SuzukiSavage.com /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> The Cafe >> any car mechanics out there? /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1438572048 Message started by springman on 08/02/15 at 20:20:48

Title: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/02/15 at 20:20:48 Help. I have an 02 mitsubishi eclipse gt, v6, 3.0 liter, 24 valves, automatic  tranny. I just got this car back from my daughter who decided she no longer wanted because it was getting too expensive to maintain. Car shakes under load but no check engine light. I took to mechanic and his expensive code reader indicated a cylinder 3 misfire. He had the car for a few days supposedly diagnosing but he indicated problem was intermittent. He changed distributor cap and said it seemed to be running alright but could not be sure. He told me my engine mount were shot. All this cost me $200 but fixed nothing. I had tires balanced. I changed motor mounts which were shot. And today I spent about 6 hours and another $100 for parts. I removed the intake plenum (yeah, great fun) to be able to access the 1,3, and 5 cylinders. I changed all the spark plugs with NGK Iridium though all the old plugs looked good and I replaced all the spark plug wires with high quality ones.   Issue is not resolved. Still no check engine light though. Anybody have any suggestions, other than get rid of the car?

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/02/15 at 20:38:05 Shake under load. Pulling a boat? Rolling down the road? Bore us with details about the symptoms. You've done the obvious. Is the fuel not keeping up with the engines need under load? Check fuel rail pressures? Trans slipping? Checked fluid level and color and smell? A drop on white paper, look.. Rev in neutral?

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by old_rider on 08/02/15 at 23:31:39 Have you tried an Mitsubishi forum for the specific model? I have found almost every make and model vehicle has a site forum dedicated to them. It might be a know issue, kinda like the petc0ck is here. Shaking under load... I would have put a OBD II tester on it, if no faults.... think tranny, or if its a front wheel drive, think about the drive knuckles...sorry can't remember the true name for those.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/02/15 at 23:54:15 CV joints, they otta let you know in a turn. Getting the front off the ground and messing around might help, but a better description of the problem wouldn't hurt.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/03/15 at 08:28:07 Thanks Justin and Old_Rider. I forgot to mention I actually had the tranny checked by a tranny shop and they told me the tranny was fine. They are actually the ones that put the scanner on it and diagnosed the cylinder 3 misfire and he did not charge me anything. The scanner did not indicate a fuel delivery issue. I forget exactly what it said but I believe it implied a spark issue. I also had the injectors cleaned by shop prior to seeing the tranny guy. The car idles great. While stationary you can rev it and it sounds great. But drive it in a straight line not pulling anything and at around 2k rpm it starts to shake. It does seem to be intermittent as last night on the first few minutes of my test drive I pushed it hard and it ran great but then on the way back to the house it started acting up again. Not likely to be suspension parts, but I will take a closer look just to make sure. Right now I suspect possible faulty distributor and possible faulty ECU. Do not know why check engine light does not come on and my cheapie scanner cannot pick up any fault codes so I am sure the the check engine light bulb is functional.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by stewmills on 08/03/15 at 08:31:09 One reply on the interweb says this: so i installed the crossmember and passenger mount but had to pack it up since the sun went down. there is a substantial decrease in the huge shaking. but the transmission mount will not come off. This discussion may help some? http://www.club3g.com/forum/problem-reports/150776-car-shakes-under-acceleration.html

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/03/15 at 08:32:03 I forgot to mention I did find a Mitsu forum but no help so far. I am thinking of calling Mitsu dealer to ask how much for a diagnosis.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/03/15 at 08:39:40 Thanks Stew. That is actually the forum I have been looking at and obtained plenty of info so far. I had not seen that thread but as I said I changed the mounts and 2 of them were actually in pretty bad shape. Based on the original scan of cylinder 3 misfire I believe it is a spark issue. But I will check out all the suspension components just to make sure. The CV boots looked good and I am not getting any clicking sound so I suspect they are fine. The rest I need to look at. Thanks.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by Dave on 08/03/15 at 08:57:09 I listened to a Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers episode where a lady had a misfire in her car.....and they suspected a broken motor mount.  They had a car in their shop that had a misfire under acceleration and they found the engine would move so much that it would pull on the wiring harness and pull the wire connectors apart....and the connectors would touch again when the force on the engine was released. If you have the motor mounts repaired and this miss is still there....then I guess it is not the motor mounts.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by stewmills on 08/03/15 at 09:17:54 I had an old toyota car that was running rough, etc. Shaking a little because of the rough running, but not too aggressive since it was a teeny tiny 4 cylinder. Anyhow, I ended up looking at the engine one night when it was kinda dark and I could see the spark plug wires shorting out on the manifold or metal shroud covering it. I guess my wires were old. It was kinda like a personal little fireworks show!  Replaced the plug wires and distributor cap and it ran like new! The "look at it while running in the dark" may not tell you anything if you don't have a grounding issue like I did, but to Dave's point, maybe it's an intermittent short sort of situation.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/03/15 at 10:47:20 Stew, Dave, thanks again. Yeah what Dave wrote was interesting. I will have to make sure the new mounts are working properly and also make sure the wires have enough slack to accommodate at least some engine movement.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/03/15 at 13:43:39 If the engine pulled stuff due to lousy mounts, a wire many have broken and not busted the insulation, resulting in an intermittent open. Put it in first, hold the brAke and torque it up. If it cuts out, motor falls back to position, makes connection, ,,  do the math. A plug tester that clips on the plug, then the plug wire goes on, allows checking each plug for fire. A clip on timing light will see the voltage in the plug wire, too. So, whatever you have...

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/03/15 at 15:46:03 Thanks Justin. I know the plug wires are good now because I just changed them. However, I will check them to make sure they have enough slack to accommodate any engine movement. I actually spoke with a Mitsu service person today and he indicated they just recently had an 03 in there with the same problem and it turned out to be the distributor. I may just bite the bullet and purchase a new distributor if I cannot get this problem to go away.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/03/15 at 16:18:09 Totally missed the point. Plug wires and distributors are ON the engine. Wiring harnesses from chassis to engine MIGHT be stressed IF the mounts allowed enough motion. IF the engine, loaded, tilts enough to open a stressed wire and causes the engine to lose power, UNtilting enough to make the connection again, causing it to torque again, creating the bucking event. Just Try loading the engine with the brAke, in gear. If it bucks, try reverse.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/04/15 at 08:57:48 Thanks Justin. I'm glad you clarified. I will take a look at that. I sure hope that is not it though.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/04/15 at 11:11:54 The Look at it when it's dark suggestion is also a very good idea. I'm a big fan of that.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by BacktobasicsZM on 08/04/15 at 14:44:30 Have you tried rotating the tires from front to back to see if you can take the tires and wheels out of the equation? Miss under load could be mass air flow sensor, MAP sensor, or partially working components that are getting weak under load, like coil, plug wires, spark plugs, etc.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/05/15 at 11:24:25 Thanks BacktobasicsZM. I did have the wheels balanced and rotated and I have replaced plugs and wires. Apparently on this car the ignition coil is integrated into the distributor so that may well be the next part I replace. For now I am waiting for the weekend to check the wiring and just give it a general going over before replacing any more parts. I get home too late to get it done during the week. Thanks everybody. I'll let you know what happens this weekend.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/08/15 at 17:47:29 So, how did it do in gear ,brakes, gas? Late home, okay, dark, hood up, someone gas it, watch for arcs,,

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/08/15 at 18:56:19 Hello Justin. I was coming to report that I did not work on it today. I don't know just how hot it got today, but at 5 pm it was 103 F. Last I checked at 8 pm it was 97 F. I can't look for an arc on the number 3 cylinder as it is under the intake plenum. But I still plan on taking a looking at the wiring harness. Hopefully tomorrow.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/08/15 at 19:17:12 You  might can in the dark, you can hear one, usually. Rubber hose, watch fans and belts,hair, maybe..

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by 1st2know on 08/09/15 at 11:35:37 I had a car with an OBD report of a misfiring cylinder. It only ran rough at start up, but then smoothed out over time. Mechanic said 'probably a motor mount'.  I  replaced plugs/wires - still misfiring. I moved the injector from the misfiring cylinder to another cylinder, and the misfire moved to the other cylinder. Replaced the injector, no more misfires, engine idles smoothly. I suspect the rough idle was caused by one cylinder getting less fuel than the other 7.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/09/15 at 18:30:34 Well it was still pretty hot today but I took a look at the car anyway. I looked at all the wires and they all look good. The engine idles great. I revved it to 3K + and it still sounds great. I put it in drive, put my foot on the brake and revved it and it was ok. I did the same in reverse an it was ok but it felt like it moved too much. I must admit I only changed the mounts that looked bad. I guess I will change that last mount and try again. I originally changed 3 of the 4 motor mounts. Hopefully changing that last motor mount will take care of the problem. If not then I think I will order the distributor and change it. And since I have to take the plenum off again to do that I might remove the intake manifold to clean the carbon build up. The build up is not terrible but if it is only a few more nuts and bolts, might as well get er done.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/09/15 at 19:10:27 Awwrite! Great report, good to hear no sign of arcing, and the torque a brake test worked. Any time, man, just say you have a problem, everyone will apply their experience with problem solving and jump right in. Keep throwing pArts at it, you'll get there.

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/10/15 at 09:08:19 Thanks Justin. I do not consider myself much of a mechanic. I take these tasks upon myself just because mechanic labor rates are getting ridiculous and I really just cannot afford to keep paying those rates especially when the problem is not resolved. I have the motor mount so hopefully I will get a chance to replace it next weekend. I sure hope it cools off a little!!!

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/10/15 at 14:54:42 A bad mount is something that you can see. If it's not cutting out at 3,000RPM under load, then how does it act on the road,? I forgot what car, year, miles, Have you searched the net for it and the problem?

Title: Re: any car mechanics out there? Post by springman on 08/10/15 at 22:16:02 It is an 02 mitsubishi eclipse gt, 3.0 L V6 with auto tranny. In straight line when accelerating at around 2K rpm it starts to shake and like I said, it does this intermittently. More precisely it appears to run fine for a few minutes but will eventually miss or shake and then it will continue to do so under load. I really doubt that last motor mount is causing the problem, but I have a new one, I'll change it. I really am leaning toward the distributor being bad as apparently the distributor was changed once before and in speaking with mitsu dealer they indicated it is a possibility. This car is actually rather difficult to work on because of the V6 configuration. I am driving my 92 Volvo 940 at the time, 4 cylinder, non-turbo, non-functioning ac with over 300K miles on it. But it will do 75 on the highway all day long. And it is much easier to work on.

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