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I have Skoda Fabia 2002 with manual gear and over the past few days I find the car losing power when accelerating fast.

When I push gas pedal to accelerate quickly (in any gear) I hear the engine sound and rpm increasing in pitch by a lot more than I'm used to hearing, but the car doesn't respond and the performance is very poor. If I get up my foot from gas pedal little back to a position to slow acceleration, the engine noise returned to what I'm used to hear (and still accelerating) then I need to push slowly and it seemed accelerating.

What could be wrong with the car?

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This sounds very much as though your clutch is slipping. Essentially, the clutch plates aren't making strong contact and slip against each other under hard acceleration. Under gentle acceleration there is less stress on the clutch and so slipping is less likely.

It is not that you are losing power but that the power is being wasted.

This can be caused by one or more of:

  • Excessive wear
  • Poor adjustment
  • Leaking oil onto the plates

Unless addressed, it can only get worse.

Adjustment is the easiest to check, so is a good first step. The chances are, a turn of a screw will fix it.

Otherwise, you may need a new clutch.

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  • this is a really good insight. Might this also be the reason for similar problem in 4 stroke bikes?
    – kgkmeekg
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 13:24
  • Yes. And it is not "Excessive" - clutches are like brakes, they need replacement of the discs regularly.
    – TomTom
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 13:34
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    @TomTom If it is causing an undesired effect by definition it is "excessive". To not be excessive wear would mean the part is still operating within its tolerances, which if slipping due to wear is clearly not.
    – James T
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 13:46
  • I literally just found out my clutch is going yesterday, with the same symptoms. Exactly as the mechanic told me :-/
    – Canadian Luke
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 16:11
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    If this is the vehicle's first clutch, 14 years old, then it is very reasonable to expect it to be due for a change even with sensible driving habits.
    – J...
    Commented Jul 12, 2016 at 17:17
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Slipping clutch by excessive wear. You need to change ideally the whole thing: pressure plate, disk and bearing. It could be oil leak but it would "burn" and eventually work, temporaly anyway.

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