Q: car slows with acceleration
I bought my car 5,000 kilometers ago, and now it has 179,000 kilometers. I replaced the catalytic converter when I bought it. That’s all it needed for the e test. When I first gave the car gas I felt it stutter like it was not getting gas. Then once it got passed that the car picked up. I live in a very hilly area. So lately I’ve been driving the car around in drive. Once I’m cruising at 80 kilometer per hour I turn on the overdrive and the car feels like its running OK. But if I’m going up a hill, and I give it gas the car slows down. If I give it a certain amount of gas with overdrive while around 60 kilometers per hour the car slows down. But with overdrive off it doesn’t have a problem with picking up speed - no slowing down - just the stutter at the start. My check engine light came on last night and this morning. I unplugged the battery for 5 minutes then reconnected it, and the light went away. Do you have any ideas what my problem might be?
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The hesitation may be a dirty throttle body or bad throttle position sensor (TPS). If it drives better with OD off, I suggest leaving it off or having it diagnosed and repaired. It won’t hurt anything to leave it off around town although gas mileage may be a bit lower.
Turn overdrive back on for highway cruising. A technician, such as one from YourMechanic, using a scan tool will be able to diagnose it for you. You likely already know that turning off the Check Engine Light just turns off the light and removes helpful info that a technician uses to diagnose the trouble. The issue that caused it to turn on in the first place probably still present. To have all of this taken care of, a certified technician, such as one from YourMechanic can come to your home or office to diagnose your acceleration issue and let you know what should be done.
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