How Come You Can Turn the Key When it's in the Ignition While You're Driving?

[xnsf]

I was driving on campus at school last week, and while I was going about 20 mph, I turned the key to the accessory power...

I panicked when all my indicator lights came on, and quickly turned it back to the on position

Is there a specific function that allows the ignition to do this? ...or...err.....Why can it do this?

[Mitch P.]

so basically you turned the engine off while still coasting right? Sounds like a good safety feature to me in the off chance that your vehicle failed in the wide open throttle mode. Cut the ignition and you can stop the car. Of course you won't have power steering and you'll lose power brakes if you pump several times, but better than having it go Audi on you...

[Quicksilver]

Try a few of your other cars. Don't they do it as well??

Originally Posted by xnsf

I was driving on campus at school last week, and while I was going about 20 mph, I turned the key to the accessory power...

I panicked when all my indicator lights came on, and quickly turned it back to the on position

Is there a specific function that allows the ignition to do this? ...or...err.....Why can it do this?

[China Man]

Originally Posted by Quicksilver

Try a few of your other cars. Don't they do it as well??

[Mitch P.]

Originally Posted by Quicksilver

Try a few of your other cars. Don't they do it as well??

every car on the planet can do this, it's nothing new. Even motorcycles...

[xnsf]

so what's it supposed to do?

[Eric Giles]

Originally Posted by xnsf

so what's it supposed to do?

Not so sure why it's so hard to understand why-as was mentioned by someone else, it can be used as a saftey feature to kill the engine. A while back, the throttle cable became stuck on my E30 M3 during a downshift-the revs shot up to over 7k RPM and the engine was bouncing off the rev limiter. I immediately killed the engine by turning the key to the off position.

[X5Dawg]

Heck, some cars you can pull the key OUT of the ignition while driving!!

[broknlgs24]

as all of the others have said, this is by design. now, the question is, were u able to
start the engine again while still in Drive or did u have to put the trans. into neutral?

[xnsf]

Originally Posted by broknlgs24

as all of the others have said, this is by design. now, the question is, were u able to
start the engine again while still in Drive or did u have to put the trans. into neutral?

i turned it to accessory, and i didn't do anything else but turn it back to the on position...all while i was in motion and in drive (around 20 mph). and i was able to drive again.