Car Shuts Off & Restarts Randomly

[knblount]

Okay, so Thursday I went and bought a 1993 Eclipse. It has the 1.8 motor in it. Everything seemed fine, we test drove it and everything worked fine. Then on the drive home, after about 30 miles I noticed the tachometer would drop down to 0 and then shoot back up really quickly and the car would jerk a little every time this happened. Also, this isn't just tach losing power or anything, the engine is actually shutting off and restarting. This would only happen once every few minutes so I just kept on driving hoping it was nothing major. However, I was following my dad home in his truck and his truck had a problem so we had to stop and get it towed. So then we started back on the way home and as soon as we got on the highway the car started doing the same thing again except this time it would happen much more frequently. And then sometimes it would shut off and not restart itself automatically so we would have to pull over to the side of the road and then try to restart it, and sometimes it wouldn't start it would just crank so we would have to wait, and then, a few minutes later it would start and go for a couple of miles and then do the same thing again. This turned a 2 hour trip home into more of a 10 hour trip home.

Then yesterday I drove the car around to see if I could find out what exactly its doing, It only cuts out when i rev up to around 3 or 4 thousand. It will be working fine then when I rev it up to around 3 or 4 the revs drop as described above. I saw on here that it may be leaking caps in the ECU so I pulled it out and checked but there didn't appear to be any leaking so I don't think that's the problem. Also there is a squealing belt sound at startup. I don't think that has anything to do with the problem but I figured I might as well include it just in case. I really would like to figure out what's wrong so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[boostd_mitsu]

If it has a distributor then the puck up coil inside might be going out causing it to die and lose the tach signal and the momentum will start it back up when the coil gets power again or the crank sensor could be shorting out causeing what I said before. Are if that helps any

 

[knblount]

Thanks a lot. I'll check that out and let you know if it fixes it

 

[Lofty]

Loose positive battery terminal?

 

[knblount]

Both terminals seem to be on pretty good.

 

[gsx-box]

How old is the computer. Unless you changed the computer yourself. If you just got the car the capacitors could have been changed, but there is board damage.

It is either the computer, bad battery ground, internally shorting battery or alternator short.

However this here is classic computer needing a good rebuild.

"So then we started back on the way home and as soon as we got on the highway the car started doing the same thing again except this time it would happen much more frequently. And then sometimes it would shut off and not restart itself automatically so we would have to pull over to the side of the road and then try to restart it, and sometimes it wouldn't start it would just crank so we would have to wait, and then, a few minutes later it would start and go for a couple of miles and then do the same thing again. This turned a 2 hour trip home into more of a 10 hour trip home."

 

[steve]

However this here is classic computer needing a good rebuild.

"So then we started back on the way home and as soon as we got on the highway the car started doing the same thing again except this time it would happen much more frequently. And then sometimes it would shut off and not restart itself automatically so we would have to pull over to the side of the road and then try to restart it, and sometimes it wouldn't start it would just crank so we would have to wait, and then, a few minutes later it would start and go for a couple of miles and then do the same thing again. This turned a 2 hour trip home into more of a 10 hour trip home."

Very much the prototypical story of a ECU with leaking caps.

I get guys all the time that tell me that they didn't see anything wrong, until I point it out to them.

 

[knblount]

How do I tell if the ECU is damaged? And if it does need a rebuild how do I go about doing that?

 

[turbotsi92]

How do I tell if the ECU is damaged? And if it does need a rebuild how do I go about doing that?

Pull the cover off of the ECU, inspect it for any kind of dark spots. If the caps are leaking you will be able to tell in most cases.

Sometimes it is tough to tell though. It sounds like the ECU is the problem to me providing that you have checked your terminals and all that.

ECMLink can probably rebuild it for you. I am not sure with it being a 1.8L. If that is the problem I would check junk yards or Ebay. Those 1.8L ECUs have to be cheap to come by.

 

[knblount]

Well when I pulled it out the other day I didn't see any spots around the caps or anything and the traces looked okay. So I'm not sure.

 

[gsx-box]

"Okay, so Thursday I went and bought a 1993 Eclipse."

"Well when I pulled it out the other day I didn't see any spots around the caps or anything and the traces looked okay. So I'm not sure."

Since you have no history with the car this could have been a cheap rebuild. I got a shitty rebuild and it starts to go slowly even when the caps are new from acid left on the board.



Go with http://www.avproecm.com/ for $150 they can repair and less if I remember to get it tested and see if it checks out okay instead of just buying junk.

Likely the 1.8 would be there because of a bad computer

 

[Jimmyskrew face]

What about the ignition switch? Did you look into that?

 

[knblount]

Actually, I heard it may be the ignition switch from someone else but how would I go about checking if that's the problem?

 

[omdog]

I had that same exact problem to the T for months untill recently.. Until one day my car just didnt start at all. So i went to the auto parts store and i got new terminals, new battery, and plugs (the right kinds for our car the normal ngk shits NOT PLATINUM!!) and wires havent had a problem since. Also tighten that belt up mine went on me one day and made that symptom 10 times worse so it has somethin to do with it. Hopefully this helps you... good luck

 

[DeadsEvolution1]

Listen to the Wiseman, replace the ECU. My ecu had no visible issues wrong with it but when you spell it, it smelled like a leaking capacitor. you can go to a junk yard and find one cheap if needed. Anyways try the ECU sounds like it's failing

 

[knblount]

Well the car has been in the shop and I just talked to them and they think its the crank sensor?