So, I’m on the highway when some jerk in a minivan cuts me off. I slam on the brakes hard (like tires screeching and smoking big time) to avoid colliding. Immediately, the Check Engine Light and the battery indicator lit up and I basically had no acceleration. I kept hitting the gas…nothing – it’s like the engine completely died, just from the hard braking. I coasted over to the shoulder, shut off the engine, and got out of the car to calm down my :eek: nerves for 2-3 minutes.
Afterwards, I got back into the car, turn it on, and everything’s working fine. No Check Engine light, no battery indicator lit up, nothing. Full power/acceleration back. I drove for another 20 miles after this without any problems.
Does anyone know what the heck happened? Did the hard braking overload the battery or the PCM? Did the engine or battery shift? What things should I check for? Thanks for any advice!
I used to have a similar problem in an Accord. Something was wrong with the clutch in the automatic transmission; it wasn’t engaging fast enough on hard braking.
Braking shouldn’t have any electrical side effects (so far as I know). The ONLY thing I can think of is that when the wheels went from 60 to 0 really really fast the the engine had a hard time spinning the torque converter [a)Does that make sense, it does in my head b)it’s automatic, right] and the excess resistence on the engine caused it to stop.
But that’s just a WAG.
There could be a lot of things that could cause such a problem.
In no particular order:
[ul]
[li]Plugged/stuck/slow responding idle air control valve, not catching the idle in time and allowing the engine to die[/li][li]Unsecured battery shifting, and the positive cable arcing to ground momentarily.[/li][li]Bad engine mount allowing the engine to shift, and causing the wiring harness to be pulled, causing a bad connection[/li][li]dirty throttle plate[/li][li]Worn valve guides, or rings[/li][/ul]
ETA: Based on Santo’s post: Lockup torque converter not disengaging.
Yes, it’s an automatic. It’s interesting that you mention the torque converter – I do have a very noisy transmission and the shop said that the torque converter may be intermittently freezing. So I can see how that might affect accelleration, but I’m surprised to learn that it also can affect decelleration. I thought about the engine mount, but the mechanic said they looked okay a few months ago. I’ll check the battery harness and see if anything looks askew. I think this incident scared me enough that I might drop off the car at the dealer and have them take a thorough look at it. Thanks for the advice!
A little lesson for everyone: Sit in your car and turn it on. NO - I didn’t say START it - don’t start it - just turn the key to the “on” position WITHOUT turning it all the way to the “start” position. Now, the engine isn’t running, because you didn’t start the engine, but you’ll see that the accessories work - wipers, radio, blower, turn signals, etc. You’ll also see that most of the warning lights are on - check engine, oil, battery, etc. (some may go off after a number of seconds).
The point: It is normal for these warning lights to be on if the key is in the “on” position and the engine isn’t running - and this is exactly the situation whenever the engine dies. What happened in the OP incident is that the engine died, which is potentially significant and worth asking about. The various warning lights are insignificant (other than confirming that the engine died) and do NOT indicate any sort of problem with anything.
As far as the OP: if you don’t have any other drivability/performance symptoms, it’s questionable if there’s any problem at all - it may have been a fluke consequence of the severe braking. Then again, the various causes already listed are possibilities. While it doesn’t appear there’s an urgent problem, it’s not a bad idea to check the main suspects.
Yep. It used to be that torque converters always made a “sloppy” connection between the engine and the wheels, unlike a clutch which always made a solid connection. The advantage of a torque converter was you didn’t have to press in the clutch pedal every time you stopped or changed gears. The disadvantage was that you lost a lot of energy do to the fact that a torque converter always “slipped” to some degree, even when you were traveling down the highway at speed. All of that slipping in that sloppy connection meant lost energy, which means worse gas mileage.
The solution to this is the “lockup torque converter” which locks up like a clutch while you are moving, and unlocks to behave like a regular old fashioned torque converter when you stop. It’s kind of an attempt to be the best of both worlds, combining the ease of an old fashioned torque converter with the better performance of a clutch.
If for some reason the torque converter doesn’t unlock when you stop, it’s basically like stopping a stick shift car without pressing in the clutch pedal. Because you’ve got a nice solid connection between the engine and wheels, when the wheels stop, the engine stops too. Instant stall. As Gary T pointed out, at this point the engine stops, all of your warning lights come on, and you aren’t going anywhere until you restart the engine. Hopefully the torque converter did finally unlock, or you won’t be restarting the engine and it’s time to call the tow truck.
On an escort, I believe there’s a solenoid that controls the lockup torque converter. The problem could be as simple as that solenoid might be wearing out or dirty, making it stick a bit.
As others pointed out, though, this is just one of many possibilities. I find it awfully suspicious that you have other possible torque converter problems though. These might all be different symptoms of the same underlying problem.
