Bad oxygen sensor cause car to shake and lose power?

Question

When driving on the highway it will suddenly start to jerk and the shaking/jerking gets worse the more I try to accelerate. It also doesn't accelerate very good when this happens and seems to lose power or like its not getting the fuel it needs. It stops shaking when I release the gas pedal. The check engine light has been coming on, but did before this ever happened. It's an automatic 87 Pontiac Fiero 4 cyl.
I took it in today and they called and said they think it's from a bad oxygen sensor. Would a bad oxygen sensor really cause the car to jerk badly at highway speeds or do thy not know what they are doing?

Answer 1

Sounds like you have a shop that has no clue about diagnosing a problem.



No, an O2 sensor will not cause shakes. If the ECU recognizes that it is not behaving right, it will go into open loop mode which will let the car run but will loose some mileage since it cannot control the fuel as well.



First things I suspect with things like this are ignition system. Did they check that all of it is good? Bad spark can cause this.



Fuel problems generally show up (if the car runs) as limiting the top speeds or bogging down when accelerating.



Find a shop that actually knows how to go through a diagnosis procedure. I made the mistake of going for convenience in where to leave my 88 Formula and it ended up costing me an extra $500 plus most of a week while they made wild *** guesses about the problem. Took it to a good shop I know and they had the real diagnosis in a couple hours.



Tell them they can swap the O2 sensor as long a they will not charge you for parts or time if it doesn't fix things.

Answer 2

When you say the spark plug used to be "out" you either supposed it dislodged from the engine, or it became unserviceable. If the spark plug unscrewed or stripped out of the engine there would had been a hellish racket and you by no means stated that. Spark plugs do not final without end. A nasty spark plug or a misfiring one would enable unburned gasoline to head out the exhaust and foul the O2 sensor. You might change the entire spark plugs and hope that fixes the quandary.

Answer 3

I have 2011 ford fiesta and its doing the same problem very body is talking about.when I am driving pushing down on the gas it just doesn t go fast and shakes.would this be the o2 sensor

Answer 4

My car was doing something like this mine would like drag when Im taking of and I changed my spark plugs which took care of the drag but the shaking they said was from the engine a rod. I have a pontiac grand am (http://www.tvcmatrix.com/cdmelton)

Answer 5

No an oxygen sensor will not cause them problems it will cause your MPG to drop and maybe your idle to be a lil shaky

Answer 6

What's the year make and model of your car so we can figure out what type of fuel, ignition and emission system you have.

Answer 7

do thy not know what they are doing?

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That sounds more like it.