You depend on your car to get you where you need to go, but every now and then it may stall. There are several reasons why your car might stop responding to your startup command, which makes it hard to diagnose. The following guide will show you 2 possible reasons your car is not turning on.

1. The MAP Sensor Disfunction

The MAP sensor helps your vehicle's computer read the air pressure, the amount of air going into the engine, and the rotations that help your vehicle create the best possible combustion mixture. This optimizes fuel and air usage, giving you good performance. But, this little gadget can fail, and one of the symptoms is a stalled vehicle. The following are other signs to look for:

• Your gas consumption will increase for no reason.
• There might be knocking or pinging sounds coming from the engine.
• The idling might be rough.
• There could be a strong gas smell because your engine is running rich. 
• You might feel jerky acceleration or deceleration.
• The stalls that you experience might only occur when you give your car some gas.
• You might feel surges in speed from time to time.
• The check engine light might come on, and the code will point to a bad sensor.
• Your spark plugs might have a black layer over them.

Talk to your auto care specialist should you notice any of these symptoms, so that he or she can confirm if your map sensor is the culprit.  

2. Clogged Fuel Filter

The fuel filter ensures that no foreign particles reach your vehicle's engine from the gas tank, and it also catches gas impurities, but this filter has to be replaced from time to time or it might clog. A severely clogged filter may indeed cause your vehicle to stall should it not allow enough gasoline to pass through to keep your car on. The following are other signs of a clogged fuel filter you can look for: 

• You might have trouble keeping the car on once you have started it, which might feel like sputtering that could lead to an engine stall.
• Your car feels like it's running out of gas, especially under stress like when your hauling something or going on an uphill.
• The vehicle has trouble getting to higher speeds, making acceleration poor.
• There could be some misfires accompanied by a jerky-like feeling as you drive. 
• The check engine light might show up, and a code reader should reveal an issue with your filter.
• You might also smell gasoline coming from the exhaust pipe, or you might notice that your gas consumption has increased.

Talk to an auto care specialist, like the ones at Felix Auto Repair & Towing, about these symptoms, so that he or she can help you replace it and take care of the problem.