- 11 Reasons Your Car Loses Power When Accelerating
Does your vehicle lack power when you step on the accelerator? Don’t despair. Not being able to accelerate when you need to can be a serious safety risk. There are several possible causes for a sudden loss of acceleration. Read on to find out why your car loses power when accelerating and how to fix the problem.
Why your car loses power but your engine keeps running
There are many reasons why your vehicle may lose power and they can affect both gasoline and diesel engines. These causes can be categorized into three areas:
– Mechanical issues such as low compression, clogged fuel filter, dirty air filter, clogged exhaust manifold, etc.
– Sensor failures such as camshaft position sensor, MAF sensor, oxygen sensor, crankshaft sensor, all sensors related to the EFI system.
– Actuator failures (bad injectors, bad fuel pump, bad spark plugs, etc.).
1) Low Compression (Gasoline and Diesel Engines)
For your car engine to function properly and provide enough power to your vehicle, it must have good compression in the cylinders throughout the combustion process. Low compression also reduces engine performance. As a result, the engine will not function properly. Diagnosing low cylinder compression is the next step towards a solution.
2) Clogged Fuel Filter (Gasoline and Diesel Engines)
The fuel filter is located between the injectors and the fuel pump of your vehicle. The job of the fuel filter is to check the presence of impurities in the gasoline. This way, these contaminants are not present when the fuel pump pumps the gasoline to your engine. The fuel filter is literally a barrier between the contaminants in the gasoline and your car’s engine.
If your fuel filter becomes dirty or is damaged or clogged and no longer functions properly, it can reduce fuel pressure and allow these contaminants to enter your engine and ultimately even cause costly damages.
When this happens, your engine will eventually lose power and affect the overall functioning of your vehicle. Replacing your fuel filter is the easiest solution.
3) Faulty Air Filter (Gasoline and Diesel Engines)
The combustion chamber of your engine is responsible for mixing gasoline with air to generate the power your vehicle needs to run. Before the air enters the chamber, it must pass through an air filter that filters out insects, dirt, and other contaminants found in the chamber.
If these contaminants get into your engine, they can cause serious damage. However, air filters often become clogged after a while of use.
When an air filter becomes clogged, it restricts the amount of air that can enter the combustion chamber. This negatively impacts the functioning of your car as the engine will no longer be able to produce enough power to drive the car.
Replacing your air filter will return it to like-new condition. If you have a reusable air filter such as K&N, clean it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
4) Clogged Exhaust Pipe (Gasoline and Diesel Engines)
The exhaust system has two filters: the muffler and the catalytic converter. The catalytic converter’s job is to reduce the amount of pollutants produced by the exhaust gases. The role of the silencer is simply to reduce noise. If the exhaust pipe or either of its filters becomes clogged, it affects the functioning of the engine, as it reduces power and slows down the vehicle when accelerating.
A clogged exhaust system has a negative effect on any vehicle, but it is even worse in turbocharged vehicles.
5) Camshaft position sensor failure (petrol and diesel engines)
The camshaft position sensor in your vehicle is responsible for collecting information about the vehicle’s camshaft speed and sending it to the electronic control module (ECM).
But if the camshaft position sensor has a fault and is no longer able to send that information to the ECM, it can severely affect the engine’s performance and cause it to stop functioning properly.
6) MAF Sensor Failure (Gasoline Engine)
The mass air flow sensor’s main job is to measure the amount of air entering the engine and report this amount to the engine control module. From there, the module uses this information to calculate the load on the motor.
Any abnormality in the sensor will affect the engine’s performance.
7) Oxygen Sensor Malfunction (Gas & Diesel Engine)
When exhaust gases leave your vehicle’s engine, the amount of gases which leave is measured by the oxygen sensor. The electronic control module then uses this information to figure out the real-time air-to-fuel ratio that exists in the vehicle’s engine.
It enables the engine timing and fuel injection system to do their jobs efficiently. The oxygen sensor even provides support with emission control as well.
But if a malfunction were to take place with the oxygen sensor, then it wouldn’t be able to accurately send information about the air-to-fuel ratio to the electronic control module. This would cause the engine to start performing poorly and it would ultimately have a negative impact on the environment.
8) Bad Fuel Injectors (Gas and Diesel Common Rail Engine)
Fuel injectors are an important management component of a vehicle’s engine. They are located within the fuel system of a vehicle and their main job is to spray fuel inside of the engine.
The computer of the engine is what controls the fuel injector and the specific time intervals and patterns in which the injector sprays fuel into the engine. That way, the engine can perform the best that it can under different driving conditions. You will find that most vehicles on the road these days have fuel injectors in them.
9) Bad or Weak Fuel Pump (Gas Engine)
The responsibility of the fuel pump is to take fuel from the gas tank and transfer it into the engine of the vehicle. Not only that, the fuel pump ensure that the fuel is delivered at the right pressure so that it can meet the demands of the engine for maximum performance.
10) Bad Spark Plugs (Gas Engine)
Spark plugs are an important component of a vehicle’s internal combustion motor. After the ignition coil sends an electrical signal to the spark plugs, they transmit that signal to the combustion chamber so that its air & fuel mixture can be ignited by an electric spark.
If the spark plugs were to ever fail, then the engine’s performance would diminish and eventually fail altogether.
11) Bad Ignition Coil (Gas Engine)
The ignition coils of the ignition system serve as an electronic engine management element which is responsible for converting the 12 volts of power generated by the vehicle into 20,000 volts. This amount of voltage is needed in order to generate the electrical spark which can ignite the air & fuel mixture of the engine.
Other Causes of No Power When Accelerating
- Bad turbocharger
- Bad EGR valve
- Bad injection pump delivery valve (conventional diesel engine)