2009 Aveo Bucking/Jerking/Losing Power

[mellee09]

Everyone bear with me as I don't speak car & am basically at my wits end. I'll try to pass on my knowledge from what my mechanic/auto-speaking friends have told me.

I have a 2009 Chevy Aveo LT, 4DR, automatic, 44000 miles or so. About a week ago, I noticed as I was driving down the highway, going about 60, that my car suddenly lost power and wouldn't accelerate, but then kicked back into gear and off I went. The issue wasn't horrible then and I ignored it, thinking it was just nothing. It never came back until a few days ago. I drove my car 2 hours to where I go to school and had no problems, the whole way to Pittsburgh (about an hour drive) with no problems, but on my way home, I noticed that I could put my foot to the floor accelerating and my car just would not GO. All of a sudden, it will kick back and accelerate normally. It feels like the car is bogging down and wants to quit, but then something clicks and it goes back into driving normally.

I've taken the car to a mechanic because I have no prior car knowledge and I don't know the first thing about fixing vehicles, and he hooked his computer up to it and it read no errors. My CEL did NOT come on and no sensors are on at all (with the exception of my tire pressure light, which is, always on). I just spoke with him this morning where the only thing he had to tell me was that he took it for a ride and did feel it kick/buck/jerk, whatever you want to call it. I've read other posts on here about the same issue, but mostly everyone has had their check engine light come on. He told me that he was driving it yesterday and hooked up his computer to it to check sensor issues & nothing out of the ordinary showed up. Today, he wants to drive hooking something up to the fuel pump and running a hose to the windshield to read the pressure while he's driving it and hoping that it kicks or whatever while it's on.

Sorry for the lengthy, probably grade school post, but does anyone have any suggestions or have had a similar problem and happened to figure it out?

[Daox]

Did he check the spark plugs?

[mellee09]

Did he check the spark plugs?

Not that I'm aware of. I think he's done nothing but computer-based testing so far.

[Chevy Customer Svc]

Everyone bear with me as I don't speak car & am basically at my wits end. I'll try to pass on my knowledge from what my mechanic/auto-speaking friends have told me.

I have a 2009 Chevy Aveo LT, 4DR, automatic, 44000 miles or so. About a week ago, I noticed as I was driving down the highway, going about 60, that my car suddenly lost power and wouldn't accelerate, but then kicked back into gear and off I went. The issue wasn't horrible then and I ignored it, thinking it was just nothing. It never came back until a few days ago. I drove my car 2 hours to where I go to school and had no problems, the whole way to Pittsburgh (about an hour drive) with no problems, but on my way home, I noticed that I could put my foot to the floor accelerating and my car just would not GO. All of a sudden, it will kick back and accelerate normally. It feels like the car is bogging down and wants to quit, but then something clicks and it goes back into driving normally.

I've taken the car to a mechanic because I have no prior car knowledge and I don't know the first thing about fixing vehicles, and he hooked his computer up to it and it read no errors. My CEL did NOT come on and no sensors are on at all (with the exception of my tire pressure light, which is, always on). I just spoke with him this morning where the only thing he had to tell me was that he took it for a ride and did feel it kick/buck/jerk, whatever you want to call it. I've read other posts on here about the same issue, but mostly everyone has had their check engine light come on. He told me that he was driving it yesterday and hooked up his computer to it to check sensor issues & nothing out of the ordinary showed up. Today, he wants to drive hooking something up to the fuel pump and running a hose to the windshield to read the pressure while he's driving it and hoping that it kicks or whatever while it's on.

Sorry for the lengthy, probably grade school post, but does anyone have any suggestions or have had a similar problem and happened to figure it out?

Hi Mellee09,

Thank you for your post. I'm sorry to hear that you're having these issues with your 2009 Aveo5. If you would like to private message me the last 8-digits of your VIN#, I could research further to see if there are any special coverages or recalls related to the problems you're experiencing. Have a good weekend!

Look forward to your reply.

Vanessa
GM Customer Service

[HeavyDuty]

My 2009 Aveo did this also, just be driving along and nothing then would restart..no lights no warning and it would also just quit sitting in the driveway running or when you went to back up just die. It did it for a year nothing was ever found and it hasn't done it lately....I am thinking it hasn't done it since the OEM plugs were pulled out and I stuffed the boots with dielectric grease...so I will back Doax's play here....do you happen to hear rather large spark arc type noises through your car's speaker system ? I use to get those all the time, I had to disconnect the satellite radio and that stopped...which was about the time I had the first plugs changed so I did two things at the same time there not sure which one made the stalling stop. I submitted a safety concern complaint to transport canada about the unexpected loss of engine power and subsequent loss of power steering while this was happening because I was unable to turn the corner the last time it quit, but got lucky it caught before I hit the curb.....sure scared the daylights out of those daycare kids though....sidewalks not so safe after all !

[annihilatorg]

I have a similar issue with my 2009 aveo lt, and I just passed 60k (I purchased mine used just 3 months ago at 56k)

I find that the 'bucking' will happen right AT 2000 rpm according to the tachometer. If, for instance, I am riding at 40-45mph (1500-1700rpm) and need to rev-up just a bit to go uphill or to accelerate the car will start bucking and the tachometer won't move above 2000rpm ON THE DOT (not sure on the gear, it's an automatic, probably 3rd). I almost think it's a firmware/computer issue where the car wants to down-shift, but the revs aren't high enough to allow it, so it just vacillates back and forth. Sorry, I'm a computer guy so I always blame software, even if it's not the issue... but a hard stop at a specific, exact RPM screams software edge case.

Oddly, the issue is brought on more frequently (to me) when the tires have low pressure... When I recently checked the pressure to be 28psi and inflated back to 33, the issue would happen much less frequently.

Anywho, I need to take it in for 60k anyway... so we'll see if the transmission is just being weird and needs some TLC or something else along those lines.

[Chevy Customer Svc]

I have a similar issue with my 2009 aveo lt, and I just passed 60k (I purchased mine used just 3 months ago at 56k)

I find that the 'bucking' will happen right AT 2000 rpm according to the tachometer. If, for instance, I am riding at 40-45mph (1500-1700rpm) and need to rev-up just a bit to go uphill or to accelerate the car will start bucking and the tachometer won't move above 2000rpm ON THE DOT (not sure on the gear, it's an automatic, probably 3rd). I almost think it's a firmware/computer issue where the car wants to down-shift, but the revs aren't high enough to allow it, so it just vacillates back and forth. Sorry, I'm a computer guy so I always blame software, even if it's not the issue... but a hard stop at a specific, exact RPM screams software edge case.

Oddly, the issue is brought on more frequently (to me) when the tires have low pressure... When I recently checked the pressure to be 28psi and inflated back to 33, the issue would happen much less frequently.

Anywho, I need to take it in for 60k anyway... so we'll see if the transmission is just being weird and needs some TLC or something else along those lines.

Hello Annihilatorg,

Sorry to hear you're having these issues also. Hopefully the dealer will be able to diagnose what's going on. Was the car having this issue 3 months ago or did it just recently start happening?

Vanessa
GM Customer Service

[bigedsnh]

Even though I run my own Auto repair shop, I did bring my 2009 Aveo back to the dealer as there is a "voluntary" Emission Recall due to detoriated spark plug wire boots. They replaced the plug wireboots and spark plugs at no charge. Your Aveo may be having a similar condition.
Good Luck,
Ed

[HeavyDuty]

Even though I run my own Auto repair shop, I did bring my 2009 Aveo back to the dealer as there is a "voluntary" Emission Recall due to detoriated spark plug wire boots. They replaced the plug wireboots and spark plugs at no charge. Your Aveo may be having a similar condition.
Good Luck,
Ed

Did they or did they just say they did ? Cause as I found out, only the plugs got changed on mine..boots and springs were "overlooked"

[tim]

I have a 2009 chevy aveo LT 4 dr. It just hit 45000 miles, I was driving to work yesterday and i noticed a skipping or sputtering in the engine, my check engine light flashed on and off for a few seconds and then went off car drove fine rest of day. The next day did the same thing check engine light flashing on and off along with the hold light. It went off again and car drove normally. On my way home to day the check engine light came on and has not gone back off. The car seems to have no get up and go and feels like the engine is skipping or missing. I did receive the voluntary recall on the spark blug boots and spark plugs. I have set an appointment to take it in to the chevy dealership this tuesday. I am hoping this will fix my problem. I will let you know. But the recall sheet does say it will install new spark plug boots and spark plugs.