Car feels like handbrake is on

sbsquarepants

Hi Folks,

Can anyone tell me what this problem might be.

Driving home last night and car felt very sluggish, just got worse and worse until it wouldn't go over 70Km on the dual carriage way. On back roads I struggled to hit 40. I drove it like this for maybe 10km before I got home.

Had a look to see if anything was obviously wrong but all i could see was the oil was very low, light hadn't come on but none on dipstick at all. Topped up the oil and it seemed to do the trick - took it on a 2 mile spin and it drove normally. Though I just had an oil leak and I'd get it sorted over the weekend.

Coming to work this morning though and it's back to square one, no power struggling to pull away and couldn't hit speed, feels like driving with the handbrake on. This time i abandoned it and got a lift in.

There's no smoke, or funny noises or anything like that. But i'm afraid to drive it in case I cause some serious damage. It's an old car (07 astra) but up until last night was driving perfectly. NCT'd last month with no issues.

Alanstrainor

What car is it? Year, make, model, engine?

dar_cool

When you press the clutch in and rev it does it rev up ok? Brakes caliper pistons could be siezing up. If your a DIYer you could jack the car up and see does the wheels spin freely

sbsquarepants

It's an 07 opel astra, 1.4L petrol.

I'm not 100% sure about the clutch thing and i'm 20 miles away now so can't check it.

I did notice a very slight rattling noise the day before which disappeared when the clutch was pressed in, i'm not sure if it's related or not. The problem happened quite suddenly, it wasn't getting steadily worse or anything like that.

jimgoose

dar_cool wrote: »

When you press the clutch in and rev it does it rev up ok? Brakes caliper pistons could be siezing up. If your a DIYer you could jack the car up and see does the wheels spin freely

And be careful, because if it is a case of a binding brake the hub/wheel assembly could be very hot.

biketard

Does the car roll OK? I mean if you are on a slight slope, does it feel like if you let off the brake (while not in gear) does it roll like you would expect?

sbsquarepants

I haven't noticed any problem with it rolling, but again i'm not 100% sure, it only happened last night and i thought the oil had sorted it, for the time being at least.

Made only a few hundred meters this morning before it started acting up again, drove it for maybe a 1km to see would it ease up but it didn't, so i parked it up and grabbed a lift.

I know very little about cars but I've a feeling it's something engine related more so than brakes locking.

Mad_Mike

If the brakes are locking up enough to cause that kind of drag on the car, you'll know without having to jack it up etc
The wheel or wheels that are locking up will get extremely hot, and you'll feel it by just holding your hand a few inches from the wheel
Normally if they are binding that bad, you will also get a very distinct smell from the brakes burning up

With no engine lights showing etc, it seems likely it's either brakes locking up or clutch failing
Again you will get a smell if you're burning the clutch out of it
Start the car, pull up the handbrake, stick it in 2nd gear and try releasing the clutch slowly
If the clutch is ok, the car will cut out, but if the clutch is on it's way out, you'll be able to more or less release the clutch with the handbrake on, and the car will stay running

Isambard

could it be limp mode?

standardg60

Sounds very like the clutch is slipping

Bruthal

standardg60 wrote: »

Sounds very like the clutch is slipping

If driving miles with a lack of power, and it was a slipping clutch, a person would want to be very oblivious to the revving engine without much response, and the burning smell if it is this. Ye never know though.

Bruthal

dar_cool wrote: »

When you press the clutch in and rev it does it rev up ok? Brakes caliper pistons could be siezing up. If your a DIYer you could jack the car up and see does the wheels spin freely

The affected wheel(s) will be noticeably hot if it is this.

You can also tell when braking to a stop on very slight inclines, how the car rolls back if brakes are released. It wont if one or more calipers are sticking. Takes a bit of intuition and feel to notice it easily though.

standardg60

Bruthal wrote: »

If driving miles with a lack of power, and it was a slipping clutch, a person would want to be very oblivious to the revving engine without much response, and the burning smell if it is this. Ye never know though.

To us it might seem obvious, but the majority of people have no idea how their car works.

Bruthal

standardg60 wrote: »

To us it might seem obvious, but the majority of people have no idea how their car works.

If they were that oblivious, they would be more likely to be revving the engine way past the speed the car is actually doing, in an effort to speed up, and so burning it badly. Hard to imagine no smell of burning that even a non driver would notice.

But as I said, with the level of oblivious driving out there, ye never know. I would still be surprised if it is that though.

Isambard

it doesn't sound to me like it's that. OP reports lack of power, the layman might say there is loads of power with a slipping clutch. It needs a mechanic look at it to know for sure I think

Bruthal

Well if it is a slipping clutch, the OP will see the engine revs go up without a corresponding increase in car speed.

So that is a test for the OP to try, if the problem is still happening.

newmember2

Definitely sounds like limp mode, especially as it was OK again after the restart when you put the oil in it. You'd have an engine management light though...

Does the engine still rev freely?

standardg60

newmember? wrote: »

Definitely sounds like limp mode, especially as it was OK again after the restart when you put the oil in it. You'd have an engine management light though...

Does the engine still rev freely?

I doubt an 07 astra even has a limp mode.

Hopefully the op comes back with a diagnosis to put us all out of our misery!

Andrewf20

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Can anyone tell me what this problem might be.

Driving home last night and car felt very sluggish, just got worse and worse until it wouldn't go over 70Km on the dual carriage way. On back roads I struggled to hit 40. I drove it like this for maybe 10km before I got home.

Had a look to see if anything was obviously wrong but all i could see was the oil was very low, light hadn't come on but none on dipstick at all. Topped up the oil and it seemed to do the trick - took it on a 2 mile spin and it drove normally. Though I just had an oil leak and I'd get it sorted over the weekend.

Coming to work this morning though and it's back to square one, no power struggling to pull away and couldn't hit speed, feels like driving with the handbrake on. This time i abandoned it and got a lift in.

There's no smoke, or funny noises or anything like that. But i'm afraid to drive it in case I cause some serious damage. It's an old car (07 astra) but up until last night was driving perfectly. NCT'd last month with no issues.

Be careful with the oil levels. It will show up low once you drive it a little as the oil gets pumped around the engine.

sbsquarepants

standardg60 wrote: »

I doubt an 07 astra even has a limp mode.

Hopefully the op comes back with a diagnosis to put us all out of our misery!

Sorry, i was off for a few days!

Took 5 or 6 attempts to start after being parked up for a few days but eventually got it going and brought it to a garage, was driving much the same, moving but not responding properly and struggling to hit 60 or 70km - he replaced the coil and the spark plugs and it seems to be fine now.

Cost €185 quid which seemed reasonable enough to me. Again i'm not sure what work is involved or how much the parts cost, but i couldn't have done it regardless, so 185 for a working car is something I can live with.

As for the limp mode thing, i have no idea if it has one or not - cars only have 2 modes to me, working mode and broken mode:D