Intermittent fuel issue

[autoxr37]

My 1997 Eclipse GS-T with stock fuel system has been acting very strange since last season. Sometimes when I go to start it idles like it's running on 2 cylinders for about 2 or 3 seconds and then just dies. This happened to me the other morning so I took my other car to work. The next morning I tried starting the eclipse and it fired up and idled smooth as butter. It's as if there was nothing wrong.

Today It drove fine to work. I go to leave for lunch and it idles horribly again. You give it gas and it may rev up a little but then will die, all the while sounding like it's running on 2 cylinders.

Other things to note, the car has 80k on it, and I changed the fuel filter at 50k. Stock fuel system, stock turbo.

Co-workers have suggested that I got some bad gas last year and it's clogging up the filter. If that were the case I would almost expect it to not want to start at all.

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

 

[DSM90AWD]

Possible a combination of a boost leak and the FPR solunoid that normally boosts fuel pressure at startup is making your car too rich at start and fouling the plugs. Also, may be the plugs themselves. Platinum plugs should never be used as the small electrode will foul easilyon the super-rich AFRs our cars run. Only the OEM NGK Coppers.

Also, as each coil lights two cyls, if two cyls are going out, may be a coil transistor or ECU problem

 

[DJYoshaBYD]

^^^ ooo yeah.... exactly what I would say... maybe check the caps in the ecu as well.. they are known for going bad in these cars...

 

[super97gst]

^^^ ooo yeah.... exactly what I would say... maybe check the caps in the ecu as well.. they are known for going bad in these cars...

1G's mostly have the leaky cap problems. but it's not completely unknown for that to occur on a 2G.

are you getting a CEL?? if so it's very possible it's gonna throw a po300. the po300 code always seems to arise from this sort of thing. if you're not getting a code you need to start a diagnosis. there are lots of things that can cause this exact scenario. use a multimeter set on ohms to test these different parts.

CAS
CPS
Ignition coil pack
Ignition power transistor
Coolant temp. sensor
Fuel pressure solenoid
TPS

check the continuity and resistance of your spark plug wires. as stated before, bad spark plugs are often the guilty culprit. if you can't find the problem after testing these things a compression test is in order. it's less likely but if the timing has gotten off these problems surface, so pull your top cover off your timing belt and check that you have no broken timing belt teeth, which can make it jump time a tooth. if all this fails turn to the ecu or the mas.