Q: VDC OFF light comes on and SLIP light's comes on that is when you drive the car for 15 min or so and hesitate then go back to norm

asked by on July 27, 2017

service engine soon ...When driving for 15 min or so the VDC OFF lights and SLIP light comes on, thenI feel the car shift..After that it drive normal..But after turning the car OFF sometimes hard to start immediately ...I haD IT CHECK ..THEY PLUG IT IN AND IT SAY Cam Position Sensor Bank1 ..

My car has 136124 miles.
My car has a manual transmission.

Hi There, It sounds like you may have a faulty cam position sensor that may be causing the jerking reaction (which is normal when the cam sensor begins to fail), resulting in the traction control system to engage. The camshaft position sensor measures the rotational position of the camshaft and transmits that information to the engine control computer. To determine which cylinder is in its power stroke, your car’s computer monitors the rotating position of the camshaft relative to the crankshaft position using a camshaft position (CMP) sensor. It uses this information to adjust the spark timing and the operation of the fuel injectors. Thus, the CMP sensor affects fuel economy, emissions control, and engine efficiency. The two most common camshaft sensors you’ll see are the magnetic and Hall-effect types. Both transmit a voltage signal to an electronic control module or to the car’s computer. The magnetic type produces its own AC (alternate current) signal (a sine wave), and you can identify it by its two wires. The Hall-effect type uses an external power source to produce a digital signal (a "square wave," on-or-off) and has three wires. Depending on the specific model of your car, your engine may have one or more cam sensors. When the camshaft sensor fails, you may experience the car jerking while losing power or the car may struggle to move faster than ~35-40 mph. The engine may also stall intermittently, produce poor performance, hard starting, surging or fail to produce an ignition spark.

The traction control system monitors the steering and stability of the vehicle and engages when loss of traction has been detected. This is done by the use of electronic sensors at each of the four wheels that communicate with the Powertrain Control Module (PCM) regarding steering performance and stability in adverse weather conditions. The traction control system works by reducing engine speed and determining which wheel to apply brake pressure to in order to prevent the vehicle from sliding. The anti-lock braking system and the traction control system work together to maintain the stability of the vehicle. The computer uses this information received from electronic sensors regarding the rotational speed of each wheel, the horizontal motion of the vehicle, and the vertical motion of the vehicle to determine how to direct the traction control system or the anti-lock braking system to best control the vehicle when needed. When this warning indicator light comes on in the dashboard, this could be an indication of several issues such as faulty wheel speed sensors, a faulty steering angle sensor, a faulty rotational speed sensor or a problem with the steering rack. In some cases, the traction control system may simply need to be reprogrammed. In addition, when any of these symptoms are detected, some vehicles may go into limp mode rendering the vehicle unable to accelerate beyond about ~30mph. I would recommend having a professional from YourMechanic come to your location to diagnose and inspect your vehicle.

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