This is a problem that started a couple of years ago, but my mechanic hasn't been able to pinpoint the issue. When I am moving at very slow speeds - parking or pulling out of a parking space - the car abruptly accelerates while my foot is on the brake. At first, because it happened on a snow covered parking lot, I thought that it was a slick surface causing the car to keep moving, but that was not the case. It's happened in warm weather as well. It seems to mostly happen after I've turned left or right and am moving slowly, not moving straight forward. It usually happens only very sporadically (once or twice a year), but today it happened twice in a short period of time, once while moving forward, and then a short time later, while backing up. If I put the car in Neutral, and depress the brake, the engine keeps revving then dies down - it sounds just like what you'd hear if you were in Neutral and pressed down on the gas pedal. In the four times it has happened, I've managed to not do any damage, but I'm apprehensive to drive the vehicle right now. I've seen similar problems described by other Civic owners, but no one clear solution, and of course, it's not an issue that can be replicated on demand. My mechanic this week had found that the transmission fluid was dirty, so he got most of it out of there and put in synthetic transmission fluid (also recommending a complete transmission fluid flush soon), and also found that a shift solenoid was sticking so he replaced that- not sure if either of those services had anything to do with the problem happening twice in one day - but other than this issue, I've had no other problems driving the car or shifting. I read somewhere that a dealer indicated some Civic gas pedal mounts were not installed properly, but if that were the case, why would the problem take years to manifest itself? Would appreciate any input.

 

The engine computer increases idle speed when turning the steering wheel due to the power steering. This is easily replicated by simply turning the steering wheel at idle in drive. Your thread title is very misleading.

 

Sorry if I was unclear in the title, but I'm not sure you understand that what is happening is NOT normal - one time, no matter how hard I depressed the brake, the car kept speeding forward and almost hit a wooden ramp structure in a parking lot. As the brake pedal seems to sink much lower when depressed whenever this happens, I wonder if it could have anything to do with the ABS - in the past I had problems with the ABS warning light coming on, then going off, and the anti-lock brakes kicking in at odd times when there was no need for them. I think at the time mention was made of a possible speed sensor issue, but nothing was done about it at the time.

 

Unless you have a major problem with your brakes, this is simply not possible. Especially with the weak R18.