for the sticky accelerator pedal that led to a Jan. 21 safety recall.
Owners are urged to go to www.Pontiac.com to locate their nearest dealer, then call to schedule a service appointment after Feb. 22. Dealership service departments will install a precision-cut steel reinforcement bar into the accelerator pedal assembly. The installation will take about 30 minutes, but customers may need to leave their vehicles with dealers for a longer period of time.
Since the Toyota-led recall was announced, several Vibe customer s have complained of sticky accelerator pedals. GM is investigating each of the claims. Six crashes, some with property damage, are alleged. There are no reported injuries or fatalities. The Vibe, designed and engineered by Toyota, is a sister vehicle to the Toyota Matrix.
If a Vibe owner experiences a sticky accelerator pedal, he should stop the vehicle with steady application of the brakes. The vehicle also can be shifted into neutral, allowing the driver to coast to a stop on the side of the road. Any customer experiencing a sticky accelerator pedal should call his dealer and have the Vibe towed to the dealership.
GM has tested the accelerator pedal on the Vibe, and the vehicle can be stopped from a speed of 60 mph, well within 169 meters GM requires for wide open throttle stopping distance.
A second customer letter will be mailed when a remedy is available for a Jan. 27 recall covering floor mat interference with the accelerator pedal. For now, customers are urged to take out any removable floor mat and place it in the trunk and not replace it with any other mat. Customers who choose against taking out the removable floor mat are encouraged to check the operation of the accelerator, brake and, if applicable, the clutch pedals to assure the floor mat does not interfere with them.
Source: http://publish.media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.brand_gm.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2010/Feb/0210_vibe
