Why Won’t My Car Go Over 20 mph? There is no world in which going just 20 mph is going to get you where you need to go in any reasonable amount of time.
Therefore, it is entirely necessary to check on your vehicle if you experience it traveling at these speeds or less.
There is something serious going on, and you need to get to the bottom of it.
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Why Won’t My Car Go Over 20 mph?
There is clearly something malfunctioning in your vehicle if it is only allowing you to travel at a speed of 20 MPH. That is not nearly fast enough for wherever it is that you need to go, and there are clearly things that need to be done to get your speed up. You will need to check various compartments and airflow sensors as this is most likely where your problem lies.
What Should You Check if Your Car Won’t go More than 20 MPH?
It is time to get serious about checking on your vehicle if it won’t go above 20 mph.
Not only is this potentially dangerous to the overall health of your car, but you clearly won’t be getting anywhere that you need to be if your car is only moving at that kind of rate.
It is simply not feasible for you to do what you need to do when your vehicle is behaving like that.
You need to take direct action right now to make some changes to ensure that you will have the speed and acceleration that you clearly need to get where you are going.
Check the Mass Air Flow Sensor
The Mass Air Flow Sensor is attached to the inlet air cleaner, and it is incredibly useful for the health of your car.
If this sensor becomes clogged in any way, then it is possible that your car will not accelerate to the speeds that you need it to.
This has happened to plenty of people before, and it may happen to you if you don’t take steps to get it corrected right away.
The problem here is that a clogged mass air flow sensor may send bad data to the ECU in your vehicle.
This may mean that your vehicle doesn’t even realize that it is not accelerating like it needs to.
Your car may stall out severely as a result, and you may not be able to get it to go above 20 mph in this instance.
Needless to say, that is not ideal, and it is all because of a blocked sensor. You can and should take action to fix this ASAP.
Clogged Fuel Filters
One thing that you will notice about the various reasons why your vehicle is not accelerating is that most of the time it comes down to something in the system being clogged.
Your fuel filters are the next place to check to see if there is a clogging issue. You may discover that the clogged-up fuel filters are an issue that you need to have worked on right away.
A dirty filter may mean that the engine of your car is not able to get the fuel that it needs to power up and drive around the way that it needs to.
Thus, your car may hit a certain ceiling in terms of how fast it will travel.
Clogged fuel filters are nothing to mess around with. You should take action to get them fixed up right away if they seem to present a problem for you.
The last thing you want to do is take a chance with something like this.
Timing Belt Misalignment
The timing belt in your vehicle is designed to work for a long time keeping the timing of various components of your vehicle working exactly as they are supposed to.
However, the belt may become misaligned over time from constant use.
This is simply part of the reality of what it is like to own and operate a vehicle. It is not ideal, but you will simply have to accept the fact that timing belts do this from time to time.
What you need to do in response is work on getting it set up again at your local mechanic.
They can work with you to ensure that your belt is properly set. In so doing, they will provide you with a service that is highly valuable.
Make sure you take the time to look over what they have done and how they did so.
You should hope that you never have to come in for this issue again, but the chances are pretty high that your timing belt will suffer at least some issues again during the course of its lifetime.
That is simply how they are set up, and it is important to recognize that they will suffer wear and tear frequently. Just make sure you are prepared for this and adapt to the challenges that lie ahead.
Don’t Forget the Air Filters
You might not think that clogged/dirty air filters could cause your car to suffer, but they can.
If you leave them in too long and allow them to collect all of the grime that can go through them, then you should certainly expect that your air filters will eventually cause some issues within your vehicle.
Don’t panic about it, but do take your vehicle in to get them switched out.
It is cheap and easy to replace an air filter, so you should certainly at least maintain this aspect of your vehicle whenever possible.
The worst thing that you can do is not pay attention to how you take care of your air filters.
Frequently Asked Questions On Why Won’t My Car Go Over 20 mph
How soon should I take my car into a shop if it won’t go above 20 mph?
Unfortunately, this is not something that you should ever put off. If your vehicle is traveling at just 20 mph, then you need to take immediate action to make sure this doesn’t cause you more problems going forward. That is to say that you need to get your vehicle into the shop right away. In fact, you may need to get towed there depending on how poorly it is driving. You could risk additional damage to your vehicle if you try to drive it into the shop at the 20 mph speed that it is currently able to reach.
Is it expensive to fix a car that won’t go above 20 mph?
It is impossible to estimate the cost of a vehicle repair until the issue is carefully reviewed by a certified mechanic, but generally speaking, this type of repair is not overly expensive. That is to say that you can get filters cleaned or replaced as necessary at an affordable cost. If that is all that is causing the problem with your vehicle, then your expense should be minimal. It is just a matter of figuring out if that is the only issue or not.
Conclusion On Why Won’t My Car Go Over 20 mph
There are several different filters that may cause problems for you when you are driving your car around.
You should get them checked out by a professional mechanic as soon as possible to keep the issue as under control as possible.
Don’t let this one get out of your grasp, but also realize that you are not necessarily going to have to pay a fortune to take care of it.