The car’s service engine soon light is on and the car shuts down going up hill.
My car has an automatic transmission.
If your steering wheel locked up on you while driving, this could be a serious safety issue that should be inspected by a professional mobile mechanic as soon as possible. Sometimes service lights illuminated while driving are a minor electrical glitch, however, it’s possible that you have an electrical fault underneath the dashboard or other issue that is causing this inconsistent service light issue. Regardless, because you indicated the steering wheel locked up on you, this is something you should have inspected ASAP before it happens again.
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The check engine light is a light to warn you to a possible issue with your exhaust system or emissions system. The service engine soon light can come on for minor issues like a loose gas cap, or for more major problems such as possible engine failure.
Low fuel pressure, dirty or defective fuel injectors, or broken fuel pump: The fuel pump is responsible for transferring fuel from the tank to the engine.
Shifting issues can sometimes cause your vehicle to feel like it is jerking when accelerating. If you have internal transmission damage, it can cause the gears to slip [and] engage over and over again, which feels like jerking when accelerating.
The air filter functions to prevent dirt and debris in the air from entering the engine. If it`s dirty, it could restrict airflow to the engine, thus reducing the amount of oxygen that the engine gets. This causes an uneven oxygen-to-fuel ratio in the engine which leads to misfiring and car jerking.
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If your steering wheel locked up on you while driving, this could be a serious safety issue that should be inspected by a professional mobile mechanic as soon as possible. Sometimes service lights illuminated while driving are a minor electrical glitch, however, it’s possible that you have an electrical fault underneath the dashboard or other issue that is causing this inconsistent service light issue. Regardless, because you indicated the steering wheel locked up on you, this is something you should have inspected ASAP before it happens again.
It sounds like you may have a dirty or faulty mass air flow sensor. The problem this can cause may also be compounded when the engine is cold due to the change in air density in cooler weather. The mass air flow sensor monitors air intake as it is mixed with fuel prior to being injected into the motor. This sensor relays information about fuel and air temperature, air speed entering the motor and many other things to the ECM which uses this to make adjustments to fuel supply to the motor. A dirty or faulty sensor can cause an imbalanced air/fuel load to be supplied to the motor which results in an over fueling or under fueling situation depending on the conditions. This type of inconsistent fuel supply to the motor may cause a hesitation, loss of power, a jerking reaction, potentially a bit of black exhaust smoke and typically a strong smell of fuel when this sensor is malfunctioning. I would suggest having a professional from Your Mechanic come to your home to diagnose and inspect your vehicle.
Since this fault has lasted after the engine was replaced it could be a oil pressure sensor, wiring harness fault, ECU fault, oil pump, oil strainer clogged, or low oil pressure.
To diagnose this issue properly you need a complete vehicle inspection to start from square one and identify the root cause of all this.
Anytime a check engine light is illuminated it’s because a sensor has detected a mechanical or electrical fault that impacts the vehicle’s performance. If the mechanic you go to hasn’t completed a check engine light inspection; which means they actually download these error codes; then you should find a different mechanic who knows how to complete this basic diagnostic step. In order to effectively diagnose the source of your Nissan’s acceleration issues, you might want to have one of our mobile mechanics complete a car is slow to accelerate inspection; which will allow them to download those error codes first and determine why your Nissan is sluggish on hills.