Reduced Engine Power?

[MASS-HOE'Z71]

ive seen a few errors pop up on the DIC but seemed like "hiccups" as they would pop up and disappear as soon as they came on, then yesterday i start her up drive a few hundred feet and i get a "reduced engine power" message and feels like its a 4 cylinder and its struggling to make it to 30-35 mph, immediately pull into a gas station and fill up on 91 octane, was at exactly quarter tank before and thats as low as i try to let it go, started up fine and i didnt see anything more with the message, is this a normal occurence when your low on gas?, i think the low fuel lights been on once since ive had it and even then all i got was the orange light dot and the low fuel message but i dont want to completely ignore this either as it may be the start of sumthin.....something costly usually

 

[NathanJax]

I don't think it had anything to do with your gas. I'm guessing the computer was reading something wrong and cut the power...

I was just reading about this on another forum (cadillac) but can't find it now. The guy had the same problem and was going to take it to the dealer. He never responded in the thread what it was...

 

[tybardy]

Reduced Engine power is a general response to a great many problems that the engine recognizes. What it does is cuts your motor down to 2k RPMs... it will do this to prevent the motor from blowing due to whatever problem it thinks it recognizes.

that being said, it could be anything, but when it comes and goes like you mentioned, it is quite likely that you have some loose electrical or vacuum connections under the hood. An example of this would be the electrical connection on the throttle body; if this were loose the throttle body would not receive the command to open which would in turn force the motor into reduced engine power.

I would recommend spending some time under the hood checking all the connections to make sure everything is tight fitting and not worn out.

 

[goozdenali]

thats funny u guys brought this up because ive been getting that problem frequent too! cant figure it out. it comes up then i jut shut it off for a minute or two, start it up and it goes away.

 

[MASS-HOE'Z71]

luckily i havent gotten it again, just that one time, when i shut it off then started up again the message came on immediately and like ty said cut it to 2k rpm, then i went to a gas station nd filled up and it started up fine with no message/action. poked around under the hood checking for connections or if anything was damaged and the only thing i noticed that wasnt as tight as it could be was the mass air flow sensor, had a buddy check for error codes and nuthin popped up so i still dont know

 

[lilsolo68]

i had this same thing happen to me recently. i still dont know why but it happened right after i used the superchips on it.

 

[blueflamed03]

carry a wrench for the battery cable, in case it doesn't re-set, unplug the battery for a few seconds, reapply the positive cable and it should reset.

 

[goozdenali]

keeps coming back up!
i noticed i have a bad O2 sensor, might that be the issue

 

[blueflamed03]

yep, that could do it.

 

[Tosha Backey]

I have a Chevy Tahoe '05 and yesterday morning on my way to work I couldn't even go but 15/20 mph but most of the time when it does the reduce engine power I can go about 40/45 mph not yesterday. I was low on fuel O pulled into the gas station and put some gas in and got back in it started it up and reduce engine power was gone away.