Does anyone else have knee pain when they drive certain vehicles

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My right knee kills me when Im driving my Ford Explorer 4 wheel drive. Ive driven it, a Ford f-150, Chevy HHR and Chevy Colorado, and its been the same thing every vehicle: the foot pedal is either right where my right foot goes, and theres no room to the right of my foot, and my knee starts killing me, especially when I brake. Not as bad on the Explorer as the past 4 vehicles.

Now, when I drive my wife’s Mazda RX-3, the foot pedal is actually the same spot as my Explorer, but because there’s no 4 wheel drive theres room to the right of the foot pedal, and my knee always seems comfortable. Also, 10 years ago I drove a F-250, but it was 2 wheel drive and have a bench seat, with plenty of room for my right leg to go right.

I’ve bitched about this with all 4 of my last cars, and wanted to take the car back, but my wife has me convinced the pain is all in my head because of some psycho-somatic “buyers remorse”. Ive tried sitting with my knee stretched out, raising the seat, lowering the seat, I’ve read online to just make sure your foot is flat on the pedal, and every time I change position, my knee feels better . . but than after 10-15 minutes of driving, there comes the fucking pain again.

In my F-150, I eventually drove with my right knee pressed against the dashboard, to the point after 6years theres was a dent in the dashboard where my knee went, It wasn’t very comfortable, but at least my knee didn’t hurt.

Checking online, of course, it says see a doctor or use these stretching or those stretching exercises etc etc. Im not seeing a fucking doctor because its clearly a problem with my knee and the car. I can’t take back the car or trade it in, I just bought it. I can’t get a Mazda like my wife because I need a large vehicle for work. I can’t rest drive another vehicle long enough to see if my knee will hurt.

Any ideas? Am I the only human with this problem? I see millions of Explorers, F150s on the road, and if it was that big a problem, Im sure eventually those cars would not sell. Or is my wife right—its in my head?

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yes. no one vehicle fits every person perfectly.

3

Not an F-150 but …

I find sometimes I’ve been driving for awhile unconsciously pressing my right knee sideways against the center console. There’s a soft pad built there for just that reason.

It seems I push pretty hard, kind of like the unconscious teeth-clenching that some folks do. And as a result my knee ends up sore after an hour of this. When I get out of the car it’s sorta wobbly and misaligned for the first hundred yards or so. After a couple hours the soreness subsides.

Realigning my posture in the seat so I’m not resting (and later unconsciously jamming) my knee against the console prevents the problem.

4

Not me, but my Father-in-law complained about the same thing when he would drive a Jeep I owned. Insisted he never had such pain when he drove any other vehicle.

Guess what the cure was?

5

Chrysler van, automatic; right knee aches on long trips. Same thing as LSLGuy, but no cushion on the console. Once it was so bad a had to take some wonderful, wonderful steroids. Boy did I feel great! :wink:

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I had some issues with a couple older cars; figured a way to adjust the pedal height and springs to make it better. I have no idea if anything like that would work on more modern cars. Maybe ask at the dealership?

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I don’t fully understand why space to the right of your foot, space you should not be in if you are using the gas peddle can do this.

It sounds like it may be more of a alignment issue and not that there is no room to the right of the gas peddle for your foot. The console is too far over to the left causing a uncomfortable angle and possibly a torque in the knee joint.

You may be able to remove, or even cut some of the trim, it won’t give you much and you may need to pad or tape the rough edges somehow, but it may not take much. You might try sitting further left in the seat if that is a option. If it is too bucket like you might try adding padding to raise you up and out enough to shift left a bit.

8

Not to speak for the OP but in my case it was because I drive slightly duck-footed with my foot going slightly across the gas and being more “square” to the brake. That is alignment, so to speak, in that if the regular drivers position forces me to go square to the gas and pigeon-toe the brake, my knee hurts; in fact my whole leg.

9

My wife’s Subaru Forester is a bit uncomfortable for me to either drive or ride in the passenger seat. Not quite enough legroom, not even quite enough footroom.

10

My Jeep gives me a pain in the ass.

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Yes after posting that I took a drive and could see that as a possibility.

12

I found driving my sister-in-law’s Explorer very uncomfortable and noticed knee discomfort with other cars. Definitely not psychosomatic.

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Did not let him drive it anymore?? :cool:

14

Just not being able to stretch my leg fully will get to me.

If I have to twist my knee any to work the gas pedal, one hour and I become a surly bear.

Me and modern cars do not work well together.

15

You have posted cutting remarks about your Jeep(s) so often that I wonder why you continue to own one. I try real hard to banish irritations from my life. For people-based irritations that can be difficult. OTOH, I’ve never had a problem banishing an annoying machine.

Or do you just enjoy suffering? :confused:

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Years ago I drove a vanpool van. Started out with a GMC van that was very comfortable to drive. That van was retired and was given a Dodge to drive. Very uncomfortable to drive. With the steering wheel at a comfortable position the gas and brake pedal were too close to me. Slide the seat back so the pedals worked and I had to drive straight armed. I was transferred closer to home a few months after getting the Dodge and quit driving the vanpool.

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I have an Explorer and I have a what I think is the same situation. Where my foot “wants” to be is actually the right edge of the gas peddle which makes accelerating sometimes jerky. To smoothly accelerate I have to consciously move my leg a little to the left which is less comfortable and after sitting in traffic I feel it.

18

My wife’s old Datsun B210 caused this problem for me. For some reason there was no good place to keep my left foot that wouldn’t result in some pain after about 1/2 hour of driving. It’s happened occasionally in other cars, but nothing else was reliably a problem like that.

19

Left knee here.

From what you describe I’m thinking you may want to ask a physical therapist to look at how you’re sitting and make some suggestions.