Reduced engine power never means that some thing or some part of your engine has broken or turn bad. It also does not mean the engine is complete maintenance. This warning can go away with simple replacement of air filter, change of lubricant or just removing dust and debris from engine inlet. There can alot of other reasons and you have to learn to know How to solve reduced engine power warning light.
Imagine you were driving your car and all pf sudden a message appear on your car’s dashboard saying “Reduced Engine Power”. Now you wounder what does it means and to can I bypass this setup.
At the same time you notice your car is steadily slowing down. You try to accelerate to fix this problem but it resulted in your car completely shutting down.
This Engine power reduction can be a frustrating and risky issue to handle, especially when it occurs while you are in the middle of a road. So, its very important to know what cause this and how to bypass reduced Engine Power.
What does Reduced Engine Power mean
In most simplest way a reduced engine power warning on your dashboard means that some thing is obstructing and reducing the fuel flow or air flow into your car engine. As you know that a perfect air fuel mixture is needed to make engine produce maximum power.
So if that ratio or flow of air fuel mixture is effected that engine will not be able to produce power. In most severe cases, the car computer will try to shutdown the engine completely to avoid any damage to engine.
A Step-by-step guide to solve reduced engine power warning
If reduced engine power message is appearing for very first time and you observed your vehicle is not performing good. Then the best guess is engine need simple maintenance that you can also do it by yourself or take help from professional.
To solve the reduced engine power is a simple. Just follow through with the steps we’ll be showing you how to make it work.
- Remove dust and debri from engine intake
- Check for Engine oil quantity and quality
- Clean the air filter
- Check the Catalytic Converter
- Defective Oxygen Sensor
- Bad ECU
- Defective Mass air flow sensor
- Throttle Body Issue
Remove Dust and Debri
In the most simplest of the cases your car engine air intake will be blocked by dust and debri. This make it difficult for engine to intake sufficent air to completely burn fuel and produce power.
Simpley removing the dust, debri and any foreign object from the intake can make this warning light go away.
Check Engine Oil
One of main reason for reduce engine power is bad engine oil quality and low quantity. As engine oil is responsible for makeing your engine components run smoothly. So a low engine oil quantity and bad quality will make it diffcult for engine to produce high power.
Low engine oil quanity will overheat the engine and this make the engine control unit ECU to shutdown the vehicle to protect it from further damage.
Cleaning the Air Filter
Air filter are designed and installed to protect engine internal components from dust, debris and other small foreign object. With time dust and debri will completely clogg the air filter and thus making it impossible for engine to have air for combustion.
There are different types of air filter and depending on the type you can either wash your air filter or just do the replacement.
Checking the Catalytic Converter
You know when you experience reduced engine power in your car and cleaning intake, air filter and checking /replaceing engine oil does help. Then the first thing you need to check is your catalytic converter. The OBD (On-Board Diagnostics) monitors will reduce the engine’s potential power to recompense for the problem that was caused by the catalytic converter.
Catalytic converter take exhaust gasses and work to reduce their chemical effect on environment by removing the harmfull element from exhaust. A clogged catalytic converter need replacement or cleaning if possible to resolve reduced engine power issue.
Bad Engine Control Unit
Engine Control Unit ECU is responsible for make your car run properly and efficienty. It does so by receiving data from different sensors installed all over the vehicle and them make decision based on the information recevied.
ECU can make your engine stop if it detect any major problem with any of the engine related system. If this ECU turn bad to electrical failur or bad software then you need to tune up your ECU to remove the reduced engine power warning.
Checking Sensors
Sensors like oxygen sensor, mass air flow sensor, throttle body sensor etc are all resposible for sending data to ECU, so ECU can make decision. If sensor turn bads and send wrong signals to ECU, this will make ECU to reduce your engine power.
If a sensor turn bad then only solution is to remove that sensor. To find the bad sensor your can scan your vehicle using a automotive scaner and it will show you specific toruble code. Replace the bad sensor and warning light will go away.
Throttle Body Issue
Throttle body is one that controls the air flow into the engine. To control air flow throttle open and close it butterfly valve to give more or less area to air to flow. If for any reason that butterfly valve or any other part of the throttle body fails to perform its work properly. Then this will surely reduce engine power.
Depending on the problem there can be alot of different solution of throttle body issue. Some time simple cleaning and some time replacing throttle body fix the issue.
How much does it cost to fix Reduced Engine Power
The first measure the mechanic would be taking is determining what’s been wrong with your engine. Typically, it would take about half an hour.
You have to pay for the replacements and the labor. So, the amount would be near 100 US dollars to 500 US dollars. The cost of the catalytic converter is excluded here. You need to pay 2,000 US dollars more to get a new catalytic converter.
If you’ve insurance for your car, then the insurance would cover the cost. But if you don’t have that, prepare to spend 2,100 US dollars to 2,500 US dollars.
Final Words
It’s time to wrap things up. But first, let us clear a misconception about the reduced engine power and the battery.
Most people ask this question: Can a bad battery cause reduced Engine Power?
The misconception is that they think it does damage your engine and reduce the engine’s power. But a bad battery has nothing to do with it and it won’t cause a reduction in the engine’s power.
Now, you know all the necessary things you need to know regarding how to bypass reduced engine power, thus, we’ll be taking our leave here.
