Q: My car jerks when decelerating or cruising in slow speed.

asked by on November 10, 2016

Car jerks when decelerating. During acceleration no issues. Took to the service station, they say there is no trouble code. They cleaned the injectors, pick up increased but with frequency of jerking too. Jerking occurs at 2nd and 3rd gear when depressing throttle pedal.

Mileage pick up both are low compared to similar capacity vehicle (Took test ride of same brand another car, pick up same, low mileage complaint, but don't have jerking issue).

My car has 800 miles.
My car has a manual transmission.

Hey there. This may be a sign of a dirty or failing mass air flow sensor. The mass air flow sensor is a unit in the intake system that monitors air intake as it is mixed with fuel prior to being injected into the motor. When this fails, this 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 is what causes the hesitation or loss of power you describe. Depending on the make and model of the vehicle and the type of ignition system it uses, this type of symptom can also occur when there is moisture inside the distributor cap causing a misfire as you try to accelerate. I would suggest having a professional from YourMechanic come to your home to diagnose the jerking issue and follow through with any repairs that are needed.

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