Archives

I don't know why I didn't notice this before, but it appears my car will not allow me to turn the key more than one click back while it is in N or any gear but P.

Lots of times people worry about doing a FAS because people could turn the key too far back and lock the steering column. I'm thinking the government might have made a law that you can't do that except if you put the car in park. Is this true for all newer vehicles? Does anyone know when it became manditory for cars (I'm pretty sure it is because it makes sense for saftey)?

On my Saturn I have to push the key in to go from the accessory position to the lock posistion. It does appear that this was done for safety.

The government requires that the key not be removed while the engine is running. This is a anti theft issue (don’t ask me, I’m an engineer not a politician). Most car makers simply make the key lock active while not in the off position (that’s off-off as opposed to the accessory position). Also with automatic transmissions the select lever must be in park to remove the key, so these two functions are tied together. The park interlock is a child safety thing, the funny part is that I rolled my Dads station wagon in to the garage door when I was a kid, my first job out of collage was designing an interlock system. The anti-theft measure came in in the late ’70s or ‘80s (I have no idea, it was before my time). The park interlock was added in the late ‘80s.