HI there,

I posted a question a few days ago about why my new car's check engine light was on. Well, it's still on. It's a 1997 Kia Sportage. And now the car is jerking, like it's got stuck gears or the tranny is about to blow up or something creepy. I got a tune-up a week ago. I JUST bought this car, what do you think could be wrong??

Please take your car to a mechanic and don't keep driving it as the more you drive it in that condition the worse it will get. Depending on the mileage on it the transmission fluid was probably not changed when it should have been or the tranny is going. The check engine lights come on when there is a problem and should never be ignored - or if they are ignored it is at the owner's peril. You could be driving along at say 55MPH and the car just stops dead. Then what? You could be in a bad accident. Please CM have your car checked out ASAP and don't keep driving it. My mechanic always taught me the louder the noise from the car the more expensive the repair. The man was never wrong who told me that advice.

I haven't been driving it, my boyfriend has been driving me around. I don't have the money for a mechanic as I just spent $3,000 on the darn car. I'm hoping that someone mechanically inclined can come in here and shed some light on the issue.

Have you tried PMing Texasgrease guy about this? Or how about This8384? She knows a lot about cars also.

Nope, I haven't. I actually just had a friend come over to look at it, and he fixed it.

What was wrong?

Something was tripped when I ran out of gas, and he had to reset the computer cause it was running on safe mode.

All I had to pay him was a hug!