On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:03:03 -0500, aemeijers
wrote:

mm wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:55:27 -0800 (PST), hibb
wrote:

I Haven't had a problem yet but if I do I figure I would try to get it
out of gear and turn the engine off as soon as possible. If I'm
already going at a good clip I am not sure how it would handle if I
just turn off the ignition. Are newer cars set up to handle like older
cars that had no power steering if the engine is dead and you lose
your power steering?

It would have to work with no engine because there are still power
steering belts that break, and because there are engines that stall.

I drove my 88 LeBaron without power steering for what must have been 4
to 8 thousand miles. It was only a problem parallel parking or getting
out of a tight spot.

But the power brakes are only required to have 3 or maybe 4 full
pushes in them if the engine is not running, and I doubt any car has
more than that.

Until I get more information, I'm saying take it out of gear and don't
turn the engine off until you have slowed down quite a bit.

Sounds right.

David

I don't remember- CAN you take it out of gear, at speed, in a
fly-by-wire car? Sure, you can move the lever, but will it actually do
anything?

Nobody knows for sure how they will react till they are in a situation
like that. Sitting here right now, I can say I would calmly run through
all the steps (including pumping the brakes), and if none of them
worked, look for a guardrail to ease into to scrub off speed. Yeah, I'll
trash the car to avoid a head-on, or t-boning somebody at an
intersection. But the only time I had a runaway, it turned out to be
just a sticking aftermarket cruise control, and turning it off solved
the problem. (noticed the sound was funny when I passed a car, looked
down, and saw I was doing 85...) But if it happens again, in a strange
car, and not on a mostly-empty interstate late at night like the time
before, who knows? My brain might blue-screen too.


Aftermarket cruise on 1980 Corolla (it could have been ANY other car -
being aftermarket) stuck on my wife while going to her brother's home
in Windsor from Kitchener with our 2 young girls with her. She was
able to keep it under control with the brakes until she got to her
brother's place, where she put it out of gear and shut it off. It
dieselled something awfull, and filled the catalytic converter with
fuel so it flashed white hot. The heat melted the floor-mats and
console, filling the car with smoke. She called me in a panic on the
phone asking what to do. I told her to turn the key back on, foot hard
on the brake, put it in gear, and then shut off the key - call the
fire department and point the garden hose anywhere she saw smoke.


When the fire department got there, it was dead and out.
Insurance company totalled it and gave me a negotiated cash settlement
- I fixed the car with used parts and drove it another 5? years - with
the balance of the insurance payment in the "car fund".