Nissan Repair: 2005 Nissan Murano - Car started jerking when trying to accelerate, 2005 nissan murano, nissan murano

Question
After hitting the brakes pretty hard about 5 minutes later I stopped at a red light and when I started to accelerate to make a left turn my car started jerking pretty violently. It felt like the car was losing power and wanted to die. I made it to my parent’s house (I probably drove no more then 30-35mph) and my dad decided to take a quick look at it. He started the car up and it had a very sluggish sounding idle (sounded like it was going to die). He then proceeded to check all the hoses to make sure they were on tight and accidentally leaned on the "air box?" which made my engine completely shut off. We then started it back up and the car seemed to be fine. It didn't feel or sound like it was going to die anymore. One of my dad's friends mentioned something about a "fail safe mode"? I'm not exactly sure what that is but please let me know what could have caused this and if I should be concerned.


Thank you! - and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Janey


Answer
Janey,

If the airbox was leaned on and the engine died would lead me to think the air hose from the filter to the intake was loose.  That would lead to the engine turning off.  Any unmetered air will kill the engine since the engine will not run when unmetered air enters the system.  I would look to make sure the intake hose clamps are tight and that the hose is not cracked.  Email me back if you need more.