Q: Gas pedal is unresponsive

asked by on December 13, 2016

I was driving my BMW 1 series diesel 08 plate and then the power just went and i tried to use more gas but the car just stopped and now it doesn't turn over and gas pedal is unresponsive

My car has 92000 miles.
My car has a manual transmission.

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You may have a couple of different issues going on here. Your car has what is called a throttle position sensor that controls the functioning of the gas pedal. The throttle position sensor monitors the throttle position of the throttle plate inside the throttle body in relation to your foot position on the gas pedal. Based upon the inputs from the sensor reading your foot’s position on the pedal, the ECU then makes the direction to supply more or less fuel to the motor. When this sensor is not working properly, this can cause intermittent responses when pressing the gas pedal.

The vehicle not starting may be related to many different things, some of which may be related to a lack of spark and some of which may be related to a fuel delivery problem or a combination of both. For example, if the ignition coils, crankshaft position sensor, spark plugs, spark plug wires or ignition module are faulty, this may cause the motor to not produce the spark needed to ignite the fuel in the motor.

In the case of a fuel delivery problem, this may be related to low fuel pressure, faulty or dirty fuel injectors, a faulty or dirty idle air control valve (this relays information about air intake to the computer which makes fuel adjustments), or potentially a faulty fuel pressure regulator or fuel pump. Fuel delivery problems will typically not allow the proper amount of fuel to be delivered to the cylinders which results in a lean fuel condition which can cause backfiring or simply cause the motor not to start as a result of fuel starvation. I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your location to diagnose your no start problem.

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