1997 GS-T Stalling on Long Left Turns

[jdoherty420]

I am having an issue with my 1997 Eclipse GS-T. My issue is that when taking a long left turn (Highways, Off Ramps, Rotary's, etc) my engine will stall out. Sometimes it will start right back up on its own without me touching anything and continue driving, other times I have to engage the clutch and wait till the motor stops rotating (Engine rotates because car is in gear during stall) and restart it myself. It doesn't always start right away, sometimes I have to wait a few minutes or so before it starts. When the motor restarts on its own it's not like a bump start, it restarts smoothly as if I just turned the key. Sometimes when it restarts on it's own I will get a couple loud pops out the tail pipe, not every time though. Sometimes it doesn't fully stall, my tach will drop and the car will buck and go right back to normal. Only the tach drops out, the rest of the gauges stay working with no abnormal readings. The stalling does happen sometimes while driving straight and right turns but not as much as it does while turning left. This problem doesn't happen all the time, in fact its quite random when it does. The past two weeks it hasn't happened once till a 2 hour drive today around a long left corner on the highway. It almost seems as if I am losing spark to the cylinders. The reason I believe that it has to do with the ignition system is because of the loud pops I get out my tail pipe when it restarts. In my mind the pops are the excess fuel that fills the cylinders when/if the ignition system shuts down and burns up when the ignition system starts back up. I also have this random misfire going on as well. When I'm cruising around 3000+ RPM the engine will start misfiring completely until I restart the car or engage the clutch and let it drop to idle for a second or two. This problem is very random as well and does not happen all the time. Once and a while I will have the stall, restart right into the misfire but that does not happen very often. I have P0300 Random misfire code and P0505 IAC Motor Malfunction code. The stalling started happening after I rebuilt my cylinder head after burning an exhaust valve. The misfiring was there before I did the head. During the rebuild I did a light port and polish job myself (Gasket Matched Ports, Smoothed Out Ports and Bowls, Ground Intake Valve Guides Flush), 3 Angle Valve Job, & Oil Port Mod to the head. I replaced my intake cam because the one that was in there was to small and was bouncing around in the cam bearing/mounts (For lack of a better term, Brain fart on correct term). I also replaced my Crank Sensor and Spark Plugs as well. As well as install a 1g BOV. This issue is boggling my mind, I'm at the point where I wish it would just completely shut down so I can figure it out in my drive way. As of now the issue does not happen at idle so I'm having a hard time diagnosing it, pretty much just have theory's at the moment. Any input, opinions or advise would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping someone out there has had a similar issue to what I have going on. Thank You for your time, Have a great day.

 

[MALaCasse]

The stalling around corners sounds like a lack of fuel issue but the backfiring that it is doing contradicts that. You might have more than one problem. My first guess would be to check your fuel pump hanger and make sure that the pump is still in the hanger correctly. Sounds like it's possibly moving when you make a turn and either pinching one of the rubber lines or somehow coming un-submerged. Do you have a fuel pressure gauge? You mentioned that it has been taking a few hours before doing it now. Is when your fuel is low? If so that would make the hanger theory a little more valid. Let us know what you find out.

 

[Daveregs]

The baffles in your tank can also be broken and clog up the pump when the move around. I've seen it before. But def. check the position of your fuel pump first before anything

 

[zkheasley]

It may be worth a few minutes to check the connections to your coil pack, transistor and fuel pump.

 

[jdoherty420]

Thank you guys for your advice, every thought is greatly appreciated. I don't have a fuel pressure gauge installed in the car, I do have a fuel pressure gauge tester kit but it doesn't come with a very long hose so its only really good for testing fuel pressure in the driveway. At idle I have good pressure, but this issue never happens at idle in the driveway, even though i really wish it would. I can get the random misfire to happen very rarely in the driveway if I hold the revs up around 3k+. As far as how full my tank is, that has never really seemed to make a difference. Its the same whether I have a full tank or if I'm close to empty, granted I try to never let it get below a 1/4 but there has been a few exceptions. I will be sure to pull out the pump and check it out to make sure everything is OK or not and get back to you guys as soon as I get the chance. How could the baffles break off inside the tank? Just old age? If That's the case I'll have to replace the whole tank correct? If so I may just get my self a racing fuel cell and go that route sooner than I planned to. Only thing with the fuel idea is that this issue came about after rebuilding the head. I did install a new fuel filter, along with new injector O-rings and seals. As soon as I pulled the injectors I capped them off and bagged them keeping track of what cylinder they came from. I made sure the caps and bags for the injectors were crystal clean. I have swapped around coil packs and transistors with the extra ones I have and that made no difference. Unless all the ones I have are faulty, which could be possible. I do tend to have terrible luck.

There is one thing I forgot to mention in my original post. I swapped out my power steering pump because my original one was leaking. Is there any chance that that 1 wire switch in the pump that's suppose to kick up the idle when the pump is working could cause this issue? Is that actually what that little thing does? I always thought it just monitored pressure as a fail safe for the system in case it built up to much pressure and opened a little bypass valve to relief excess pressure or something. I came across this post on a Facebook DSM page where the kid broke the blue wire installing his alternator, and one of the comments said that it kicked up the RPM's during turns to keep from stalling. But even still, how would that cause the car not to start back up right away sometimes.

I do think it is more of an ignition issue over a fuel issue because of the back firing. Just makes me think its still getting fuel and losing spark. Then when the ignition system kicks back in all the excess fuel burns up and pops out the tailpipe. Is it possible that my crank or cam sensor could be glitching or something of that sort? Especially with the random misfire that goes away when I shut down and restart or let the RPM's drop to idle. But even with that i would think it would throw another code other than the P0300.

Like I said this issue is driving me bananas, I greatly appreciate your guys input and I will be sure to check out your ideas and get back to you with my findings as soon as I can, most likely this weekend if I have time. If you guys come up with any other thoughts please share them no matter how small they may be.

 

[jdoherty420]

I'll try to get it on video and post it up on here so you guys can get a better idea of the whole situation. Thanks again you guys. Have a great one.

 

[jdoherty420]

**Skeptical Fix**So yesterday I did 10 laps around my local rotary where it usually always has the issue happen about half way around the rotary after entering. No stalling, car ran fine with out any issues. I even did 3 more laps about 20-30 mins later. For sh*ts and giggles I swapped out the power steering pump out to the original one. Wasn't actually leaking, was the hose leaking. I thought the front seal went and was just being tossed around by the belt. Just had to heli coil one of the mounting holes. Needless to say some how the pump was causing, at least so far. It's been a week today that I swapped it out. I'm still really skeptical about it, I feel like it's just hiding for now and will happen any day now. I still can't imagine how that could be the cause, I'm guessing it had to do with that little one wire switch. The pump felt fine,no binding or tight spots when spinning the pulley. I am still having the random misfire though, that has been there since before head. I did a boost leak test yesterday, I had to tighten a couple clamps slightly and still have the leak at my throttle body, all small slow leaks. I just picked up a 1g throttle body so hopefully that swap will fix the TB leak and add slight gain in power. If it leaks I will just have to grab another or rebuild it. I think I've already said that I've swapped coils, the transistor,plugs and done multiple wiggle tests to try and eliminate this random misfire. I'm swapping the wire set out tonight with a set I just picked up. It happens around 2800-3000 rpms and above and goes away if I clutch in and let it drop to idle for a second or cycle the key of and on once. Some days it happens a lot, some days once, some days it doesn't happen at all. Wet or dry weather makes no difference, it's just completely random. Throws P0300 Random Multiple Misfire code. I put in a new crank sensor when i did the head thinking that was the problem but no change. Any ideas, advice, or stories would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your time.