Q: Car acceleration is slow to respond to gas pedal

asked by on September 23, 2016

My car has 51,500 miles on it. I started to notice that when I accelerated and put my foot on the gas pedal it took a few seconds for it to accelerate and catch up. It feels like my transmission isn’t working right, too. I took it to 2 dealerships and they can’t figure it out because there is no check engine light that comes on. So they don’t know where to look. Do you have any ideas what might be wrong?

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Hi there. From your description I am going to assume you try to accelerate and the engine speed does rise, but it feels like the transmission doesn’t engage until a higher engine speed and then it catches. In this case, it sounds like you have a slipping transmission. The first thing to have checked is the fluid level. A low fluid level can cause this situation and must be corrected soon. If the fluid level is lower than the standard requirement, there must also be a leak. If you would like an expert to inspect this firsthand, a certified technician from YourMechanic can come to your car’s location to diagnose the acceleration problem.

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