Hi. I was traveling from California to Oklahoma, and right when I crossed the Oklahoma state line, I pushed the brakes, and all of a sudden my powertrain light flashed and there was no power to the car for a split second. And then it immediately started driving normally. It didn’t happen again for a month. Now, I’m on my way back to California, and I went to switch off my headlights and all the needles on the gauges started going crazy. So I switched my headlights back on and once again the powertrain warning light flashed. The car lost power for a second, but then immediately went back to normal and my gauges are fine if I keep my headlights on. Any idea what my problem may be?
RESPONSE
When the powertrain malfunction warning comes on then the engine management has detected a fault with a sensor or actuator, this will store a fault code in the engine management memory. It will be necessary to have a scan tool in order to extract the engine trouble codes from your vehicle. Just about any local auto parts store will do this for free. Post the codes below in the comments for more information.