Engine hesitates and sometimes shuts off while driving

Hi,

I think you have two issues. First, you should have a CVT transmission in that vehicle. What happens is, the steel belt inside the transmission begins to slip and you get a hesitation. More than likely this is your issue and the only real way to fix it is to replace the transmission. Some people will rebuild them but the cost is almost the same these days so I would just replace it and get the warranty that comes along with a new unit.

As for the stalling at highway speeds, do you have any codes? You may not have any yet but the common failure on these World Engines is the crank sensor fails and when the PCM is not getting any signal from the crank, it cuts the engine off. You will need to replace the crank sensor.

However, when you replace it you must perform a procedure called an adaptive numerator relearn. Basically, this is teaching the PCM that there is a new sensor. On these PCMs, the only way to do that is with a scan tool that can perform this procedure. It includes a drive procedure specific to this process and the scan tool must be hooked up while doing it. If you do not do this, then you will get multiple cylinder misfire codes and it will cause you many headaches trying to diagnose these misfires because no matter what you do they will not go away until this is performed.

Let me know if you have questions and we can go from there. Thanks

It is unlikely that not unhooking the battery caused it to short out and getting a bad sensor is also unlikely.

The next most likely cause of the engine stalling is the PCM, its power source, or ground. If one of these are faulty then the engine could just shut off.

When it does this, does the engine sputter, any check engine light flashing or staying on when it does it?

Okay. Do you know what codes are in the computer?

If not you can have them pulled by most parts stores.

Okay. P0300 is a multi cylinder misfire. The P0315 is for No learned Crank sensor and P0335 is for the crank sensor circuit code.

If you refer to my post from the 26th where I talk about what needs to happen after you replace the crank sensor, this is what I was referring too. If you do not perform the learn procedure with the scan tool after a crank sensor replacement, these are the codes you will have.

The only one I am concerned with is the P0335. That is a circuit code which indicates a wiring issue. I suspect it will go away after the procedure is run but if not you will need to diagnose the wiring.

This circuit issue could also be your stalling issue so we need to run the learn procedure and then retest it.

If you do not have the scan tool, you will need to go to someone who does and have this performed.