Car Stalls - Everything Locks up

[jumpstart]

Hi,

Today I was driving my 07 Camry manual and it stalled at intersection and everything locked up - steering and foot brake and just got ignition started before crossing over double lines.

Yes I can drive! first time i stalled lol.

Anyway... I would have thought that they would have designed it so that it only locks up when you turn ignition off or remove key, not when you stall... it could have been very dangerous with oncoming traffic!

[RICO8458]

that sounds sort of dangerous. a complete full lock up. wonder how one can bypass this sort of event?

[gdanaher]

You're moving and the engine stalled? It sounds like you put it in neutral. If not, as long as you are rolling the engine would be turning and creating vacuum for the brakes and keep pressure on the power steering. Yes, if the engine isn't turning then you have no vacuum nor power steering. Leave it in gear. Now, why did it stall?

[ghettosled]

keep in mind everything runs off of the engine. if engine isnt on, there is no vacuum for the brakes and there is nothing to turn the power steering pump. where should everything get power from if the engine isnt on? everything is still usuable with the key in the "on" position and motor not running, it just takes a little more effort.

[jumpstart]

it was in gear... and it locked up steering completely and very very very minimal braking if any.

It wasn't lack of effort... it was actually locked up the same as when the car is off with no keys!

[TRD VVTi]

You must be really weak. The steering column lock would not lock if the car stalled. Without the engine running there will be no power assist as stated above. Apparently you aren't strong enough to overcome that.

[DiLan]

Originally Posted by gdanaher

You're moving and the engine stalled? It sounds like you put it in neutral. If not, as long as you are rolling the engine would be turning and creating vacuum for the brakes and keep pressure on the power steering. Yes, if the engine isn't turning then you have no vacuum nor power steering. Leave it in gear. Now, why did it stall?

this doesn't make sense, if the engine stalls how are you going to roll/turn the engine while in gear? wouldn't the car stop

[kolkh]

Originally Posted by DiLan

this doesn't make sense, if the engine stalls how are you going to roll/turn the engine while in gear? wouldn't the car stop

My Toyota’s engine stalled Saturday night coming to a rural highway intersection. My wife told me that first thing I did was shifting to neutral. I do not recall that – it was done instinctively: I did not want to become a 'four way target' and I managed to clear intersection. Steering and braking was fine for those who remember how non-power-assisted systems worked, i.e. hard, but possible!

[Mike Murrell]

Engine power is needed to operate the power steering system. If the engine was dead, so was the power steering system.

It can be very difficult to turn a a steering wheel that has lost it's power steering system.

I would take the car to a Toyota delear and explain what happened. I'm not saying anything useful will come from this, but you should try.

Situations like this can cause you to lose your life.

[gdanaher]

Whoever Jumpstart is, he/she needs to understand how a car works with respect to power accessories. I doubt that anything 'locked up'. It might have become hard to use, but locking up to me means that you have put it in park and pulled the key out. The steering column is physically locked. I imagine that the power steering went away and it was hard to steer and they weren't used to actually pressing hard on the brake to stop the vehicle. Power brakes are called power brakes for a reason. The car was a stick shift, meaning if the car remained in gear, the engine would continue to turn until the car stopped, so since it didn't, the drive must have put it in neutral to coast and in turn lost the power and vacuum of the turning engine.