Prubingst's 1995 Eclipse GS-T

[chrysler kid]

This weekend was a washout and work has been crazy so I hadn’t had much of a chance to actually drive the GST much in the last week and really want to get some more miles in before salt hits the roads in a few months. I’m determined to keep this car in great shape and hopefully hang onto it for a long time. So I did a late night grocery run last night and took some night shots for fun.

You’ll notice in one shot of the gauges the EGT is pinned on 12. That was at a stop with the car running for maybe 10 mins just to get warm. I highly distrust the readings. no way it’s that hot. It jumps around a lot and generally while driving, and so funny stuff like bounce between 6-12 when my right hand turning signal is on. I believe the gauges are somewhat wired into the steering column wiring so something else to inspect/redo over time. I’ve had these same gauges in my two other DSMs and tapped the wires that run along the driver side floor. Never had this issue with previous EGTs. Could be a faulty probe on the exhaust manifold but seems more like a wiring issue based on the behavior.

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I've never liked the egt sensors. really its just a delayed reading of afr. I wouldnt be worried about it, if you are running a t25 it would be impossible to cook the motor unless you had a bad injector. I've attempted to max out a t25 and the most it will do it 19psi for about 5 seconds then taper back to 12 psi

 

[prubingst]

Yup highlight doubt I have anything to worry about with the current setup. Now that you mentioned T25… I’m not exactly sure this car is running a T25 anymore. It’s been a while since my last DSM but it looks a little bigger than I remember and had an external WG. At least from looking down thru the engine bay I can’t find any markings to identify it. Once I get a jack and stands I’ll get under and take some pics

 

[prubingst]

While cleaning the kid hauler today I decided to clean the glass

 

[prubingst]

And now the drivers side carpet has been cleaned. I used a drill with brush attachment and by hand it the tough to reach spots. Folex for most of it, working from behind the drivers seat forward. In the drivers footwell for the more stubborn spots I used Folex + Chemical Guys Fabric clean. FWIW I think the Folex gives a better result. So that’s a wrap on the full interior cleaning of the cabin. Before and afters…

 

[prubingst]

Next up I want to address these controls that won’t seem to stay in the dash. I tried a 3M double sided tape but it was obvious looking so I’ll need to try either a different tape that is thinner, fix in another way, or look for a replacment. You can see some of the clips have broken

 

[prubingst]

Just got my car back this weekend from a solid local shop. The passenger front axle had never been replaced during a recall (not sure how to square that up with carfax ), and it was time to do the driver's front axle too. When taking slow turns, you could hear the axle make a "bop-bop-bop-bop" noise until the wheels straightened out. This job is beyond my current skills/tools/space so opted for a pro job. All fixed and driving great. While I was at it, I had the the oil return line gaskets replaced. SO now that it's back home I got a wash in and fresh coat of wax. The weather is changing here so need to do this stuff before it gets too cold out. Looking forward to the long weekend coming up and hopefully getting some time to finish my interior clean up. Just have the carpet pad in the trunk left to go

 

[bo0st2]

Shocked to see those seats, they're in such great shape for being so old. You should've seen my 95 seats, had to replace the driver seat it was so bad, you got a clean build there!

 

[prubingst]

Shocked to see those seats, they're in such great shape for being so old. You should've seen my 95 seats, had to replace the driver seat it was so bad, you got a clean build there!

Thanks bo0st2. you're right. these seats cleaned up very nicely. They hadn't been cleaned in a while so lots of brown gunk came out of the leather with a cleaner. I used a leather conditioner on them and they soaked it right up and feel/smell great now. I used wolfgang products on both steps. There's some wear on the drivers bolster that I'll come back to later on for a repair, but it doesn't bother me much.

 

[pauleyman]

Thanks bo0st2. you're right. these seats cleaned up very nicely. They hadn't been cleaned in a while so lots of brown gunk came out of the leather with a cleaner. I used a leather conditioner on them and they soaked it right up and feel/smell great now. I used wolfgang products on both steps. There's some wear on the drivers bolster that I'll come back to later on for a repair, but it doesn't bother me much.

Got any before and after pics. My newly acquired 95 has good seats but I want to clean and condition. I haven't owned leather in a long long time.

 

[prubingst]

Got any before and after pics. My newly acquired 95 has good seats but I want to clean and condition. I haven't owned leather in a long long time.

Yup @pauleyman here’s some 50/50 pics you can see in the “dirty” side the leather color is a touch darker and much shinier. That’s all skin oils etc. the cleaned side is lighter and had a more matte-ish look. That last pic of the full seat is after conditioning

 

[pauleyman]

Exactly what I needed. My seats are very similar in condition. Grey also.

 

[jesse12345]

I love that red! I used to have a 95 gsx that looked exactly like yours in 2014. Unfortunately it died from rust. Keep up the great work preserving that beauty.

 

[prubingst]

I love that red! I used to have a 95 gsx that looked exactly like yours in 2014. Unfortunately it died from rust. Keep up the great work preserving that beauty.

Thanks man! Red eclipses have a certain nostalgia for me. I purchased my first DSM at 16 after working my a** off on double shifts and saving to buy on my own. I bought a red 1998 GST from Texas that had 85K miles at the time in 2002. I later sold it to buy a black 1998 GSX. Both tons of fun and gave me the DSM bug, but I always missed that red GST.

I've got the next few days off at work and eyeing some sales at Harbor Freight towards the next few resto-projects on this guy

 

[prubingst]

Ok been a bit harder with the holidays to get time to work on the GST but made some more progress this week. I received a new fog light control with all the clips (thanks @jersygsx). To preface, my dash pad has some warping from what I assume is from being outside in the sun for a while. So the fitment isn’t perfectly flush but MUCH better. I’ll probably shave down some of the inner lip to get it more flush, but not go overboard. Hopefully this stops the control from falling out while driving

 

[prubingst]

Our town decided to heavily salt the roads for all of a half inch of snow, so the eclipse is parked for a while. But on the flips side Santa was good to me New oem Horn, NGK plugs and wires…and new floor mats on the way.

 

[chrisman287]

Our town decided to heavily salt the roads for all of a half inch of snow, so the eclipse is parked for a while.

What part of Jersey are you from?

 

[prubingst]

What part of Jersey are you from?

We’re in Madison. Are you in Jersey too?

 

[chrisman287]

We’re in Madison. Are you in Jersey too?

I’m an hour away in NY!

 

[prubingst]

I’m an hour away in NY!

Nice! I grew up about 1.5 hrs north in NY. you might be close to there. I'll PM you

 

[prubingst]

Some good news and some bad from the last few days

Good news: we got a few inches of rain and that washed the salt away. And my floor mats came in. I’m really happy with the color match and fitment. I used Auto Custom Carpets via a seller on eBay. Samples came quick and I landed on Mist Gray as the closest match

Bad news:
Started the car up on NYE to enjoy the salt-free roads and noticed when it was warming up the idle sounded rougher, almost like I had cams. There was some moisture out the back of the exhaust. A/F was reading lean. Took the car out and it was struggling to make power and felt like (as I remember it from back when) a big boost leak. The car would bog unless I gave it more gas. I could hear the turbo spool, but little power. At a stop idle would drop to about 600 RPM. Unless I was at WOT the AF gauge read lean. During the drive it there a CEL. Brought the car home pretty quickly after that.

I thought next that maybe with the temperature swing something funky was going on so I cleared the CEL to see if it would behave normally again…nope. Next 3 days I’ve started it, warmed up, went out for a drive and same behavior. But it hasn’t thrown the CEL again (yet)

I’m very confused what the issue is. I literally have done nothing to the car within the last two weeks aside from back it out every 2-3 days, run it till warm then put it back in the garage. For context this day had a temperature swing of about 20 degrees warmer from the previous few weeks and the garage was damp.

I’ve had a hunch for a while there’s been a potential boost leak given the age and just general feel of the car compared to my past experience. But after some research it could be a number of things. Potentially fuel system related, bad O2 sensor, or maybe something else idk.

Not sure what the next step is but probably will be a boost leak test. That seems to be what most of the guidance is on here for similar symptoms but def open for suggestions!

 

[jesse12345]

I was going to order those same mats on ebay, they will send you samples?? How is the quality of them? The cars still looking awesome by the way!

 

[prubingst]

I was going to order those same mats on ebay, they will send you samples?? How is the quality of them? The cars still looking awesome by the way!

Thanks man! I really like the look too. Oh yea - i just PM'd the seller to ask for the samples I wanted and they came in 3-4 days, at no cost. There we 3 shades of gray i asked for and Mist Gray was the best match to my carpet. I've only had them for a few days, but the quality feels very good to me. Texture is close to OEM. I like that the edges are binded in leather, and the back side is rubberized with those little knobs that help keep them in place.

 

[jesse12345]

Awesome thanks for the reply. If you think there worth the price and the quality is close to factory I will definitely buy some. I've had bad luck on ebay and their floor mats.

 

[prubingst]

Awesome thanks for the reply. If you think there worth the price and the quality is close to factory I will definitely buy some. I've had bad luck on ebay and their floor mats.

Yep I’m happy with them. Maybe I lucked out. I’ll PM you the seller

 

[chrysler kid]

what's the code on the check engine light?