Why does my car lose power when I step on the gas?
The engine accelerates fine under light input but bogs down, bounces revs, or stops gaining speed entirely when the pedal is floored. This prevents the vehicle from speeding up past a certain threshold or responding when full power is demanded to pass or merge.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Driving slowly without pressing hard on the gas pedal
- 2Checking for a stuck brake caliper
- 3Inspecting wheel bearings or hubs
- 4Reviewing recent steering rack or lower control arm repairs
- 5revving the engine more to maintain highway speeds
- 6taking the car back to the shop to have them check or replace parts
- 7checking battery posts for cable tightness and corrosion
- 8replacing the starter fuse
- 9replacing the battery
- 10replacing the starter
- 11pull the solenoid and check the screen filter on the gasket, they clog up with sludge all the time
- 12Using an OBD code reader to scan for diagnostic trouble codes
- 13cycling through all the gears to gain speed
- 14checking for a clogged fuel injector
- 15inspecting the clutch or final drive
- 16had the transmission speed sensor replaced
- 17cleaning the throttle body and the sensor
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Car makes only 1 click sound and electronics go black simultaneously.”source ↗
“Battery keeps draining.”source ↗
“Nothing I've done so far has changed how this car is responds, let alone fixed it. This has me as well as everyone else I've spoken to about it completely stumped.”source ↗
“I notice that I can hit the gas, there will be severe throttle lag before it gets going. On top of that, the RPM seems to stay low even at high speeds and it feels as if the vehicle is dragging something.”source ↗
“The CEL is on for P0420 and P0430.”source ↗
“Then as traffic let up, I stepped on it went from 18->20mph and would not accelerate further.”source ↗
“from a stop I stepped in it. It accelerated slightly slower than normal, then at 20mph hard stop on accelerating and would bounce revs.”source ↗
“It still shifts up, just not if I floor it. I cruised home going 65mph at the normal rpm”source ↗
“Along with the new noise, I’m also getting a feeling that something is holding the car back while driving, almost as if something is stopping/resisting the car.”source ↗
“My AC went out recently and since I got it repaired, the vehicle has had issues going uphill, but also issues with acceleration and runs a bit higher RPM than it used to.”source ↗
“My gas mileage is now about 6-8 mpg worse than it had been.”source ↗
“I keep having to rev the car to get/keep speed at highway speeds.”source ↗
“What would be the signs that a VTEC solenoid is broken or clogged, because i noticed that my R18 Engine runs weird, i know the r18 vtec works differently but when i try to floor it, it struggles to go to like around 4k rpm”source ↗
“and i notice that whenever im normal cruising the rpm would drop and would struggle to climb”source ↗
“Is your car jerking when you hit certain speeds? I remember mine would jerk violently at about 30-50 mph when it had the bad VTEC Solenoid.”source ↗
“Will a odb code reader help pinpoint the problem? It's a 2012 Toyota Camry”source ↗
“Mondial SMXE 125 (2022)doesn’t want to gain speed unless you cycle through all the gears and maxes at like 30mph. Bogs in all gears but revs pretty fine in neutral.”source ↗
“Now that i had the new transmission installed, the car feels heavy (in a good way) but the response is a tad slower than before.. is this normal?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 5Why does my car lurch and shake when I accelerate at low RPMs?
- 2Why does my car go into limp mode after warming up?
- 6Why does my car lose power for a second when starting?
- 3Why does my electric car creep forward when I pump the brakes?