2000 Elantra Automatic engine light and poor performance

My 2000 automatic Elantra engine light is on constantly. The car
starts fine, but when you put it into gear, you have to fully depress
the gas pedal, it then sputters and jerks for about 5 minutes, it will
then run alright. It almost seems like too much air is in the mixture
at start up? Could it be a dirty fuel injector? Will adding fuel
injector cleaner help? The car has 67,000 miles on it.

 

That's not a question that can be answered by a newsgroup Nancy. No one
here can see the car. Your best bet is to take the car to a local parts
store like Auto Zone, or Advance Auto, or the likes. Most of these will
perform a scan of the car for free and advise you of any codes stored in
association with the CEL. Come back here with that information and it's
more likely someone here can help you. As it is right now - too many things
could cause your problem and without further information, it would just be a
crap shoot.

 

What makes you think there is too much air and perhaps not enough air?
Could be a lot of things. Car makers spend a lot of money putting
electronics in new cars so you can see the "check engine" light and know
something is amiss. Have it scanned and it will narrow down the problem.
Fuel injector cleaner will help keep your wallet clean of extra bills.

 

Most likely, you’ve got a secondary ignition system (spark plug, wire,
coil) problem causing a misfire. But esp is correct. Have it
scanned. Then you’ll know what type of problem you’re looking for for
sure. If it is a misfire, the code will even tell you what cylinder
is misifiring

 

Oh as a side note , the code readers may not be able to retrieve the
code , I had a coil problem a few months ago and Autozone's reader
said there was no code but the dealership's reader did find the codes
..