I just read this in the Owner's Manual. You can shut off the engine while you are driving by pressing and holding the START/STOP button for about two seconds. Or, you can press the button and then press it again. Of course, this is not a recommended procedure, but it might be necessary for some reason.

 

Can't think of any rational reason ... am sure the hard core hyper-milers would disagree with me

 

Probably an emergency situation - throttle stuck open - something like that. I've never done that in any car. Power steering and brakes go away

 

I did it once, a month or so after I got the car just to see what it felt like; killed the engine at 55 mph and slowed down, made a right turn and coasted to a stop. Everything still works but yeah, you really have to put some effort into it.

 

huh, glad to hear the steering still works.

im use to cars steering locking up when engine turns off preventing the car from turning..!

 

A very scary situation. They should have thought of a way around that.

 

No steering should lock up when the engine turns off. Steering effort may go up, but you can still steer.

Are you sure that the steering column lock isn't engaging when you turn the key off?

 

The steering column lock should not engage without some secondary motion beyond twisting the key: either pushing it in and turning it more, or pressing some lever or button, or actually pulling it out of the switch. I believe this to be a DOT requirement, so that one can shut off the engine in the case of an emergency (like a stuck throttle) without locking the steering column.

Power steering often will not be available, of course, as George wrote--definitely not for hydraulic power steering, since the pump to power it is an engine accessory, and possibly not for electric power steering systems depending on how things are wired.

 

This is true on new cars. My LX requires the transmission to be in park before the key can be turned to the lock position which effectively prevents the steering from being locked while the car is rolling.

Older cars depended more on the driver being intelligent. You could turn the key to lock while rolling. Kenchan is probably referring to an older vehicle.

 

You can move the key to lock, but it's not a single motion from "on" to "lock". You must also push the key in or remove it or something, making it more than one discrete action. Of course, one does get so used to taking the keys out that it might feel like a single operation.

 

Remember not so far back, all the stories of run away Prius? Unintended Acceleration?
My guess is that the illumination and revelation...that you can turn your vehicle off while driving has much more to do with that reality.

If for any reason one felt they couldn't stop their vehicle, the ability to turn it off should exist.


I don't see the revelation as something Honda is suggesting is a good idea...under nearly any other "normal" circumstance.

The two second delay and/or the press it twice reality would suggest to me Honda is more concerned about preventing accidental engine shut offs while driving, than they are promoting turning off your engine while driving.

 

There was a family killed here in San Diego, a CHP officer in a loaner lexus where the floormat got caught on the accelerator, he didn't know you could kill the engine by holding the button down for three seconds. Why he didn't shift to neutral I don't know but it's easy to armchair quarterback I guess.
My wife had the same thing happen in her lexus years ago, but realized what had happened and just reached down and pulled the mat back (that was an aftermarket mat that didn't have the hold-downs all the new matts have). She was still very shaken.

 

My gencoupe had the brake switch fail which made it impossible to start the car (push button start, must have foot on brake). So the solution was to press and hold the start button for 10 seconds or so and the car would start w/o pressing the brake.

So just to see what would happen in my Fit, I tried the same, it did not work. So how can you /start/ the car if the brake light switch were to fail?

 

That sounds like a problem for Honda to solve.

 

When I was a young'un I had a VW bug. You could turn the ignition off and the steering wouldn't lock until you removed the key. My parents lived in a subdivision at the end of a long slow hill. I'd coast to the bottom of the hill and turn on their street, then two houses, turn into the drive and coast up the driveway. If I did it right, I'd coast up within inches of the garage door. yay. It all depended on going 20mph when I turned the corner.

Then I bought a nissan truck. I switched it off at the top of the hill and coasted (manual tranny). I serpentined thru the neighborhood and finally at hte bottom of the hill turned onto their street.... and.... the steering locked. Of course I was going 20mph, so I ended up in the neighbor's yard and skidding to a stop on his grass.

 

I've done it to see what I'd do. You have to hold it a pretty long time.. keep foot on clutch and press again and it fires right back up.

 

I used to turn off my Honda Civic one mile from work, shift into neutral, and coast into my parking space.

 

Steering works in accessory mode (all the lights on the dashboard lit up) still with power, and in "low power" mode (dashboard off) you can still steer but with a lot of effort as the power steering is off immediately.

The real issue is brakes: you have about one full foot press and then you pretty much lose brake power (either mode). So you cannot really go very far with the engine off. At most you can coast to a stop, but realize that once you've pressed the pedal and released, you either need to restart the engine or engine/hand-brake to an emergency stop because you probably have very little hydraulic pressure left for a second braking.

 

I can't imagine a situation in which that would be a good choice, but since Honda included that capability, there must be a reason.

 

For emergencies.

The power steering is electric, so as long as the battery is connected it should work. Hence why when the key is in "full power" mode the steering still has power. You wouldn't want to unexpectedly lose this should the engine quit during operation.

All power braking systems in all cars pretty much have a "power reservoir" of braking in case of engine shut-off, for emergencies. That's just how the system is made: