Q: While driving car bucked then dropped speed, shut it off and now it won't start again.

asked by on January 26, 2017

I was doing about 65mph on the highway when my car bucked and speed started dropping my check engine light had been on previous to this and I was told I needed a new o2 sensor, was waiting till payday to get that done. When he car bucked it also made a ding noise and my oil light came on. Pulled to the side of the highway and shut it off, then couldn't restart it. It sounds like it wants to start but just gives me the "whurr whurr " sound. All my dash lights and radio and headlights work totally normal. I don't need an oil change I just had one end of November and have only driven maybe 800 miles on it. They topped off all my fluids when they did the oil change and changed my air filter as well. I have a bunch of "Facebook mechanics" telling me it could be this and hat but I'm looking for a real mechanics opinion. Any thoughts of what killed my car?

My car has 126000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

Oxygen Sensor Replacement $123.80 - $932.74 Get a Quote

Hi There, As you may know the oxygen sensors which are part of your emissions system read exhaust gases to determine whether or not the appropriate amount of oxygen is present in the exhaust. Based upon this reading, this information is relayed to the car’s ECU which then makes a determination as to whether or not to add more or less fuel to the engine. When too much or too little oxygen is present, this will cause check engine light to come on. Too much oxygen may be present in the exhaust gas due to things like an exhaust leak, a vacuum leak, a faulty mass air flow sensor (causing a lean fuel condition) or faulty fuel injectors. Too little oxygen may be present in the exhaust gas may be caused by things like a clogged air filter, a failing mass air flow sensor (causing too much fuel to be introduced to the motor), bad fuel injectors or a clogged catalytic converter. When the O2 sensor is not working properly, this will cause false readings to be relayed to the computer causing inaccurate adjustments to be made to the intake and fuel system in your engine. Any of the above problems may cause the car to jerk and possibly even shut down depending on the severity. When the engine shuts down, this will also cause the oil light to come on as the oil pressure will have dropped as a result of the engine no longer running. I would suggest having an expert from Your Mechanic come to your location to diagnose and inspect your vehicle.

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