I was heading to the gas station because my car was nearly out of gas, and I turned right on a green light. Taking the corner at an agressive speed, but having control as always, the car suddenly lost all power--the steering wheel jammed, I couldn't move it, the brakes didn't work that well, and all of the dashboard lights came on. I found myself trying to do everything I could to gain control of the car while the car moved toward oncoming traffic. I was finally able to get the brakes to work, and the the car coasted to a stop up on the median and I nearly hit a pole.

All the dashboard lights on and steering completely jammed, I took the key out and started the ignition again. It started up, no lights came on, and I pulled over to inspect what could have happened. Everything under the hood looked fine, but I speculate it could have been something electrical or gas related. The fuel light was on, and possibly the car didn't have enough fuel after that aggressive maneuver.

Today on my way to work, the car performed normally.

The car has never done anything like this before. This $hit scares me...what if I were on the highway and it did that--I'd have no control of the car. Anyone know what this is or what could have caused it?

 

The problem may simply have been that you were nearly out of gas. If you made an aggressive start while turning a corner, the force of the turn moved most of the gas to one side of the tank, which could have interrupted the flow of gas to the engine. Once the car stalled, the car quickly slowed down which reduced the force of the turn and allowed the tank to level out, thus restoring the flow and allowing you to start the engine with no problems. This is just a theory and I could be totally wrong, but it seems to make a bit of sense.

If your steering wheel truly jammed and didn't just become more difficult to manage due to loss of the power steering, then that is certainly a problem that you should have looked at. The steering wheel should not lock if the key is in the 'On' position.

 

I heard that sudden engine shutdown is one of the symptoms of a failing ECU. Not concluding the ECU was the cause of your problem, though.

 

This same thing happened to me and i almost got into an accident becuase of it. Get some carb cleaner take off your intake and take a BRAND NEW white cloth spray the carb cleaner on the cloth. Put a brick on the gas pedal MAKE SURE CAR IS OFF! What this does is open the throttle body. Then take the cloth and wipe all in the throttle body all around it. It should take about 10 minutes make sure you get EVERYWHERE. But do not spray the car cleaner into the throttle body. You should expirence smoother shifts, no more jerking into first gear. And a smooth idle.

 

You can just hold the throttle open, no need for a brick, and use TB cleaner, not carb cleaner

 

Ahh i was doing it by myself and i wanted to use both hands. I'm weird. Don't worry about it.

 

Wow that IS scary. glad your i30's ok, oh yeah, and you too

 

haha your not the only weird one...

 

I am not an expert, but I know it happened to me once (although not as violent, I was driving on a straight street) - engine stalled, thus all the lights on the dash, loss of power steering and power brakes and it all was because of a faulty battery connector. I discovered this the following morning when trying to start the engine and everything died just before cranking the engine. I messed a bit with the battery connector and I managed to start it. Next stop was at the dealership...they changed it, never happened again. I hope it helps.

Good luck!

 

If you were low on fuel and were taking the corner the amount of fuel you had left shifted, starving the engine causing it to shut down, hence why, after you were stopped and started it agian there was no problems.

 

I'd say low gas too, I had these types of problems in my Legend as I'd corner with low fuel...

 

Yeah, most definitely a gas problem.

My old Diamante did that all the time. Only happened when I was low on gas, sometimes when making a left turn, but quite often when making a right turn.

 

how low exactly were you?

its either gas
fuel filter
maf
tb/iacv