420A Car randomly stalls and hesitates, check engine light comes on and then disappears

[flipsyde98]

For the past 6 months or so, my 2nd gen 420a Eclipse has been getting these random stalls when at low speeds or coming to a stop. When accelerating or at high speeds, I can feel hesitation and the car jolts a bit. During each of these times, the check engine light comes on for a very short time (about 2 seconds), and then disappears again. It's too short of a time to even hook up an OBD2 reader to it and read the code. Even when at low speeds and the car stalls, the check engine light disappears as soon as the car stalls. Trying to read the code after that just results in nothing on the computer.

I've changed the spark plugs and spark plug wires in the last 4 months or so, but this has been happening before that, and changing the spark plugs and wires didn't fix it. My vehicle profile will mention this, but the car is entirely stock.

It is never consistent either. Sometimes it can go days without this happening even once. Then other times it can stall 4+ times just trying to get out of a parking lot. Or it can get that engine hesitation and check engine light 3 or 4 times in a row within 30 seconds while driving it. But the light and code will always disappear within 1 or 2 seconds.

Any thoughts in areas to check?

 

[97egl]

I would try hooking up an OBD2 scanner and looking for historical or pending codes.

The other thing that could be happening is that your PCM is loosing power for a split second and the check engine light is coming on when it regains power and its doing the bulb check. I know the 2gNT cars have issues with the grounds going bad on the driver side inner fender so that's a free and easy thing to do is clean up the grounds in that area

 

[pauleyman]

Make sure you battery terminals are tight. The battery itself is bolted down and check to see any evidence it isn't hitting the hood and grounding out. I had this happen on a 4g63 car once. I had installed wing nuts on the battery and when I hit a bump the termial hit the hood and shoted for a second.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

I had this happen twice. The first time my problem was just a loose battery terminal. The second time it was the connector for my camshaft position sensor. It was broken and occasionally losing connection. When that happens you lose spark (ignition) completely. Which would make sense of the stalling and the check engine light scenario you described. Your check engine light will be illuminated with the ignition switch in the ON position but engine not running. When ignition is restored and the engine starts running again it will turn back off with no codes present. Even if it doesn't look broken at first glance I would unplug it completely and make sure it's cleaned then plug it back in and make sure the lock engages. That is a more rare occurrence but just as easy as checking a battery terminal so definitely worth looking into. Let us know what your problem was after you resolve it.