This morning on my way to work I was experiencing a jerking and a slight loss of power when casually accelerating. Its like the engine would want to shut down but not even a half second later its driving back to normal. No other noises or anything else I can make out. I am not sure if this is the beginning stages of the CVT failures I have read about on here or if another problem. Anyone have any ideas? It is a 2009 with 54k miles on it.

 

Day one stuff but did you take a look under the hood and check for any loose connections (wires, plugs, MAF, etc)?

Hmmmmmm... I should also note that the other night, I too experienced some jerking on my own which was followed by a slight loss of power - - I fell asleep!

I'll see myself out.

 

I have not had the opportunity to check this out, but I have no idea why something like that would become loose. No check engine lights or any other warning signs. Will check anyway.

LOL! You're doing it wrong!

 

What kind of gas are you feeding 'er? Anyone borrow your car recently?

 

93 always. And NO. Will see how it is on the drive home. Worried about this losing engine power for an extended period of time. May have to just drop it off at the dealership.

 

Check in the FSM would be my first answer.

 

You know this happened to me the other day, when I would floor it and I freeked out. Know what it was? I usually drive barefoot, I got big size 14 ft, and I was driving with air max 90s on and just slightly touching the brake pedal when I was flooring it. I guess they don't want us trail braking, even the slightest touch on the side of the pedal will make it do this.

 

I think I had the same issue. Was it cold outside when this happened to you? It was about 15 degrees F when it happened to me. I have a 2012 SV with 23k. It just happened last night, so I haven't had it looked at yet. It happened randomly over a 140 mile highway trip. The roads conditions were poor, so I was going between 50-70 mph when it would happen. There were NO check engine lights and the car was running great except for the occasional "jerk." I am curious as to the role temperature might played in causing the issue. I will probably take mine in sometime next week to have it checked out. If anyone has had similar issues, please advise. Thank you!

 

2012 SV with 26k and have had the same issues. Noticed it during a couple snow storms and now it just randomly does it.

 

Could be your MAS air flow sensor .

 

Interesting to know more than one person is having this same exact issue. It has happened to me 2 more times since, but its so sporadic I never know when it will happen until it does. I took it to the dealer and of course they have no clue cause the problem never came up when they had it. Figures.

Yes, it was below freezing and also happened with a half tank or less on all occasions. It actually happened this morning in 0 degree weather here in Philly and 2 weeks ago in 20 degree weather.

 

Ok fellas, I'm dropping my car off at the dealership this Thursday. I really hope the issue happens while they are driving it. Unfortunately, I'm expecting them to say nothing is wrong with it, even though we all know there is. If they do, I plan on insisting they drive it until it happens. It's a bummer that there is no check engine light along with the issue. Anyway, I will keep you informed.

 

Please do. This is very curious and odd to me. A 2010 SV owner with 135,000 miles, I've never experienced this. I'm most curious what's going on with your car.

 

You know, I'm pretty sure the "jerk" happened to me also. I'm just trying to recall if it was when I had my '09 or if it was with my current '12. I do recall it was cold at the time and it was on the highway. I want to say it happened twice; not in succession one right after the other, but was definitely on the same trip and was within miles of each other.

Are you lowered? I wonder if it had anything to do with stock suspension and the alignment being out of whack on some cars that leave the factory; the "roll" or "float" or whatever the term for it is, where you feel like you're steering the car but the áss-end is doing its own thing on occasion. Maybe it was that along with highway speeds and the car correcting itself, hence the jerk?

That was the only occurrence I had with it.

Good luck and please keep us in the know.

 

My car was at the dealership all day today. To keep this short and sweet. They treated this like I had tires out of balance like a bunch of idiots. They put the car on the hoist and knocked ice off the bottom is what they said. Then drove it a few miles NOT on the highway which is what I told them to do. I told them that they ignored everything that I had said and to start again tomorrow... I will keep you informed. No dude, I'm not lowered, and it doesn't feel like a suspension issue to me.

 

Mine's going in on Wednesday so hopefully I'll have an answer after that.

 

They blew me off. They had my car for two days and drove it a total of 9 miles. Obviously, they said nothing is wrong. I wish I had some useful info to pass on Other than the dealer that I bought my car from is lacking in the service dept. keep us informed klooks

 

Had the same thing happen to me just the other day. I have a 2009, and was driving at highway speed in 8 degree weather. Happened 2 times in a 5 mile period, and never happened again.

 

I find that is typical with most Nissan dealers. Unless a problem is very obvious they either don't have a clue or don't care.

 

If you paid the dealership labor hours for the mechanic to drive your car around for a couple hundred miles to try and locate a perceived problem then the problem might have been found and fixed. Since you don't pay anything for short distant diagnostic work that doesn't get found what do you expect. The mechanics are there to make money for the dealership by fixing problems, not looking for scarce anomalies that might never show up.

You also have to look at it from the business side of things. Labor charges up to a $100 an hour are lost if the mechanic is on the road long term. Hence if there are no codes thrown, or the problem can't be figured out from a trip around the block or down the road a few miles there is no problem to fix.

 

I can definitely say, there are some dealerships that area not like that. I definitely put the word out to everyone I know - what dealers are good and which ones suck. Of course it's a business and the bottom dollar is the dollar, but you can't deny that the quality of customer service has an impact on customers' likelihood to return to said dealership for more service (including the ridiculous, rip-off services they sucker people into). The dealer in my area that has a great service department has earned my business on two new car purchases, also.

I don't really think it's Nissan that teaches techs to be like this. I'd wager it's more the dealer owner. If the owner is a *****, then most likely, the techs working for that dealership are also going to be ******. And a trip around the block versus actually putting more than 30 seconds into it and driving the car 10-15 miles - eh, I kind of think that's more of a motivation factor on the tech's part. Don't take a job in customer service if you don't like taking care of customers.

 

I used to work at a car dealership years ago and the techs would take the car home for the night or the weekend to put some miles on the car in an attempt to recreate the problem. I guess times have changed.

 

@Thinblue I get where your coming from but there are other reasons too. Liability comes to mind for that. Not sure I want someone driving my car all weekend. Or parking it at their house especially if it's not garaged.

 

Well the dealer called me last night after having it since last Wednesday. (Side note - I got an Altima for a loaner and it made me greatly appreciate the maxima). Once I'm out of work I'll go pick it up, but he told me that the transmission needed a software update and that is what was causing the problem. He told me he had the service techs drive the cars a few days, that I wasn't crazy, and they experienced exactly what I told him. Hopefully the problem is fixed, I don't know how much longer I can drive around in this gocart!