sputters, shakes a lil, and has no power

[josemuccino]

I have posted on other sites and no help. I have a 1995 Talon ESI non turbo with very little mods. (cold air intake, aftermarket exhaust, coil over racing suspension) I just bought this car 3 weeks ago and i knew there was something wrong with it when i bought it. previous owner told me he replaced the TPS, IAC, O2 sensor and a couple other things. he said it was running a lot worse that what it is now. The car will start fine, but run really rough. (sputters, shakes a lil, and has no power). Previous owner told me it needed a new ECU. I did some tests and had a mechanic come out to check it out with me. he said im running on 2 cylinders and its misfiring. i checked injectors and they work. checked for spark and theres plenty. i put new plugs in it just the other day. now heres the weird thing. it will run rough all the time, then sometimes i will shut the car off and restart it after a few seconds, and it runs fine. when it runs fine, i have power, and i check the injectors(by unplugging them one by one) and they are fine. so its running on 4 cylinders only half the time. Is that my PCM/ECU? any help would be greatly appreciated, i really like my dsm and have a lot of plans for it. i would like to get this fixed. i have done A LOT of research and it is giving me so many areas to look at, but it seems like its electrical. Also just to add my battery thats in it is very old. dash lights and headlights are very dim. could that cause anything? please help me guys..


Also to add, i been going to the car on and off and starting it and checking things as i go along, and half the time the injectors work, and half the time they don't. when they don't, i unplug the plug wire from the plug and i can see that the coil is sending spark. bunch of clicking sound, and when i put the boot near anything metal it sparks, then i checked resistance on the injectors and it checked out fine. I am so lost i don't know what to replace or what to look for now... PLEASE HELP!!!!!

 

[josemuccino]

ok so the shop called, and you guys were right my timing was off by 3 teeth. also my coil pack was sending very week spark to cylinders 2 and 4. i will have a complete update tomorrow but so far they think thats all it is. you guys are great, and im prayin my dsm will be a beast once again as of tomorrow.

 

[GSXSixteenG]

Might as well throw a new timing belt on. Good luck man.

 

[gsxspooling]

Might wanna check the transistor pack or the coil pack. this happend on my 1g

Sicotic might be onto something Sounds like arching cable wires. I'd borrow a set from a friend and give it a try.

 

[josemuccino]

so update...

they fixed the timing and it wasnt the coil pack. coil pack checked out fine and so did everything else. but they said i have really low fuel pressure which might be caused by how i put in the fuel pump. they are checking it out and dropping the tank to check all the lines. But i wont see my DSM till tuesday.. but hopefully they will find and fix...

 

[josemuccino]

so a week and a half, and $600.00 later, still no change. they dropped the tank, changed the fuel pump, fixed the timing, cleaned the injectors, new fuel filter, and cleaned the tank. still loosing fuel pressure, and literally no change in the car's performance. i am loosing my mind. they did all this work and still same thing.it still loosing fuel pressure, and it falls on its face when driving.it drove fine for about 5 minutes, then it acted up. so i turn around and started to go back and i had my foot to the floor and it wouldnt do anything. so i turned car off, and turned back on, and it drove fine i guess for a couple more minutes. got it back to the shop and they looked pissed. . when i pulled in it was idle surging pretty bad, wouldnt go below 1800. They lookd at it and said they forgot a hose clamp on the intake so there was an air leak and thats why its idle surging. it sounded ok so i drove it again for another run. didnt even make it around the block before i turned back around. i told the mechanic that its still doing the same thing, and that he needed to drive it to see what im talking about. so he did. he didnt make it that far either. when he came back he hooked up a fuel pressure gauge and checked it. starts fine, for a minute then pressure drops as soon as it has a load put on it. so they didnt fix shit! $600.00 for them to fix the problem and they didnt fix anything, except for the timing alignment. wtf. i can't figure out what it could be. i don't want to but if this doesnt change im going to sell this car. any ideas guys? im loosing my mind, and im running out of money and patience. I really really dont want to sell this car.

 

[96eclipzGsT]

so a week and a half, and $600.00 later, still no change. they dropped the tank, changed the fuel pump, fixed the timing, cleaned the injectors, new fuel filter, and cleaned the tank. still loosing fuel pressure, and literally no change in the car's performance. i am loosing my mind. they did all this work and still same thing.it still loosing fuel pressure, and it falls on its face when driving.it drove fine for about 5 minutes, then it acted up. so i turn around and started to go back and i had my foot to the floor and it wouldnt do anything. so i turned car off, and turned back on, and it drove fine i guess for a couple more minutes. got it back to the shop and they looked pissed. . when i pulled in it was idle surging pretty bad, wouldnt go below 1800. They lookd at it and said they forgot a hose clamp on the intake so there was an air leak and thats why its idle surging. it sounded ok so i drove it again for another run. didnt even make it around the block before i turned back around. i told the mechanic that its still doing the same thing, and that he needed to drive it to see what im talking about. so he did. he didnt make it that far either. when he came back he hooked up a fuel pressure gauge and checked it. starts fine, for a minute then pressure drops as soon as it has a load put on it. so they didnt fix shit! $600.00 for them to fix the problem and they didnt fix anything, except for the timing alignment. wtf. i can't figure out what it could be. i don't want to but if this doesnt change im going to sell this car. any ideas guys? im loosing my mind, and im running out of money and patience. I really really dont want to sell this car.

Did they replace the fuel pressure regulator?

 

[One Equals Two]

Just to jump in, how about the voltage on the car? Not to state something totally off topic, but I mean, if you are running low volts (dying alternator), battery, etc, your car is going to run badly.

But, I have a guess, meaning that is really just sounds like there is something in your lines still. Explanation:

Start car, fuel starts flowing >>>>>>>> Runs fine.

Stuff>>>>>>>>>>>(thunk) gets stuck against something and restricts flow.....sputter sputter sputter.

Turn off car (no more fuel flow). Stuff trickles away from whatever it's stuck against........

Start car FLOW>>>>>>>>>>>(thunk)....sputter sputter sputter.

Just a guess, but I've seen this happen before, turned out to be a pebble I think from the kids putting dirt in the gas tank...

 

[josemuccino]

So i got my car back.FINALLY! they dropped the tank twice and cleaned out the tank. then they just decided to replace the tank because i was going through fuel pumps within a week. 3 fuel pumps, fuel filters later, i had the lines replaced and injectors cleaned. they put in a walboro 190 pump because thats what was in it originally(when i bought it) and the injectors needed it i guess. but now my car is running great. thanks for all your help guys. Also i ran sea foam through it via a vacuum hose and WOW what a difference. i love my dsm and have lots of plans for it. again thanx for everything guys.