6 Reasons Why your Car Won't Accelerate

The symptoms of a car not accelerating can be occur on many high mileage vehicles. A driver might not notice them in the usual driving but they become abundantly clear during the circumstances like driving up a hill or during the quick acceleration in a fast moving traffic. It is in those situations that the drivers will come to notice the obvious slow acceleration and the fact that the engine of their vehicle is struggling to keep up.

Some common causes of car won’t properly accelerate

This problem is common in vehicles with high mileage but there is no any serious or immediate concerns regarding the engine because there are some of the causes which should be checked first in order to locate this problem and possibly fix it as well. And below are some common causes:

1. Air flow meter clogged or malfunction

Air flow meter located and attached on the inlet air cleaner. And the function of air flow meter is to measure air mass that flowing into inlet air cleaner then sending the data to engine ECU to calculate the air fuel mixture. And some of the symptoms of Airflow meter malfunction is car wont accelerate.

2. Oxygen Sensor Malfunction

An Oxygen Sensor, is device whose function is to monitor the exhaust emissions of the vehicle so that it can analyze the air-fuel ratio going through the engine of that vehicle. To make the long story short, a car needs a proper amount of fuel in order for the fuel to burn properly in the combustion cylinders so that it may run smoothly and may accelerate as required. This sensor sends the information about the amount of fuel being used to the computer unit of the engine and if this sensor get damaged, then the engine of that vehicle will have no idea what ratio of air-fuel mixture to intake which may result in a fuel rich mixture. This can cause the slow acceleration of the vehicle even with the fuel pedal completely pressed making it unreliable when it’s needed.

3. Malfunction of TPS

Basic principle of throttle position sensor is to detect the throttle valve opening angle which controlled by accelerator pedal. Then the tps will send this data to the ECU. If the tps malfunction, the engine speed cannot control by accelerator pedal, engine speed will increase or decrease without any press or depress the pedal.

4. Dirty or Clogged Fuel Filters

A dirty or clogged fuel filter is another reason for the appearance of the symptoms of car not accelerating when required to do so. With a dirty fuel filter, the engine won’t be getting enough fuel which means that the vehicle won’t be going anywhere nor will it be giving the acceleration performance that it should. Replace it as soon as possible.

5. Clogged or Dirty Air Filters

Just like the fuel filter provides the engine with the clean fuel, the air filters provide the engine of a vehicle with clean to be used in the air-fuel mixture which will be sent to the combustion chambers to burn. If an air filter is clogged, then the engine won’t get the right air-fuel mixture resulting in decrepit and slow acceleration. Replace it as soon as possible.


6. The Timing Belt

This component is as it sounds. The timing belt is something like a VIP in the list key of components of an engine. If this belt is off even by 1 tooth, it may cause some pretty notable acceleration problems.

However the list of culprits does not end here. The culprits behind the slow acceleration may be a slipping clutch, the transmission system itself or an unexpected or unrelated problem which may surprise even the veterans in the mechanics.

Take the vehicle to a reliable mechanic and let him give it a full checkup. This will let that mechanic catch onto that problem and will let him deal with it.