Hesitation after new air filter

tybucki · Apr 26, 2011

OK so I picked up a 91 Eclipse GS with a 1.8 last weekend from an impound auction. After I took care of registration titling etc etc it was time for the tune up. New plugs, oil, and filter saturday, new wires and a K&N air filter monday. I installed the air filter in the parking lot when I bought it and headed home. After about 15 minutes I was off the freeway and back on surface streets and noticed several bouts of hesitation with the engine dropping RPMs while driving for a few seconds and then it stopped and did it again a few more times before I got home. I was home for about an hour and a half before I went to work and the problem did not resurface on the drive to work or the drive home from work. Not sure wether its relevant but the clutch was empty when I bought the car so I had to bleed it and I'm not sure if I got it completely bled so not sure if that has anything to do with it either. Any ideas :confused:

DSM1G90 · Jun 3, 2011

...are they BPR6ES or BPR6ES-11's? There's a BIG difference between the two plugs and gapping the "ES' to .044 isn't the answer. Hope that you forgot to add "11' in your comment above.

If you're gonna do the motor swap, plan on doing the harness and ECU as well, for the 4G37 harness will NOT work with the 4G63 in any shape or form. And even then, you'd be in the same pickle with that K&N letting in too much air on that 4G63.

Trust me, I tried a K&N on my Laser and I went from smooth riding to hesitiation problems due to that I'm stock with no engine management devices attached. Yes, I got a bit more power on the takeoff due to more air going in, but I maxed out the setpoints on the A/F ratio due to that and on the top end, it was running horrible due to running lean. Thus, I ate that filter bad and went back to stock and got my smooth riding again. - "Live and Learn"

Maybe find a friend or somebody who would want to buy that filter from you to make it easy on you from the beginning ...

Then hit the pavement again, this time fresh with better steps that you can find on here to go by.

Good luck-DSM

tybucki · Jun 4, 2011

Got the plugs from napa they are listed as the OE part and intructions for gapping is .044 so I'm sure they're fine. I put the stock airfilter back on yesterday and it made the car run worse again so I put the K&N back on but it didnt do anything for me either so I'm thinkin maybe I need to leave the stock on for a week or so and let the ECU readjust? My clutch is still losing fluid unfortunately though it shifts better with the new slave cylinder. I got up under the car and it appears the clutch fluid is leaking from the bottom of the tranny where it mates up to the engine. Which is to say that's where the fluid is coming out not sure where the leak is originating from though. I just really need to find a parts car soon so I can swap out the engine/tranny before winter.

DSM1G90 · Jun 4, 2011

...dang, sure that is not brake fluid instead of motor oil, for I get scared seeing that if a possible rear main seal has decided to let go.

On the ECU issue: It does take a while for the system to remap itself, but the best thing to make it easy is to disconnect the negative cable from the battery for a good minute or two, then reconnect.

This resets the ECU to get ready for remapping.

Good luck - DSM

tybucki · Jun 4, 2011

%100 sure the fluid comin out of the tranny is the brake fluid i put in the clutch. has a very distinct smell to it

i hate disconnecting the battery cause then i gotta reset my darn radio :X

DSM1G90 · Jun 4, 2011

...hope you don't have a pinched fluid line that cracked on you, esp where the compression ring is at, as it goes into the slave sylinder, for that sucks when the compression ring cuts into the line.

tybucki · Jun 9, 2011

ok so i reset the ECU and put the stock filter back on and its been running pretty ok the last few days and i havent had to add any fluid to the clutch either so i'm hoping what leaked out was what was left over prior to the slave replacement but i'm never that lucky i'm sure its something that'll be a PITA to fix and i'll end up just feeding the clutch everyweek until i get around to swapping in an engine and tranny upgrade

DSM1G90 · Jun 9, 2011

Yea, my '91 base Eclipse is a Calif Eclipse with the EGR that the temp sensor has crapped out which draws a CEL.
I put a 65K ohm resistor across the sensor leads to fool the ECU that the sensor is still working so the CEL light stays off.... and Ive blocked off the EGR with a plate that I built.

PieEyedPiper · Jun 12, 2011

Leaking hydraulics are not the cause and cannot cause the hesitation or idle problem you are describing. It was always your master cylinder leaking, not the slave. Most often when the resevoir is dry it's because the master leaked it all out into the cabin. Sometimes a guy is surprised by a nice puddle or traces underneath the driver's side carpeting at the firewall.
You'd know the slave was bad because if you even bumped it with your hand you'd likely get splashed with brake fluid that had leaked past the piston's seal and started to fill that bellows boot. $15 for a slave replacement is cheap insurance however.

Also, is there any other corroborating evidence than a cone filter on an NA DSM is bad-news-bears? They're not subarus or anything and the 3 peak hp increase from using a cone filter on that application should hardly be overrunning the stock fuel system.

OP, have you cleaned your maf? It's a long shot but if your IM and Tb were that filthy..

tybucki · Jun 13, 2011

OK so I haven't had to add any fluid to the clutch in a while now so I'm pretty sure the leak has stopped, still a little fluid on the bottom of the tranny/engine mating point but there's always the chance it's left over from the leak and the problem was never the master cylinder, no leakage or evidence of in the cabin, and there was fluid leakage into the slave cylinder bellows boot I thought I had said that earlier. It is idling ok now, like I said I don't expect perfect idle from a 20 year old car with 282k miles on it, but it does still occasionally do the surge thing while I'm driving it around town but if I press in on the clutch it stops surging and runs smoothly. So now I'm thinking I may have a tranny goin bad, which since I am planning on swapping in a 2.0 to replace the sad little 1.8 thats in it now I would need to swap out the tranny too anyway so hoping it holds together long enough for me to get the new guts into the car. As for the K&N being too much for the car I never really noticed any problems when I was using it and have been thinking of swapping it back in since I was getting slightly better MPG while it was in and with gas at $4 a gallon...

PieEyedPiper · Jun 13, 2011

tybucki said:
OK so I haven't had to add any fluid to the clutch in a while now so I'm pretty sure the leak has stopped, still a little fluid on the bottom of the tranny/engine mating point but there's always the chance it's left over from the leak and the problem was never the master cylinder, no leakage or evidence of in the cabin, and there was fluid leakage into the slave cylinder bellows boot I thought I had said that earlier. It is idling ok now, like I said I don't expect perfect idle from a 20 year old car with 282k miles on it, but it does still occasionally do the surge thing while I'm driving it around town but if I press in on the clutch it stops surging and runs smoothly. So now I'm thinking I may have a tranny goin bad, which since I am planning on swapping in a 2.0 to replace the sad little 1.8 thats in it now I would need to swap out the tranny too anyway so hoping it holds together long enough for me to get the new guts into the car. As for the K&N being too much for the car I never really noticed any problems when I was using it and have been thinking of swapping it back in since I was getting slightly better MPG while it was in and with gas at $4 a gallon...

Glad you've got your hydraulics all figured out. I didn't see you state that the slave was full of fluid only that you were still leaking fluid after the replacement - hence the master cylinder assumption.

Can you get a picture of the leaking area? It can't be brake/clutch fluid.. hopefully your rear main seal hasn't gone to waste.

I do not believe that because the hesitation goes away after your depress the clutch that it means the tranny is causing your problem. However, swapping in a new engine will likely have an effect.

tybucki · Jun 16, 2011

In a related drivability topic for my car, I recently perused a thread on manual tranny fluids and saw some interesting links on minor shifter issues and mods. My car grinds going into gear occasionaly, no it's not me it's the car, and one of the mods/fixes was to address grinding when going into 1/3/5 or 2/4/R but mine grinds in all gears after the car warms up. As I've stated before my car has upwards of 282k miles on it so I'm thinking that if the tranny fluid has never been changed or at least not changed recently then it is possible that the old fluid looses viscosity/lubrication as it breaks down in the increased heat and might it not help considerably if I were to change the tranny fluid to the apparently highly reccomended Redline blend or something along those lines?

joOse · Jun 16, 2011

I recommend royal purple ftw! All of my gears were grinding as well and hard to shift. I upgraded the shift plate bushings to a solid symborski kit, replaced shift lever bushings with teflon ones, replaced the shift end cable bushings with skateboard bearings, and properly adjusted the cable lengths and my gears were still slightly grinding? I changed the tranny fluid and used royal purple and now she shifts smooth as butter! Its expensive but you can't go wrong with royal purple.

PieEyedPiper · Jun 16, 2011

You two are working pretty hard to derail this guy's thread, eh?

joOse · Jun 17, 2011

PieEyedPiper said:
You two are working pretty hard to derail this guy's thread, eh?

Haha!

The OP has done a pretty good job of derailing this thread himself, but you're right. Tybucki, any off topic questions from your original thread post will be answered much better and from a wider audience if you direct said topics to new threads.

tybucki · Jun 26, 2011

Thank you all for the advice. I'll remember to repost a new thread next time I have an issue with my car. From what I've seen it's not a matter of if just a matter of when.

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