I have a 98 sohc neon. I changed the ATF and the battery today and washed the engin and my car is sputering and lost bottem end power. Does any one know what might be the problem.

 

Today I was changing my ATF and the battery in my 98 sohc neon. I also washed the engine and now the car is sputtering and lost all bottem end power. Does any one know what the problem might be?

 

Yet another reason why you shouldn't wash an engine. Seriously, you may have a moisture issue with the spark plugs. If it goes away tomorrow, that's your proof that you got water into something. But what is more likely is that the computer is going through it's "relearn" mode. As an engine ages and as sensors change, the computer adapts to the changes. It keeps those variations from the factory program in its memory—until it loses battery power. Then it forgets everything it learned. So it has to relearn it all. That relearn process usually takes about 10-15 "trips." Each trip is defined as a cold start where the engine runs long enough to reach normal operating temperature, plus "x" numbers of miles driven at "X" miles per hour. Every car is different as to the "X" amounts. In the meantime, it's running on the default factory program and that can mean poor idle, loss of power, etc. So, drive it on a lot of trips over the next few days and it should even out.

 

Thanks alot for the help. I will post later with the out come.

 

I had a quick question to. I had to unhook my battery for some work on my car and the car seems to idel around 500RPMs. But when I turn my wheels it jumps close to 1000 RMPs. Any ideas of what could be causing this or is it the Computer realigning like you stated above?