I guess I am somewhat confused by what you mean by “stalling” on the highway. Even if the spark or fuel gets cut off, the engine is still going to be kept rotating by the inertia of the car. In order to use the starter to restart the engine you’d have to wait until you came to a stop (or put the transmission in neutral) but that shouldn’t be necessary since if spark/fuel somehow gets restored while the engine is still rotating it’ll fire right back up without any need to turn the key to “start.”
With the VW turn-the-key-all-the-way-back ignition switches, that can cause much embarrassment if you stall the car when setting out from a stop, but it shouldn’t ever be an issue when you’re driving on the highway.
This is only true if you have a manual transmission. There are alot of automatic transmissions out there. ISTR, that there was a thread a while back about the auto/manual issue, IE; how many can drive a stick shift?
I am also confused as to what “stalling on the highway” means.
As far as the OPs original question, all of my rigs are old enough that the headlight switches are manually operated.
I live in the country, and I often use the headlights for doing small jobs after dark. I use the headlights with the engine off, as I do not want to start a wildfire with the heat from the catalytic converter. I know it is hard for some folks, but remembering to turn off the headlights should not be a big deal.
No, it’s true even of an automatic. You can’t roll start an automatic because the pump is on the engine side of the transmission, but if you just switch the ignition off while the car is moving in gear, the pump is already turning and the transmission keeps working, allowing the forward momentum of the car to keep the engine (and the transmission pump) turning.
It does not do that with my automatic transmissions. Of course they are all older & do not have a locking torque converter. Newer automatics may be different.
To be fair, the next time I am driving one of my automatics, I will try this out. The few times I have had fuel delivery issues with the Vista Cruiser, this did not work the way you say it will. Obviously, YMMV.
You know, thinking about it, it does not work on my Dodge truck with a 727 transmission. I lost power steering and power brakes as soon as the engine stalled, due to a failing fuel pump. Both power brakes and steering are engine driven on this rig. Good thing I am a big dude and am comfortable with Arm-strong power steering & Leg-strong power brakes!
It works better with a lockup transmission, but it still works to a certain extent with any automatic. It’s basically the same idea as engine braking. The torque converter is a lot less efficient at transmitting power backwards, so at somewhat lower speed eventually the transmission won’t be able to spin the engine fast enough to restart, but at highway speeds it should work, especially if you’ve got a downgrade.
I wouldn’t intentionally do it with a carbureted car, though.