My car loses acceleration while driving.

Asked by nycolette Jul 14, 2017 at 12:14 PM about the 2012 Nissan Altima Coupe 2.5 S

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

While driving long distance my car loses acceleration, i have pulled over shut it
down and restart the car, after a few minutes than it works again. I have taken
the car to the dealer and they have never heard of it. HELP!!!

13 Answers

7,605

Would start with easy things first such as a new fuel fliter, cleaning the throttle body, and having a look at the air filter. Since you brought it to a dealer I hope they did a scan for any pending codes or stored ones. Unfortunately they don't always show something. Without more info ideas would be just speculation but have a feeling it has something to do with electrical that would be effected by heat such as a MAF sensor (dirty) sometimes they can be cleaned with CRC cleaner. Other Ideas are throttle position sensor/throttle body or compression loss. Those are just ideas. Hopefully it's just a fuel flow issue. Would not just throw parts at the car at this point, as mentioned try some cleaning and a new fuel filter. Good Luck!

35 people found this helpful.
450

I have the same problem. Only when it is hot outside. I’ve been told transmission is going bad, BUT that makes zero sense. Had problems last summer any time it was over 90 degrees outside and then no issues all fall or winter or spring. Now that temperature is 90 and above - power loss. Yet when temperature is less than 90, it drives fine.

45 people found this helpful.
380

My 2008 Nissan Altima, broke down to 60mph had my foot all the way down it would not move, I was traveling in mid day open highway it had to be over 100 degree's I shifted to another gear it ran okay for 5 more miles did it again my check engine light came on after that, I stopped for the night so far I have not had any issues with it and the light went off.

38 people found this helpful.
830

Hello group. I have a 2006 Nissan Altima. this past week it started to lose power and not wanting to get up to 40mph. At first i thought the transmission was going out. Then i stared to hear a really loud air sound. Like it was sucking air or hissing. it seemed like it was coming from the right side of the motor.(right side as if you was sitting behind the wheel). Any suggestions?

83 people found this helpful.
420

Hey my 2008 Altima coup experienced losing power.the dealership replaced the throttle position sensor but the problem continued.After living with intermittent power loss condition for some time.the next time at the dealership they wanted to replace the transmission based on what the error codes said .I reached out to Nissan consumer affairs and it turns out to need a transmission cooler the issue is over heated trans fluid.Problem solved, and they helped pay for it out of warranty . some how the dealership didn't know about the bulletin posted by Nissan concerning this.

42 people found this helpful.
170

Hello. My Altima 05 like two weeks ago started to drive very slow and it feels heavy like the emergency break is on while and driving. Any idea? thank you.

17 people found this helpful.
250

I have nissan altima 2009 it happened with me 2 times first time I am going to Reno and I was on 60 mph and I was trying to race up but accelerator seem stuck on 60, I pushed accelerator always to the down but it was not working I pilled over and stop for couples of minute and start the car and than it was fine no problem. and after 4 month it happen again. it happen with me to long drive only.

25 people found this helpful.
120

So I’ve done some research in regards to that and it seems to happen in summer days and going up a hill, and so far I’ve found out the transmission gets too hot and goes into a protection mode and won’t let the car accelerate how it’s supposed to. So I bought a oil cooler and the problem is fixed

12 people found this helpful.
100

See https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2014/SB-10052883-6508.pdf

10 people found this helpful.
100

The throttle position sensor is bad. I have the same issue, with no fault codes or check engine lights. I hooked up my scan tool and watched the throttle drop from 35% to 18% while going up hill. It didn't mater if my foot was to the floor or not it stayed at around 18%. The tps is not sending correct info to the computer. Replace it.

10 people found this helpful.
150

I’ve had the same problem for years. The transmission isn’t sufficiently cooler the fluid so the car goes into fail safe mode and limits rpms to try and prevent engine damage. This typically happens on hot days and long or uphill trips. Usually you can hear the engine start wining when it’s getting hot. Make sure your antifreeze is properly diluted to -34. It could be the actual transmission failing so still have it checked out. A supposed solution is to add an external oil cooler kit to the transmission to give it extra cooling capabilities. I’m gonna get it done soon. Nissan is horrible and provides no help in anything. I took my car to 3 dealerships and after 4 years of researching and reading posts like this I found technical service bulletin NTB13-079B that describes the problem to a T yet Nissan conveniently never mentioned it. I’ve gotten my transmission fluid changed three times over the past four years and have put another 65k miles on it, totaling 182k. Hopefully this cooler kit will give it another year or so, but never buying another Nissan again.

13 people found this helpful.
150

Addition to the above- Mines an 09 Altima, forgot that part!

2 people found this helpful.
40

Hello: This weekend, my 2008 Altima started to lose power. I was in Tracy and it was a hot day. On my way back to the Bay Area, the issue started. I pulled off tot he side, waited about 10 minutes and then tried to get back onto the freeway, the acceleration got worse, so I pulled over. My mechanic drove the car at a high speed back in the bay area, but did not feel anything. He said it could possible be the transmission going out? Does anyone have any suggestions. And thank you for all the above information within the past years. 07/06/2021

4 people found this helpful.

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