I need to preface this by saying that i know nothing about cars basically

My car was sitting for a good while, few months, due to a bunk bearing or two in the back right wheel. also, some kind of special nut had to be replaced??
anyways, the car gets taken to the shop and gets fixed. yay. but now there's an issue that i've never experienced before...

my car is a stick, 2004 ford focus, 182k km

the new issue:

~ I'll start the car and everything will be fine
~ My traction control light and my abs lights are on, but this is kinda normal as this was happening before (still a lil strange tho?)
~ I'll put'r in 1st and start to roll
~ Everything goes well until i try to get some speed
~ I'll be stepping on the gas and the car will like, decrease in speed?
~ have a hard/near impossible time getting the rpms up
~ i try to shift gears into second/third to see if i can get it out the funk, but nothing, stuck at like 20kph
~ when i take my foot off the gas it feels like there's something slowing me down, like my brake is engaging or something is gripping my wheels? when i hit like 3kph the car will release itself and roll smooth as if nothing is gripping it, but only at that rly low speed
~ my brake feels stiff when my car is doing this
~ BUT this next bit is the weird part...
~ after a random amount of time, sometimes right as i start to roll/sometimes a few minutes later after struggles, the ebrake light will come on on my dash board, and it will stay on
~ WHEN the ebrake light comes on my car will smooth out and not experience the weird issue that is stated aboveee....
~ the car will be fine and run like a top, but only after the ebrake light comes on...
~ wtf??

the mechanic i took the car to couldn't replicate the issue, and that's probably because the ebrake light comes on right away some times, in which case the car will run smoothly....
But ive experienced this issue several times now and it's pissing me off
mechanic says it may be caused by water in the tank from the car sitting so long, but i dont see how this would affect the ebrake / ebrake light coming on and my car magically smoothing out/working as a result.



This post was edited by LifeStory on Nov 25 2015 01:51pm

might be a abs unit issue maybe a vehicle speed sensor. Hook it up to autozone scanner and see if a code pops up. does the speedometer work fine?

speedometer works fine
i dont hav autozone here in ontario, canada. at least i think we don't
perhaps canadian tire has a scanner. it's my nearest mainstream shop iirc
thx 4 the input

Should check it with an ohm meter and make sure its getting the full 1.21 gigawatts or it won't engage. That's probably what the light is all about.

This post was edited by SheriffCool on Nov 25 2015 06:47pm

alright so it's not a speed sensor. Did it throw an engine light?

lold



uhm



no engine light whatsoever
only lights are the abs & traction control lights (always on), and the ebrake light that comes on when it wants (and when it does, it stays on, as stated, and my car smooths out and runs like a top lawl :/...so strange)
sighs!

This post was edited by LifeStory on Nov 25 2015 09:37pm

Vacuum leak coming off your brake booster.


E: don9

This post was edited by ozzyarmy3 on Nov 25 2015 09:55pm

O.O
i dont even
can you elaborate a lil? as if i were a 3 year old, perhaps?

Check first with all the lines coming off for a vacuum leak. If not, it could be the check valve or it could be the air valve.

This post was edited by ozzyarmy3 on Nov 25 2015 10:03pm