Engine Transmission

Question

I've been having a problem recently, as I push the gas pedal my car moves super slow. It won't go faster then 10 to 15 mphs. As I drive it feels like the gears are not catching

Answer 1

There's a couple of scenarios that come to mind. Originally, I was going to write this as a comment, but it would simply be too much text. Others, please feel free to give reasons why any of these isn't the answer.

Clutch is Failing (manual trans only)

Generally, when your clutch fails, it only catches partially. Even if you give it a whole lot of gas, it's not transferring the torque to the drive shaft entirely. Generally, this will apply whether your car is hot or cold, so the fact that your car's behavior changes after two minutes may mean that this isn't the cause.

Exhaust is Leaking Severely/No Backpressure

I've seen a loss of horsepower when the downpipe had a major hole or was ripped off entirely. This generally makes for a very loud car, that screams but doesn't go anywhere quickly at all. If your car's exhaust is normal volume, you can likely rule this out.

Cylinder misfire

I've seen a severe loss of horsepower occur when one of the cylinders isn't firing smoothly. I've even seen this happen where the car will idle smoothly, but as soon as load is put on the engine (driving more than 10 mph), the engine operates down a cylinder. This was a accompanied by a blinking Check Engine light on my 2001 Jetta.

Note: A blinking check engine light is usually a Very Bad Thing, and (on VW's, at least) comes on when you're doing something that is potentially damaging the car.

Answer 2

It sounds like your car could be in "limp"-mode. If the car detects some critical issues it can go to a mode where the power is drastically reduced to be able to just get it to the garage. Certain car models can do this also if the brake lights don't work etc. You should have the error codes read to check what is going on. A local garage or dealership can do this for you.