Have you ever been in a situation where you’re driving your vehicle and when you accelerate, you start losing power instead of gaining power? Sometimes, this can be attributed to your car not having enough fuel.
However, it can also be attributed to many other causes related to mechanical issues, faulty sensors, and/or defective actuators. Sometimes, the cause may differ if you have a diesel engine compared to a gasoline engine, but there are also many similar causes between the two engines. You just need to know what you’re looking for.
Here are seven of the most common causes of a vehicle losing power during acceleration.
1) Bad Spark Plugs
Your vehicle’s internal combustion engine relies on spark plugs to transmit the electrical signal from the ignition coils to the internal combustion chamber. Once this happens, an electrical spark ignites the fuel and air mixture.
Therefore, if you have faulty spark plugs that cannot transmit this electrical signal, your engine’s performance will weaken, and you won’t be able to accelerate as quickly. It will eventually reach the point where it won’t accelerate at all.
2) Bad Fuel Pump
The fuel pump is how the fuel inside the gas tank is brought to the engine for combustion. The fuel pump also regulates the fuel pressure during transfer to meet the engine’s needs.
A faulty fuel pump would result in irregular fuel transfer. This will lead to poor engine performance and acceleration.
3) Bad Fuel Injectors
A car engine depends on its fuel injectors within the fuel system. A fuel injector is responsible for actually spraying the fuel, brought by the fuel pump, into each cylinder.
Obviously, if the fuel injector is malfunctioning or clogged, it won’t be able to spray fuel into the engine properly. This would result in the engine not being able to produce enough power to accelerate.
Often, running a fuel injector cleaner through your system can clean a clogged injector, but other times, a replacement may be necessary.
4) Low Compression Level
The internal combustion process relies on strong cylinder compression for the vehicle to generate enough power to accelerate. If there is a low compression level due to bad seals or another issue, the engine will generate a low level of power.
5) The Exhaust Pipe is Clogged
The exhaust pipe consists of two filters called the catalytic converter and muffler. The catalytic converter reduces the pollution produced by exhaust gases. The muffler reduces the noise produced.
If either of these filters or the exhaust pipe were to become clogged, it would damage the engine and reduce the power it generates. Before replacing a clogged or dirty catalytic converter, a good catalytic converter cleaner should be used first.
6) Dirty Air Filter
When the internal combustion chamber mixes air and gasoline to produce power, the air first passes through an air filter before entering the chamber. This filter helps keep all external debris and insects away from the chamber.
If you were to have a clogged or dirty air filter, then not enough air would enter the engine for optimal combustion. Thus, you will experience a lack of power when attempting to accelerate.
7) Faulty Ignition Coil
The ignition system has ignition coils that convert 12 volts of power from your battery into 20,000 volts of power needed to start the engine. If you were to have a bad ignition coil, the fuel and air mixture inside the engine would not ignite properly. This means you would lose power when stepping on the accelerator pedal.
There are more than a dozen reasons why you might have trouble accelerating, but these are just some of the most common causes. You could also have a failing turbocharger, a bad EGR valve, or a faulty injection pump timing valve, among others.
Whatever the cause of the degradation, take your vehicle to a repair shop as soon as you notice it consistently losing power during acceleration. You don’t want to let this issue persist for too long, as it could lead to other problems.
More importantly, it could endanger your life and that of other drivers when you’re on the road.