[mdbowman]

My family was driving on the highway yesterday, going approximately 70 mph. I was eating goldfish (sorry if too much detail) but I dropped one and when I did my foot immediately came off the gas and hit the brake... not ridiculously hard, but it happened very quickly. Well when it did the engine shut off. The lights on the dash went off and the key light was blinking... I pulled to the side of the road (thankfully wasn't too bad traffic wise) put the vehicle in park, started the van back and continued home. I want to know if you think this is OK and was a freak occurance, or if it's something I need to look at? I just want my wife/family to be safe.

History on van:
2008 EXL
Transmission update done a few months back.
New battery just recently

I thank you so much!!!

 

[dvpatel]

That's odd. Could you have possibly knocked the key as if you turned the car off while bending down?

 

[mdbowman]

That is a great question. I actually don't think so by bending down (I was still sitting up) but maybe a slight chance as I tried to catch it... maybe I hit the key? that would make me feel better! I was just curious if these things had any features that would cause that (hoping not) and/or any known issues that would have caused it. Great question though. Wonder if my wife will buy it?

 

[dvpatel]

No such feature exists that I know of.

 

[Biggus Blockus]

Is there a safety inertia switch that shuts off the fuel pump? Some vehicles are so equipped to prevent fires after collisions. I could not imagine the OP hit the brakes hard enough to do so - just a thought.

 

[HondaNerd]

Maybe kicked a connector under the dash? Something loose under there? Maybe??:huh:

 

[davedrivesody]

Might be that the engine just slowed down so fast the computer didn't get the fuel going in time to keep it from stalling. Mine will stall if I rev it to 3K then fly my foot off the gas. (Coolant replacement procedure.) I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[dvpatel]

Might be that the engine just slowed down so fast the computer didn't get the fuel going in time to keep it from stalling. Mine will stall if I rev it to 3K then fly my foot off the gas. (Coolant replacement procedure.) I wouldn't worry about it.

If the engine just stalled, wouldn't the fact that the keys are beyond the ACC II postion, it would light up the dash? I would think that all the dash lights would turn on in that case. My Ford did that to me a couple of times. When the engine would stall and shut off (bad ignition me now thinks), all the dash lights would light up as if I were in ACC II position.

OP, do you remember having to turn the keys back to 0 and then start the Oddy or did you just have to turn the key as if you are just starting the car?

 

[mdbowman]

I wish I would have thought to try and troubleshoot on the fly at that point, but to be honest I think once I shouldered the car my first instinct was to turn the key completely off and wait a few seconds to let it sink in, then crank it up and get back on the road.

The thing that sticks in my mind though is that green light showing the key in the ignition flashing at me. Other than that I was trying to avoid cars and get the van to a safe location. Thank you ALL for your advice and suggestions! I feel much better knowing everyone is leaning towards this being an isolated freak incident.

 

[bw03]

The obvious thing to do is to pick an open road and jam the brakes to see what happens. Make sure there's nobody behind you when you do it.

 

[in4mation]

Maybe your alternator is dying and it was just a coincidence that your car had that problem when you dropped the cracker?

 

[momsride]

Maybe it was a warning not to bend down and take your eyes off the road for a goldfish at 70 mph.

 

[ssskyy]

Um hi, I'm an australian and I'm really hoping that "goldfish" has another meaning in your part of the world... Were you actually eating little pet fish while driving ... or is this some joke I'm hopefully going to be laughing about???

 

[dvpatel]

Um hi, I'm an australian and I'm really hoping that "goldfish" has another meaning in your part of the world... Were you actually eating little pet fish while driving ... or is this some joke I'm hopefully going to be laughing about???

Hi there from down under. They're talking about a kiddy snak that many adults love too. Nobody was eating pet goldfish or this isn't some sort of a joke. They're actually talking about goldfish crackers which are orangeish gold in color and are shaped like little fish and hence the name goldfish. Here is a linky for ya.
Pepperidge Farm&#174 - Goldfish® Crackers

 

[wompem]

I've seen something similar a couple times. Once I had a battery hold down loose. When you hit a bump or hard brake, the terminal would make contact and short to the frame. Engine would ALMOST cut out, car would jerk. This would unconnect the short, then engine would cut back in. But the acceleration would make the short happen again. Rinse/Repeat. Really annoying and scary on the highway.

The other time a friend had a loose battery terminal connection. If she accelerated hard, the terminal would flex and give a bunch of warning lights (not a good connection). I tightened up the terminal connector and it worked fine after that.

In short, check the battery to make sure it is all good and tight.

 

[HeavyDuty]

OP, also, how many miles on the van? If you haven't done a throttle body service at 50,000 miles or so, the sudden (dirty) throttle plate closing might not have afforded the Idle Air Control valve enough time to react and supply air around the throttle body and maintain the correct idle speed.

$.02

 

[ssskyy]

Phew! Thank goodness for that!