I was out today taking advantage of finally having my car on the road for the spring and was taking a few corners near the limits of the tires. As I was going into a tight right hander, I noticed the steering get very heavy and the dash go out. The engine had died.



Luckily, I wasn't going into the corner ALL that hot, and I'm used to driving without power steering, but it was more than a little disconcerting. After I got out of the corner, I fiddle with the key a little bit and flick it back into the run position. Somehow when I was cornering, my right leg leaned on it just right to flick it from run into ACC.

Anyone else had this happen to them? Any solutions? This is not something I'd like to repeat, say, on the track or at an autocross!

 

How'd you manage to do that? With your knee? or with your hand? I can't visualize where you would hit it to turn it off.

 

Wow, that's really odd. Glad you and the car made it out okay

 

Just did it again. It is my knee hitting the key that does it. Based on the (lack of) response here, it's driver error. I'm going to ditch everything on the keychain and mess with my seating position a bit.

Seems to happen when I heel toe coming into a corner hard. My right knee kicks in as my heel moves over to the gas and foot rotates.

 

Am I the only one curious to see what brent_strong will be ditching from the keychain?

-Rabbits foot?
-Grocery store club card?
-Rape whistle?
-Flashlight?
-Wrist bungee?
-BFF keychain?
-Bottle opener?
-Gerber tool?

 

This is very common w/ some auto-xers. they stopped running w/ a key chain because of it.

 

Apartment keys, dad's vette key, house key, one club card and a lanyard so I can keep track of stuff easier. That will change in a minute.

 

I've always wondered what would happen if you tried to take the keys out while the car was running

 

try this... drive your car and rev up the motor and then let go of the gas and then take the keys out.. the motor still runs !!! but the dash and all electronics are off

and then you can press the clutch in and put the keys back and it'll start right back up! haha

 

I always liked the '66 Chevelle that I used to drive. Get on it hard in 1st or 2nd (same keychain as in the picture) and it would literally tear the keys out of the dashboard. Even though it wasn't that fast, the torque and the visual of the keys being tugged out of the dash by acceleration was enough to impress people.

Bonus is that the key slot was so sloppy that it ran without a key in at all.