This afternoon, car didn't start. Didn't see any lights. Turned out to be a lose battery terminal.

Then, the car feels weaker on my way back to work and suddenly jerks (CEL comes on for a second, goes off). The car still felt slower.

I wish I could describe it better somehow. The CEL is off, battery terminal is in and things seems fine.

Any idea what could've happened? Could the terminal still be lose and if so, would it cause these symptoms?

 

could be the alternator not working. check belts and connections. Maybe you need a new voltage regulator.

Also could be a misfire, plug wire loose, ignition coil going bad. Any number of things could have happened. The CEL goes on and off when the engine is not running as expected.

 

Funny thing is the Alternator is new. If it was a misfire, the CEL would flash.

In this instance, it barely came on for a second and disappeared.

EDIT: The alt has less than 1000 miles on it.

 

how new? Did you just put it on? check belt tightness and connections.

 

your car maybe slower, cause when your terminal came loose your ECU started to recalibrating.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I had no idea ECU recalibration led to such a noticable drop in power delivery.

But why would that throw a CEL?

 

there shouldn't be a very noticable difference in power.

Maybe you have loose connection on some sensor, that is causing CEL to be on? Get that scanned.

 

ECU recalibrates when power to the ECU is OFF for 1 minute. ECU would never loose power in this circumstance. This is something else completely. It has nothing to do with a battery cable because the alternator will keep the car running durring operations.

 

It's very likely that the terminal was lose for more than a minute (the car was parked). I don't doubt the ECU may have been recalibrated.

I'm only wondering why the CEL came on for 1/2 second and then disappeared?

 

My car did that to - would just jerk - cel would flash on for less than half a second - almost like it misfired. I checked for stored codes and there was nothing. It happened about five time total, and finally a CEL came on and stayed on for a while. It went away but it was still stored in the ECU. turns out it was 0131 (O2 sensor voltage to high or something like that). I dont know if that is the cause of the car jerking or not. I havent had any problems since, but now I at least have a starting point if it rearrises. Hope some of that info helps.

I also had a similar problem when i first got the car. turns out the positive terminal was loose AND the positive wire running to the ECU (or wherever it goes) was loose. After I fixed that I didnt have problems for a year.