AMB6316

Hi! I'm sorry in advance for not knowing anything about this, so I'll do my best to explain my problem. My brother tells me it's my transmission, but I'm not ready to give up on my car just yet! So I'm posting here for ideas to suggest to my brother. Here's my problem: when I start up my car, it will accelerate a little bit (only up until 2 rpms). Then it won't accelerate any more, no matter how I floor it. It's as if I suddenly put the thing in neutral. The car will move (at about 5 mph) and it'll make noises (vroom vroom) like it's accelerating but the needle on the rpm gage wont go above 2. If I stop the car (press on the break or put it in park) the car will shake (this is a newer problem). After a few seconds (under a minute), I will get itself back into working order and accelerates like nothing happened. As if I realized I put the car in neutral and put it back into drive. Also, it's throwing no codes. I've read about limp mode, but what I've found is the check engine light comes on. This is not what's happening to me, no lights and no codes. Like I said it's like I'm putting it into neutral, everything is working except we aren't moving! It also doesn't do it every time I drive and it never does it after the car gets going, just on the initial takeoff (which is good because I typically start my car in parking lots so I'm not stuck in the middle of the road crawling along at 5 mph). Since my car is a demon, nobody riding in my car has seen this problem and I can't get it on video because it fixes itself the second I get the camera up (no joke). That's all I got for you. Thanks for the help! I really love my car.

NDNV

Automatic transmission?
Is the D light in the dash flashing?
Have you checked the ATF level if automatic?
Hooked up a scanner to check for codes?

AMB6316

Thank you for responding!
It is automatic.
Nothing on the dash flashes. It looks completely normal.
I don't know what ATF is...
We have hooked up a scanner to check for codes many times. No codes!

prodjay10

ATF is automatic transmission fluid. It's necessary for the proper operation of the transmission.

Thatguy94

This does kind of sound like your car is in "Limp mode" which can happen when your ECU goes bad. Is your battery light on the dash? A good way to see if your engine computer is working properly is to unplug your "Mass airflow sensor" on the air box and start the car and then turn it off. With the car off plug your scanner into the vehicle and turn your key to on and scan for codes again. Is the code for the Mass airflow sensor coming up? If so then you know that your ECU is seeing your engine components.