Should Be A Easy Fix For You Guys

[wreckshop56]

ive been driving my eclipse 420a for a couple of months with no major problems...then one day im driving and the car falls dead...i jiggled the battery cables and it cranked afterwards...so i bought new connectors..now i have power and everything is fine electical wise...but now it will crank and run good for like 30 secs then just fall dead like i turned the key off or sumthing...and at times it dont want to crank again it just turns over...what could this be a fuel filter or pump... help me out

thanks

 

[91 Turbo Mitsu]

You might want to pull your ecm and carefully open it and see if it smells like a rotten fishy smell.Sounds like the same problem i had and turned out the ecm was fried. Mine would run for a couple of minutes and just quit. You could crank and crank till hell froze over . Wait 5 minutes and she would fire right up and do it all over again. Travis

 

[dsmclipse97]

Or it could be the alternator, especially if you were having electrical problems before. An autozone or similar place will check your alternator for free.

 

[Gary 420A RS]

start the car. then take the positive terminal off while its running if it falls dead it is most likely the alternator. also if you want start the car and check the voltage on the battery. look for 14 and up volts. thats a perfect charge. anything less is a falty system.. good luck.

 

[blackbyrd]

Just hook a voltimeter up the battery with the engine not running, should be +12.5v fully charged, start it, and check again, should be 14v-ish. You could have a faulty alternator and drained battery or blown alt fuse.

 

[Defiant]

start the car. then take the positive terminal off while its running if it falls dead it is most likely the alternator. also if you want start the car and check the voltage on the battery. look for 14 and up volts. thats a perfect charge. anything less is a falty system.. good luck.

This is a very bad practice on modern vehicles.

 

[91 Turbo Mitsu]

I have to agree with Defiant unhooking the battery terminal with the car running can wreak serious havoc on the computer system and sensors because the voltage has nowhere to go from the alternator except backfeed through the car. Travis

 

[wreckshop56]

thanks im just getting home and i will try everything

 

[Gary 420A RS]

i see where you going with it but yet taking the positive off for a second will not cause damage to the cars nor the wires. all this would do is stop the 12v signal to the car. the car would shut off if the power from the belt was not keeping it going. thus if the car stalls or drops off it would be the alternator.

so your doing this for a second or so not minutes to hours at a time.? think about it 12v off? power doesnt feed back to anywhere at all it just stops. its a DC source not AC.

 

[Defiant]

'tricity's kinda fast.

 

[talontd92tsi]

Does the car missfire before it shuts off, any check engine light or anything of that sort?

 

[wreckshop56]

Does the car missfire before it shuts off, any check engine light or anything of that sort?

yes it does it hesitates then runs strong again then hesitates and dies
its not the alternator
check engine light is on ..always been on something to do with a exaust leak i cant make it 2 autozone or pep boys because it falls dead and sometimes dont crank back up...could it be a dying fuel pump

 

[Gary 420A RS]

then go buy a obd II code reader.

 

[wreckshop56]

****UPDATE****
im getting fuel...checked fuel filter...gas shot like a stream when i turn the key foward...pump and filter is good...so i checked the coil pack..no spark to plug 1 then sometimes it gives a strong spark then the car runs for a while the spark stops car falls dead...what can it be..ecu?

sorry for the slow responses im a doctors intern at the hospital so i work from 6am to 8pm everyday so im free on weekends

 

[DevilSperm]

I was going to guess fuel pump relay but you just blew my theory out the window. That happend on my 95 GS once. I'd start with testing your coil first and see if its ok.

 

[wreckshop56]

I was going to guess fuel pump relay but you just blew my theory out the window. That happend on my 95 GS once. I'd start with testing your coil first and see if its ok.

thanks for the feedback, i will be buying a coil pack 2morrra

 

[VTRICCO]

id say it sounds ecu if the coil is bad on only one plug it wouldnt cause the whole engine to shut off one of the plugs on the coil went out on my 95 gs and the car still ran on 3 cylenders just crappy

 

[DevilSperm]

Forgive me for being n/t ignorant here, but the n/t's also use a waste spark system do they not? So if it was a coil, 2 plugs wouldn't fire and two would?

 

[VTRICCO]

no it can just be one plug that goes bad like i said in my post one went bad and it ran on the 3 it was an aftermarket msd coil pack when i tested for spark on all the other plugs they all had it

 

[wreckshop56]

no it can just be one plug that goes bad like i said in my post one went bad and it ran on the 3 it was an aftermarket msd coil pack when i tested for spark on all the other plugs they all had it

well i only tested plug 1 from the coil pack with a tester... sometimes it got a spark and sometimes it didnt same with all the other plugs...and when it did get a spark it fired up..sounds like the ecu righ..i can get one off of ebay for 40 but i wanna be sure thats the problem

 

[VTRICCO]

if you say you can get the ecu for 40 bucks id get it but i would still also buy another coil cause they're only around 60 bucks new and hey if it is one and not the other it never hurts to have a spare part laying around as anyone with a dsm will tell you our cars love breaking