Q: After braking hard, the car shuts off
While on the highway, I was going between 55-60 mph. The A/C was on and CD was playing. An animal ran in front of the car and I firmly hit the brakes to avoid hitting it. The way I hit the brakes was not hard enough to screech the tires, but it was still very firm. Then… the whole car shut off! I lost power steering and the dash quit. My CD was even ejected. After coasting to the side of the road I tried restarting it and got 'click click click click...' It sounded like a dead battery. I tried to take the key out of the ignition, but it was stuck for a moment, but finally did release. After waiting for a moment, I inserted the key back into the ignition and the car started immediately. It sputtered for a few feet before moving, finally. Then, with no other problems, I was able to drive home. But naturally, after all that experience, I’m scared to drive my car. Please explain to me why the car did all of this and should I take it to the auto repair shop?
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Hello. It is very hard to diagnose and issue like this without knowing a large variety of other factors. If nothing is wrong with the vehicle at this point, I would not worry about taking in your car. If you notice anything different in the way it drives or performs then yes, have your vehicle inspected.
The amount of force involved with a hard stop can put incredible amount of stress on the engine and transmission. Your power steering loss could be from an electrical power loss as well. To have all of this checked, consider having a certified mechanic, like one from YourMechanic, diagnose the stalling issue in order to have this corrected.
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