What happens if I turn my car off at high speed and turn it back on? Can I break something?
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Your engine turns off and you cost. You will have no power steering or power brakes. I used to turn my car off when I was going down a big hill. Talking 2-3 mile downhill road. Not sure if it actually saved me any gas.
Now I have a push button start.
We called them “Key Bombs “and did this as teenagers back in the 70s’ with our manual transmission trucks. When going through tunnels we’d key-off while going fairly fast in a lower gear, then when the back pressure seemed about right we’d key back on and it would make a very loud back-fire boom… I never had a problem but was told it could blow-up your muffler. Of course as others have said, not only do you lose your power equipment but may also lock up your steering wheel too.
I had this happen to Chrysler/Plymouth vehicle I owned! The car (less than a year old) would randomly stall at highway speeds. The issue was introduced by the dealership mechanic and the service manager doubled down that it was normal operation.
First, the car runs rough because the engine is being turned by inertia and not by its own power. Second, you lose steering assist if the power steering pump is belt driven; if you have electric steering, it may still work. Fortunately, you don’t really want a lot of power assist at high speed. As for braking, mine were vacuum assisted and still working, but when I shifted the automatic trans into neutral, the engine was no longer turning, so all vacuum was lost and I had to almost stand on the pedal to stop.
Note: the dealership did fix the car after I told customers on the sales floor that if you’re OK with a car stalling at highway speeds, they’re your dealer. They’re so good at this that they’ll try to tell you that’s how cars are supposed to work.
PSA: I had a friend do it (manual car) and it cruised along fine. He lost steering assist and tried to turn left and right a bit of slalom.
When he turned the wheel too far to one side the steering wheel lock activated (anti theft thingy that locks your wheel in position) and he drove into a ditch totalling his car
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