The speed sensor wiring is quite hard to access, especially without a vehicle lift. Check the back of the engine on the driver's side and see if there is any oil leaking. Often, the oil will get into the connector(located behind the cylinder head) and even into the sensor itself, causing the sensor to fail and cleaning alone will not resolve the issue. As far as the steering and brake not working thing, when the engine is not running, you won't have power steering(these are very hard to steer without it), the power brakes also rely on the engine running for the assist. When the engine dies, you will only have about one more power assisted brake application(applying the brake and not letting off until stopped), so if you need to stop when the engine stalls, stop the first time, you will still be able to brake but will need a very strong leg to push the pedal in.

As far as the warning lights are concerned, you won't notice any change in driving until you need ABS to work(slamming on the brakes in the rain or snow or ice or dry ground depending on how hard you brake). When there is a fault set in the system, the computer will disable antilock capability. You will have normal braking, but your brakes will lock up and the vehicle will skid under those conditions. Other than that everything will be normal. I personally have never seen faults set on these due to brake dust, so I can't personally say that cleaning the brakes will work, especially as there is more to the ABS system than just the brakes. I would definitely take it in to have the faults read, in order to head in the correct direction. Having the fault codes will make it easier to help you out.

 

Mine just started shutting off while driving yesterday - three times now. It's at the shop now and it's computer has been read.. just thought this may be a help to some of you.
The CAM sensor is bad - this apparently works in conjunction with the crank sensor, so if you have this problem and find that the crank is good it may be the CAM. The worst part is that the crank is pretty cheap while the CAM is not so much.