When my 2009 Sonata decelerates to about 20 mph, the car jerks. This happens when my foot is off the brake. What’s going on and how can I fix it?
More details? It might just be downshifting.
Yes, I think it’s downshifting. That’s what it feels like anyway. But the jerk is pretty noticeable. When the weather is cold or the car is cold in the summer time, it’s more noticeable. But after I drive it for a while – like more than 1 hour – it’s not as bad but still there. …
Not sure how else to describe it. I hope this makes sense. …When it decelerates and reaches 20 mph, it jerks, then continues to decelerate smoothly.
Have you … checked the transmission fluid? How many miles are on this car? Other than oil changes, what have you done to follow the maintenance schedule outlined in the owner’s manual? Is there a check engine light on?
No, I haven’t checked the transmission fluid, I’ll do that. … There are more than 130,000 miles on the car, but it was starting to “jerk” when I purchased it used about 3 years ago. Just wasn’t as noticeable back then. … No routine maintenance has been done. No check engine light is on.
No routine maintenance has been done? Like… Ever?
Sounds like you’ve never had the transmission fluid exchanged. Go get it exchanged and hope you haven’t already damaged the transmission permanently. If it’s really gone 130k without a fluid exchange, you should probably do a 3x3 exchange (drain and fill, drive a little, drain and fill, drive a little, drain and fill).
And I’m hoping by “no routine maintenance” you don’t mean you’ve never gotten an oil change, but if that’s the case, disregard the previous advice and drive the car until it dies, and then take much better care of your next car.
You’re a little rough shadow -I take care of my cars, I just made too many assumptions. One being that my mechanic would let me know what needed to be done. However, I’m going to gleam the good stuff from your message and take your advice. Thanks
I had no intention of being “rough.” But a basic of car ownership is getting routine oil changes, and if you haven’t done that (I still don’t know if that’s what you meant) then you’ve already done so much damage with that mileage that it’s probably not worth it to bother maintaining or repairing the car at this point. Driving it till it dies will save you money. Then when you buy another car, it will save you even more money if you perform routine maintenance on it so that it doesn’t die prematurely.