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code 44

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InFlames

20+ Year Contributor
445
0
Mar 7, 2002
Long Island, New_York
i have a code 44(coil pack/power transistor) but there is no CEL. My car runs a little funny, when i down shift it's a little choppy, feels like a vacuum leak or something (it's not though). Could this be the beginning of leaky ECU capacitors? Or is it really the the coil pack?
 
Sorry, i should have put this in the repair/maintenance forum- i'm tired!!
 
Try unplugging the transistor pack, blowing the connections, and plugging it back in. Sometimes the contacts get a little dirty. A code 44 won't give you a CEL, because it is not considered detrimental. Other than that, it could be an intermittently bad coil or transistor.

AWDriven.
 
I have had a stored code 44 showing on my datalogger for a while. My car misfires at idle. I changed out the coil pack and resistor with another used one and it didnt change anything.

Today when I was driving I was sitting at a stoplight and my car sounded like it was running on two cylinders and the check engine light came on. I quickly plugged in my datalogger and it was showing a current code 44. So I turned off the car and then turned it back on and everything was fine again.

If anyone knows what the problem could be please let me know.

Thanks,

Brian
 
Sorry to dig up an old thread, but are there any updates here? I'm having the same problem and a code 44. Let us know if you figured it out.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
Also experiencing the same problems. Was there ever a resolution to CODE 44? So far, I've tested my coil pack and power transistor per haynes manual. I've also switched ECU's and re gapped my plugs to .032". This issue is on a 1990 DSM with a 2g MAF. I've also switched out the MAF with another 2g MAF. I can't seem to get rid of the problem.

After the car gets warmed up, the car looses power. Tach goes screwy and I loose tons of power. When the check engine light is on, it seems to cut the RPM reading in half. I've read several posts and seems like no one has come up with a solution to this problem. Anymore input?
 
After the car gets warmed up, the car looses power. Tach goes screwy and I loose tons of power. When the check engine light is on, it seems to cut the RPM reading in half.

That indicates that you are loosing half of the cylinders. It may be a bad coil getting hot and opening up, a bad PTM, a bad ECU or the wiring in between.

Guys that see a 44 without the matching loss of power may just be loosing the signal from the coil pack (90) or PTM that the ECU looks at to see that the coil fired.

Since a 44 code is stored, having it in the ECU without a CEL means it happened in the past but isn't currently happening.
 
i had this happen to me yesterday. i was driving at about 65, and it dropped down to 2 cylinders and threw code 44. i replaced the coil packs and it worked fine for about 45 minutes and then the same thing happened again. i thought it might just be heating up and losing a connection but i cleaned the terminals and waited for it to cool down overnight, but when i tried starting it this morning it didnt come back. it threw the code right away and only ran 2 cylinders. i dont think my luck is bad enough that i blew 2 coil packs back to back like that, but i guess it is possible. does anyone know what would cause that to happen???
 
thats what i'm wondering. i've heard people say that the CAS could cause things like this to happen, but then i must ask why it throws the ignition coil code, and NOT the CAS code 22. i've also heard that the capacitors in the ECU leaking will cause a code 44 to appear and this to happen. BUT i have a rebuilt ECU from motoguys garage, and that about the most credible supplier of these that i know of, and its only a couple months old, so i REALLY dont see that being the issue here.
 
Well according to the Haynes manual it could be either the coil or the transistor pack or the harness. I was looking at the circuit diagrams today and it seems like a wiring problem around any of these could screw things up. In Alldatadiy.com, the diagnostics for code 44 says:

TROUBLESHOOTING HINTS
A short or open wire in the ignition system will be accompanied by various problems.
 
Maybe third or fourth most.

well i did say that i know of. either way, i'd give it more credit than a month.

thats not quite fixing my car though, and i needed to have it running again by yesterday, so i'm already behind and still have no clue what my problem is. as common as this seems to have been, no one seems to have a reliable solution to it...
 
i needed to have it running again by yesterday, so i'm already behind and still have no clue what my problem is.

So you said you changed coils before. What did you find wrong with them to begin with and what test are they failing now?

What else have you done?

The coils are pretty robust, far more than the power transistor unit or 17 years old wires.

You haven't really provided much to work with.
 
i have in the thread i started about this, but anyway... i changed the coil pack at my schools shop when the car started running bad because i saw the code 44 and made a quick assumption that a coil went bad. i know this probably wasn't the best assumption, but i was on a short time frame and had to get it running to make it home since i live an hour away from the school. got another coil from a junkyard nearby and put it on. car started fine, ran like it always has. Obviously i thought i'd solved it, but when i started driving home, after about 45 minutes it dropped down to 2 again. outer 2 fire fine, center 2 misfire. Plugs were changed about a month ago, havent done the wires because i didnt have the money but they look new, and i ohm'd them out and they tested great, no problems with them. To my surprise, the coil pack i removed tested fine, and so did the replacement. At this point i thought the coil might have some kind of problem with heat, since both had failed after about 45 minutes of driving that day. ruled that out because on a cold morning start it still wont run. as i said the ECU was replaced not long before my plugs, making it about a month and a half old. doubt it's failing already. Center two definatly misfire, because when i removed the two center plug wires and just let it run the other two the car ran better (not good obviously, but better than when all 4 were hooked up). I've tried to dig up alot of info about this on here, and i've seen alot referring to the CAS, however if that were the case why wouldn't i see a code 22 instead? i think i've covered everything now.

to sum up:
GOOD
-Plugs
-ECU
-Plug Wires
-Coil Pack (according to all the haynes manual tests)

What am i missing?
 
I don't see anything about the power transistor module that drives the coils and generates the signal for the tach and ECU. The loss of that signal after each ignition event is what triggers the CEL 44 error.

People often report that they were missing the wire clip that holds the connector on the PTM and it was loose, others that the PTM was bad.

The PTM is bolted to the side of the intake manifold below the coil pack on a 1G.
 
In my case the problem isn't yet fixed. I know there's a loose connection at the ignition coil harness (yellow tab at the coil side connection is broken). The first time I opened it up there was a thin oil coating on the plastic on the connector side, which couldn't have been good. I don't see a wire clip on the PTM harness. The problem somehow seemed to me to have something to do with the fuel injection system (I know the two circuits are connected) but that's not entirely it. I hadn't seen the CEL 44 in several days but it came up again today.
 
symptoms other than the CEL? right now i would just suggest fixing the wire on the coil, as i've suggested to alot of people, get a haynes manual... it didnt help me figure out what to check to fix it unfortunately, but that's what this is here for. It did have quite a few usefull tests in it though to determine if the parts are good or bad, so pick up one of those and a volt/ohm meter if you don't have one available, and test the PTM and the coil pack.

need more info though, symptoms, new parts, etc.
 
I have a Haynes manual and both an analog and digital voltmeter. I recently installed new spark plug wires, but the connections to the coil pack keep getting loose. By the way the Haynes manual says there are only three bolts on the coil pack on 1G's. The main other symptom right now is high idle and a minor idle surge at startup especially at cold start. The first time I saw the CEL44, there was also CEL41 and CEL43, but at this point it's only throwing CEL44. A couple of times after the CEL44, I've plugged in a diagnostic cable and Palm/MMCD and probed the injectors, and injector #4 sounds rough compared to the others.

FYI about your previous remarks about the CAS, the CAS circuit is also closely connected to the ignition coil circuit. There's a power line coming out of the ECU that feeds both.
 
By the way the Haynes manual says there are only three bolts on the coil pack on 1G's.

You can see where i ran into the problem here, there is indeed another one. Your problems sound almost exactly like mine do, so that's why i'm betting transistor. This wont cure the idle surge, but there are quite a few threads and websites about that already that you could probably locate, and yes mine does that too. i've seen 4 things so far that are said to cause the surge. Bad EGR valve (block off to fix) Throttle body plate leak (dirty, needs cleaned) BISS (adjust/replace) and the ISC motor (replace). you can find more info about each of these elsewhere or talk to me and i'll do what i can to help explain them better. for now you need to check the transistor though (it does only have 3 bolts) and go from there.
 
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