Pedal Commander? Any real users feedback?
Member
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 37
Likes: 9
From: Minnesota
Don't waste your time or money.
I saw someone post on this forum they have a Pedal Commander and I had to see what it is and what it claims. Back in the 80's Hypertech made chips for the fuel injected cars
which they really worked. With today's day and age I just plan on the Velocity Tune and pulley but had to see if anyone has had direct experience with this item. More curious than anything on if it really works.
Even on my past Porsche's I just did a tune, exhaust and intake. I spent a fair amount of time on those forums and never once heard of anyone having a Pedal Commander although apparently they make units for Porsche as well.
which they really worked. With today's day and age I just plan on the Velocity Tune and pulley but had to see if anyone has had direct experience with this item. More curious than anything on if it really works.
Even on my past Porsche's I just did a tune, exhaust and intake. I spent a fair amount of time on those forums and never once heard of anyone having a Pedal Commander although apparently they make units for Porsche as well.
the pedal, that sends an input into the ECM. It's a resistance value. The ECM uses that value to tell the servo motor on the throttle body to open the butterfly until the sensor on the throttle body
sends back a resistance that the ECM believes is correct. All this device will do is to modify the input value so the throttle body opens at a faster rate. Meaning that it will be much more difficult
to hold the car at any desired speed. Any movement of the pedal will be amplified, causing the car to be overly sensitive to pedal input. This reminds me of a story. My father
(who was an auto mechanic) had this *****'s jeep. Well he shoehorned a 283 V8 into this thing so it would push snow better.
Well the problem was that the throttle became very sensitive to any input. One time I took off from a light and the damn Jeep took off way to fast. I tried to feather the pedal but to no avail. When
I got off the pedal the jeep slowed down as if I put the brakes on, so I got back on the pedal and the jeep once again took off like all hell broke loose. This cycle repeated itself about three times in
a couple hundred feet. It was insane. I was like 17 and didn't have that much experience with this jeep and it's short wheel base and three speed tranny with this overly anxious V8. My solution
was to floor the thing to stop this insane cycle. My point is that unless you plan to race your car. This makes absolutely no sense. All you will end up doing is to make the pedal more sensitive and
uncomfortable to drive. The car will not be any faster. You will only manage to take away pedal control. I see a rear end collision in your future. Rush hour traffic and you tap the pedal a little to
hard and bam. Your into to back of someone. I would think a longer more linear control would be preferred.
You do realize that you need to synchronize your pedal and throttle control in the ECM. Turn the key on and push the pedal to the floor three times, then pause and start the car. You now have mapped
the throttle pot to the pedal input. This should give you linear control all the way to the footboard.
When I was 18, I had a co-worker that raced dirt bikes. His bike was like this. You were either wide open or not at all. Any twist of that throttle and this bike was wide open, ball to the wall.
On a race track this was great. Trail riding, it was terrifying.
Last edited by Rearaxle; Mar 18, 2021 at 03:19 PM.
Member
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 48
Likes: 34
From: Carson City
What kind of gimmick is this. The sensor on the pedal is simply a potentiometer. Like the volume control on the radio. The throttle body also has a device that is similar. When you press
the pedal, that sends an input into the ECM. It's a resistance value. The ECM uses that value to tell the servo motor on the throttle body to open the butterfly until the sensor on the throttle body
sends back a resistance that the ECM believes is correct. All this device will do is to modify the input value so the throttle body opens at a faster rate. Meaning that it will be much more difficult
to hold the car at any desired speed. Any movement of the pedal will be amplified, causing the car to be overly sensitive to pedal input. This reminds me of a story. My father
(who was an auto mechanic) had this *****'s jeep. Well he shoehorned a 283 V8 into this thing so it would push snow better.
Well the problem was that the throttle became very sensitive to any input. One time I took off from a light and the damn Jeep took off way to fast. I tried to feather the pedal but to no avail. When
I got off the pedal the jeep slowed down as if I put the brakes on, so I got back on the pedal and the jeep once again took off like all hell broke loose. This cycle repeated itself about three times in
a couple hundred feet. It was insane. I was like 17 and didn't have that much experience with this jeep and it's short wheel base and three speed tranny with this overly anxious V8. My solution
was to floor the thing to stop this insane cycle. My point is that unless you plan to race your car. This makes absolutely no sense. All you will end up doing is to make the pedal more sensitive and
uncomfortable to drive. The car will not be any faster. You will only manage to take away pedal control. I see a rear end collision in your future. Rush hour traffic and you tap the pedal a little to
hard and bam. Your into to back of someone. I would think a longer more linear control would be preferred.
You do realize that you need to synchronize your pedal and throttle control in the ECM. Turn the key on and push the pedal to the floor three times, then pause and start the car. You now have mapped
the throttle pot to the pedal input. This should give you linear control all the way to the footboard.
When I was 18, I had a co-worker that raced dirt bikes. His bike was like this. You were either wide open or not at all. Any twist of that throttle and this bike was wide open, ball to the wall.
On a race track this was great. Trail riding, it was terrifying.
the pedal, that sends an input into the ECM. It's a resistance value. The ECM uses that value to tell the servo motor on the throttle body to open the butterfly until the sensor on the throttle body
sends back a resistance that the ECM believes is correct. All this device will do is to modify the input value so the throttle body opens at a faster rate. Meaning that it will be much more difficult
to hold the car at any desired speed. Any movement of the pedal will be amplified, causing the car to be overly sensitive to pedal input. This reminds me of a story. My father
(who was an auto mechanic) had this *****'s jeep. Well he shoehorned a 283 V8 into this thing so it would push snow better.
Well the problem was that the throttle became very sensitive to any input. One time I took off from a light and the damn Jeep took off way to fast. I tried to feather the pedal but to no avail. When
I got off the pedal the jeep slowed down as if I put the brakes on, so I got back on the pedal and the jeep once again took off like all hell broke loose. This cycle repeated itself about three times in
a couple hundred feet. It was insane. I was like 17 and didn't have that much experience with this jeep and it's short wheel base and three speed tranny with this overly anxious V8. My solution
was to floor the thing to stop this insane cycle. My point is that unless you plan to race your car. This makes absolutely no sense. All you will end up doing is to make the pedal more sensitive and
uncomfortable to drive. The car will not be any faster. You will only manage to take away pedal control. I see a rear end collision in your future. Rush hour traffic and you tap the pedal a little to
hard and bam. Your into to back of someone. I would think a longer more linear control would be preferred.
You do realize that you need to synchronize your pedal and throttle control in the ECM. Turn the key on and push the pedal to the floor three times, then pause and start the car. You now have mapped
the throttle pot to the pedal input. This should give you linear control all the way to the footboard.
When I was 18, I had a co-worker that raced dirt bikes. His bike was like this. You were either wide open or not at all. Any twist of that throttle and this bike was wide open, ball to the wall.
On a race track this was great. Trail riding, it was terrifying.
Veteran Member
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,328
Likes: 543
From: Spring, TX
What kind of gimmick is this. The sensor on the pedal is simply a potentiometer. Like the volume control on the radio. The throttle body also has a device that is similar. When you press
the pedal, that sends an input into the ECM. It's a resistance value. The ECM uses that value to tell the servo motor on the throttle body to open the butterfly until the sensor on the throttle body
sends back a resistance that the ECM believes is correct. All this device will do is to modify the input value so the throttle body opens at a faster rate. Meaning that it will be much more difficult
to hold the car at any desired speed. Any movement of the pedal will be amplified, causing the car to be overly sensitive to pedal input. This reminds me of a story. My father
(who was an auto mechanic) had this *****'s jeep. Well he shoehorned a 283 V8 into this thing so it would push snow better.
Well the problem was that the throttle became very sensitive to any input. One time I took off from a light and the damn Jeep took off way to fast. I tried to feather the pedal but to no avail. When
I got off the pedal the jeep slowed down as if I put the brakes on, so I got back on the pedal and the jeep once again took off like all hell broke loose. This cycle repeated itself about three times in
a couple hundred feet. It was insane. I was like 17 and didn't have that much experience with this jeep and it's short wheel base and three speed tranny with this overly anxious V8. My solution
was to floor the thing to stop this insane cycle. My point is that unless you plan to race your car. This makes absolutely no sense. All you will end up doing is to make the pedal more sensitive and
uncomfortable to drive. The car will not be any faster. You will only manage to take away pedal control. I see a rear end collision in your future. Rush hour traffic and you tap the pedal a little to
hard and bam. Your into to back of someone. I would think a longer more linear control would be preferred.
You do realize that you need to synchronize your pedal and throttle control in the ECM. Turn the key on and push the pedal to the floor three times, then pause and start the car. You now have mapped
the throttle pot to the pedal input. This should give you linear control all the way to the footboard.
When I was 18, I had a co-worker that raced dirt bikes. His bike was like this. You were either wide open or not at all. Any twist of that throttle and this bike was wide open, ball to the wall.
On a race track this was great. Trail riding, it was terrifying.
the pedal, that sends an input into the ECM. It's a resistance value. The ECM uses that value to tell the servo motor on the throttle body to open the butterfly until the sensor on the throttle body
sends back a resistance that the ECM believes is correct. All this device will do is to modify the input value so the throttle body opens at a faster rate. Meaning that it will be much more difficult
to hold the car at any desired speed. Any movement of the pedal will be amplified, causing the car to be overly sensitive to pedal input. This reminds me of a story. My father
(who was an auto mechanic) had this *****'s jeep. Well he shoehorned a 283 V8 into this thing so it would push snow better.
Well the problem was that the throttle became very sensitive to any input. One time I took off from a light and the damn Jeep took off way to fast. I tried to feather the pedal but to no avail. When
I got off the pedal the jeep slowed down as if I put the brakes on, so I got back on the pedal and the jeep once again took off like all hell broke loose. This cycle repeated itself about three times in
a couple hundred feet. It was insane. I was like 17 and didn't have that much experience with this jeep and it's short wheel base and three speed tranny with this overly anxious V8. My solution
was to floor the thing to stop this insane cycle. My point is that unless you plan to race your car. This makes absolutely no sense. All you will end up doing is to make the pedal more sensitive and
uncomfortable to drive. The car will not be any faster. You will only manage to take away pedal control. I see a rear end collision in your future. Rush hour traffic and you tap the pedal a little to
hard and bam. Your into to back of someone. I would think a longer more linear control would be preferred.
You do realize that you need to synchronize your pedal and throttle control in the ECM. Turn the key on and push the pedal to the floor three times, then pause and start the car. You now have mapped
the throttle pot to the pedal input. This should give you linear control all the way to the footboard.
When I was 18, I had a co-worker that raced dirt bikes. His bike was like this. You were either wide open or not at all. Any twist of that throttle and this bike was wide open, ball to the wall.
On a race track this was great. Trail riding, it was terrifying.
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2020
Posts: 574
Likes: 186
From: South Australia
The OP doesn’t want any opinions from ANYBODY who hasn’t use one FULLSTOP.
90-95 percent of users think it is a good thing across any different type of car forums you may wish to read. 5-10 percent remove the device as it is too aggressive for them or because it can throw some fault codes. I have used one before and was very happy but don’t need it for this car with my driving style.
For those naysayers that have to chime in please just start another thread . In real life how often would you insert your self into a conversation in between two people uninvited. ?
90-95 percent of users think it is a good thing across any different type of car forums you may wish to read. 5-10 percent remove the device as it is too aggressive for them or because it can throw some fault codes. I have used one before and was very happy but don’t need it for this car with my driving style.
For those naysayers that have to chime in please just start another thread . In real life how often would you insert your self into a conversation in between two people uninvited. ?
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 520
Likes: 248
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Never heard that one. Using it.
Also, pardon me for asking... but isn't this exactly what selecting the "Dynamic" setting of "Engine" in the menu does?
(bend the throttle curve, that is)
I have mine set that way because I find it a bit easier for blipping. And because I'm lazy and I like not having to move my foot so much 😉
Bringing back this thread, for a few reasons. First, in my experience and opinion, the Pedal Commander is the least quality of other products on the market that offer similar functionality. I have used a Pedal Commander and while it offers a ton of adjustability, most people won't ever use that many adjustments. Secondly, there are a few other products on the market, that again in my experience, are worth looking into. The first would be Madness AutoWorks Go Pedal. This is by far the easiest of the user interfaces, seeing as it is three buttons, three adjustments, that is it. The second is a product by Sprint Booster. They give more flexibility in adjustment, in a smaller form factor with a better warranty. All of these are easy to install. Yes, I have one installed on my car, the Sprint Booster that is. It also offers some nice features like reducing throttle response or completely turning it off. Think car shows, valet, inexperienced family drivers. Those possibilities are worth the price in my opinion. Under normal driving, I keep it off. If I am out for a spirited drive, I will leave it in sport mode on setting 5. That is my sweet spot. When taking it on the drag strip, race mode, highest setting on 9. I have noticed a consistent improvement in 1/4 mile times by .1-.2 per run, with this on versus off. While VAP does remove all the throttle response they can with their tunes, this modification does it quicker. It all depends on what your end goal is. I do like my Sprint Booster and equally could recommend the Go Pedal for someone who wants super simple.
I think part of the problem is videos like this. Because it adds to the flame wars that exist with these types of products being called snake oil, etc. Granted if the product is not right for you, then don't buy one. I for one, again, would not want the Pedal Commander. The circuitry is made in China (versus other from Germany) and just chepaer product with TOO many adjustments. However, because this is ultimately changing your throttle response to a non-linear curve, it gives that impression of better performance, but really you are getting a quicker response from pressing the pedal. I would agree with most, that these products kind of suck for just normal driving around, but in my experience at the track, this has been a great addition.
Veteran Member
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 12,049
Likes: 3,344
From: home
We need as always verified before and after drag strip runs for any mod. No amount of feel is worth anything. Nobody running top times with a Jaguar is running one of these things.
You need to ask why? If It does have an advantage why are people who run drag radials, Meth Injection and NOS NOT adding these?
.
.
.
You need to ask why? If It does have an advantage why are people who run drag radials, Meth Injection and NOS NOT adding these?
.
.
.
We need as always verified before and after drag strip runs for any mod. No amount of feel is worth anything. Nobody running top times with a Jaguar is running one of these things.
You need to ask why? If It does have an advantage why are people who run drag radials, Meth Injection and NOS NOT adding these?
.
.
.
You need to ask why? If It does have an advantage why are people who run drag radials, Meth Injection and NOS NOT adding these?
.
.
.
Member
Joined: Oct 2021
Posts: 88
Likes: 24
From: Las Vegas
Hello all, although I never put any track time in with it, I did have a pedal commander on my previous car…Lexus RCF. I can say without a doubt it changed the “seat of the pants” feel and was absolutely necessary on that car even for daily driving. That being said I’m so happy with how our cars drive from the factory, I haven’t entertained the idea of using such and item….although I did purchase the VAP tune during their Black Friday special…old habits die hard lol (I’m waiting for the warranty to expire prior to flashing).
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