Starting issues - No / Doesn't / Won't Start - MERGED

[prodsm]

All "my car won't start" discussion threads are merged HERE. We've basically made it easier for those who insist upon not searching by grouping together all threads from those with similar issues so you can just scroll through and see some possible solutions. To search for info within this thread, use the "Search This Thread" feature in the black bar about 3" above what you're reading right now.

Could be anything from a loose battery terminal to internal engine damage, and literally everything in between which may involve the electrical, fuel, and ignition system...possibly even something that you screwed up while working on the car yourself. While it's unlikely we're going to diagnose and solve your problem over the internet, feel free to discuss any possible solutions.



I live in Canada and right now its not very warm out, about -30c
my car does not have a block heater too keep it warm.

I tryed to start my car this morning and it wouldent start, ive had this problem before but this time, the car doesnt crank at all it just makes a sound that sounds like an electric drill.

Whats wrong.

Thanks

 

[steve]

One other thing, I didn't get what you ment with restoring the compression. Pulling the spark plugs out no problem but what do you mean by leave the throttle open. Is it when I crank it without the plugs and throttle open or?
Some say I should disconnect the injectors, put some engine oil in every cylinder, put the sparks back and crank it a couple of times to build up compression and then plug back the injectors??

If you have 0 compression the car is not going to run. You need to figure out the cause. Usually 0 compression means you bent the valves from the timing belt failing or jumping out of time.

You want to keep the throttle open while cranking to make sure that the cylinders fully fill during intake. With the throttle closed you develop a vacuum in the intake manifold so the air in the cylinders is less dense that it is with the throttle fully open.

You remove all the plugs to reduce the load on the starter and get the highest cranking speed and the highest compression.

Make sure your battery is full charged, that all the terminals are clean and tight both at the battery and at the ends that attach to the starter and engine block.

But I think I located my problem. When I turn the ignition to ON I hear NO sound at all from the Fuel Pump.
Shouldn't it give me some kind of buzz or something when I turn the ignition to ON??

No the fuel pump is only turned on while activating the starter or by the ECU when it sees CAS pulses.

 

[Crushbone]

Just finished up trans/clutch install and the car wont start. The other threads i SEARCHED for and found ended up being a bad ground to starter, or the plastic connector was not reconnected or other starter related problems. My car turns over well, almost wants to start sometimes, but stops there. My boost gauge reads 0, pulled a plug to smell/check for fuel, and i hear the hum of the pump, and im getting spark. I believe it may be a very large boost leak or a connector i may have missed, i could find no visible disconnected harness connectors, and i found one boost/vacuum line that isnt connected to anything coming from the can looking thing under the battety (egr/pcv?), towards the driverside of the car. I have the taboo boost line diagram n my phone but its a little vague, and idk what was blocked off/rerouted by previous owner. Opinions on what it may be? Boost leak? Missed connecter after trans install? I undid most of the connectors/ boost lineswhen i pulled the trans out, but its been a 2 month project bc of time constraints and memory is off.

Thanks!

 

[Kalabalik1]

Thanks a lot for the replies.
Appreciate it a lot.


Now when I think of it I already checked the compression with the plugs out (ps: they were soaked in gasoline).
Still had that slow turnover crank with no compression readings at all.
Today Ill just go buy me a battery charger and a compression meter so I can fully charge my bat and check the compression myself.
Ill test the compression again.
And Ill get back with results.

Still getting that lame crank, turns over but just wont fire.
Fully charged, copmression, spark i seem to have it all just not the fast crank.
LAME CRANK!!!!!!!

What to do???

Sincerely Alex

 

[Anubis_4_99]

From the sounds of it, you severely overheated the motor to the point that it lost all compression and is now not worth much more then a paperweight. loosing your coolant will cause the temp gauge to not read accurately, so while it may not seem like it overheated much, if you had no coolant in the block, the sensor was actually getting heat soaked at that point causing it to rise in temp, and if thats the case, the temp of the motor itself was probably much higher then what the gauge read.

Your probably looking at a rebuild or a new motor at this point.

 

[Brandon Mau]

I know that it was mentioned by Steve about the ECU, mine had failed cranked but no start. Pull out a spark plug and crank it over to see if you are getting spark. Pull a fuel injector and see if you are getting any fuel to the motor. Also check your Crank Angle Sensor. Another possibility since the car was running hot could be that your coolant Temp. Sensor took a crap. Diagnose everything I have stated to help narrow down your problem. Listen to your fuel pump on the car and see if it is turning on also. You could also pull the ECU out of the car and crack the case open check for any capacitors that have a leak or burn marks, rotten egg smell, this could be an indication that the E.C.U has went bad. Let me know what you find out I do have a new re-furbished ECU for a 1 gen 5 speed Turbo, Extra C.A.S sensor, as a back-up but since I'm in Italy I could ship it to you if that's the problem. Let us know and good luck

 

[95talongirl]

Still getting that lame crank, turns over but just wont fire.
Fully charged, copmression, spark i seem to have it all just not the fast crank.
LAME CRANK!!!!!!!

What were the compression results? I'm kinda confused how you could go from zero compression across the board to compression? What were the results? If it's uneven or very low, then you probably blew the head gasket and/or warped the head depending on how overheated it was.

 

[Seamus]

Yea, I'm not understanding this thread. If you properly tested the compression, and it was 0 on all cylinders, diagnosis can pretty much end right there. Hopefully, a headgasket is the extent of the damage. Good luck!

 

[Kalabalik1]

I appreciate ALL the replies.
Just to answer a few:

I never ever had any compression ever, after it died.
Now I can see a lot of fuel in the cylinder.
It is most likely when my radiator hose popped off it sprayed a lot of hot coolant directly on the ECT and caused the ECU to spit in more gasoline and the result was the stalling and loss of compression. Because excess fuel in the cylinders will burn out the oil in there and cause the loss of compression, if not total loss.

If the gasket was blown the car would still start but run very roughly and overheat almost immediately.

I always had coolant in there never drove more than 3 minutes and stopped to fill up more coolant, but it was still smoking from the hose, i thought the thermostat didn't open.
But I think it was the hose causing all this.

I will now charge my battery full, crank it without the MPI fuse for a while to dry it up.
After that ill put just a little oil in each cylinder and see what happens.
Crossing my fingers.
This is so frustrating.

Sincerely Alex.

AND THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!!!!! VERY KIND!!!!!

 

[Seamus]

when my radiator hose popped off it sprayed a lot of hot coolant directly on the ECT and caused the ECU to spit in more gasoline and the result was the stalling and loss of compression.

What is this? Mousetrap? hahahaha

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

There is fuel in there because your car is injecting fuel that is not being compressed and ignited because of a loss of compression. Your plugs cannot ignite puddles of gasoline.

 

[Kalabalik1]

Tested today to crank it without the plugs and gas pedal fully pressed to dry up the cylinders.
But when I looked inside the cylinders they got soaked again.
The open throttle didn't seem to work properly.
Iv'e seen on some threads that I can pull out the MPI fuse, but can't seem to find it.
Or I'm not sure which one it is, they say it's a 30A fuse, but I got several of them in the engine compartment.
There is one black 30A that is a little different to the others and need to be screwed out.
It cannot be pulled as the other ones.

Is that the MPI fuse or the Main fuse for the car or what, it doesn't say anything about fuses in the Haynes Manual?? Only where they'r located. =O(

Sincerely Alex

 

[steve]

There are three or four fuses (depending on if you have ABS or not) on the positive battery terminal. They are left to right the pink 30A Ignition, the pink 30A Radiator Fan, the blue 20A MPI, and if present the yellow 60A ABS fuses.

Pulling the blue MPI fuse will stop the ECU for doing anything like injecting fuel but not impact using the started.

If your cylinders are soaked you might was to check the wiring to the Engine Coolant Temp sensor. The wires get brittle and break causing the the ECU to read the coolant temp as -39F and flood the engine.

The factory ECU doesn't have a clear flooded cylinder mode like carbureted cars would do if you held the throttle open while cranking. That's to keep the car from shutting off if the TPS were to fail and read WOT all the time.

None of this should have any impact on you getting compression numbers.

 

[Kalabalik1]

Ok ,thanks again Steve.

But wont a lot of fuel in the cylinders make me lose compression??

Sincerely Alex

 

[steve]

wont a lot of fuel in the cylinders make me lose compression??

It's bad for the rings but you should be flooding the cylinders normally during a compression test. Just pull the MPI fuse and the injectors won't fire so no fuel in the cylinders.

Until you can verify that you were testing incorrectly and actually have good compression or verify that the results are accurate and you'll have to repair the engine there's not much more to be done here.

 

[Kalabalik1]

I understand.

Another thing:
What could have caused this problem?
To know what to do next time so it doesn't ever happen again?? =O/

Sincerely Alex

 

[steve]

Sorry to say we don't yet know what the problem is. That makes it impossible to say what the cause was or how to avoid it.

I'm sure you already have learned that it's not a good idea to drive the car any distance if you have just worked on it in case you have a problem like a leaking hose.

 

[Kalabalik1]

Sensitive stuff.
The only factor I know of right know that cause this is:
MY OWN STUPID ASS!!

I'm still waiting for my battery to charge up, still after 12 hours. =O)
I think I have to wait 12 more Hours.

Thank again everyone, LOVE YALL.

Ill be back with updates...........

Sincerely Alex

 

[pauleyman]

Somebody already stated your likely problem. Severe overheating. If you have zero compression you've likely blown the head gasket BAD and worse. How much coolant did you have to add? The part of the story that gets me is the temp gauge would shoot up then go back down. when you're so low on coolant it isn't reading anything (or seemingly normal it's in air. When some severely hot coolant does make it around it will make the gauge jump up real quick. That is indicative there wasn't much coolant in the system. I've seen this before. Any competent mechanic should know this. Doesn't have to be a mitsu mechanic.

Drove of again on to the highway and just after about 5 minutes again I noticed that the temperature wanted to go up but seemed to cool down again to the center of the meter from time to time but all of a sudden the car just lost power and started stalling but no bumping just lost the power completely.

This part says it all.

 

[Anubis_4_99]

If you can't find the MPI fuse, just unplug the ECU.

 

[TSIturbo91]

I'm wondering if you have any compression numbers yet? I know you said it is 0. But is it 0 for all of them? Also have you or your mechanic done a leakdown test?

It does sound like the engine overheated to the extent that damage was done. Mine overheated last winter when it dropped to -30 and I was so far from anywhere I just had to get home or freeze in an effort to save my car.

Well I said F#ck that and drove home. It caused my rings to cook and leak coolant from some where. But it was not the end of the world. It sucked, made my life hell and threw me into a deeper depression than I was in already. However once I got my bearings, figured out what to do, how to do it and got it done, I got in it and went for a test run. I promise it was more than worth it because I had not smiled to big and felt that happy since I got it.

You will do many tests on your DSM. We know this and accept it. But it's not as wildly known that it will test you back. It will give you a problem and seem easy to fix until you ix it and that wasn't it. Then you'll go nuts, get on here for help, bounce from computer to garage, but some how you'll figure it all out. Just know that someone has had your problem already and fixed it and it's on here somewhere to find. And in the rare case it's not, we're all here to help ya get to the bottom of it.

 

[1G9S9T7]

It sounds like a blown head gasket to me.

 

[Kalabalik1]

TSITurbo91

You just made my day.........

And the ones that says a blown headgasket, please forget that.
I KNOW IT AIN'T THAT!! 100% Because:

If that would have happened, it would stumble to a stop, it would breathe abnormally, it would overheat directly, I STILL WOULD START.

I have blown 3 of my head gaskets before on my Nissan Micra, and that took a lot of overheating before that happened. I literally had to rape it.

If I really blown my headgasket on My Talon duo to no overheat, just a loose coolant hose for 5 minutes then this engine really is more sensitive than a babys ass.
So in other words, if a thermostat clogs, a ECT fails or loose coolant for 5 minutes with this car, YOU'LL BLOW AN HEADGASKET?????
Then this car really isn't drivable at all. Only then engine experts can drive it and that to me folks is MOST UNLIKELY!!!

SO NO HEADGASKET BLOWN, let's just drop that.

And for the compression yet again, I cannot test it at all, I STILL get 0 results on all cylinders because it wont rotate fast enough to test it.

It STILL and as in the first place HAS that SAME LAME Cranking, barely turning.

I've checked with now three private mechanics and two Mitsubishi specialists.
The three private ones tested everything here and they still scratch their heads not knowing what it is at all.

The two Mitsubishi specialist told me 100 percent the head warped because of the HEAT. COME ON NOW: It did never overheat plus I live in a very cold country.
They'r telling me that so I should turn it over to Mitsubishi so they can rob me.
I know how all this works.

I'D SAY LIKE I SAID IN THE FIRST PLACE:
I has to be the starter or a worn out plus cable or ground cable that wont really turn over my engine, but the stalling and sudden death on highway REALLY BEATS ME, nobody knows and the only thing I can think of is the thing people are saying about the coolant temp sensor
flooding my engine with gas. Resulting in no spark at all on any of the plugs resulting the stalling but at the same time something else happened with the electricity somewhere.
I hope I just was unlucky that the faults happened at the same time, now I'm thinking one thing lead to another but I really hope that is not the case here.
Only something small like the starter or a cable, PLEASE PLEASE!!!!
Ill get back with updates.

Thanks again everybody.
DSMTuners RULE!!!

Sincerely Alex

To answer Pauly:


The gauge was at half as it should, and then wanted to go just a little above half then came back to half, then it wanted to go little over half again.
When I changed the thermostat, they said in Haynes to drain all the coolant, I did.
And after I put in the thermo, i should pop the coolant back in, start it up wait for it to suck in the coolant and top up with more, so i did. Then drove off, saw smoke just after it got normally hot.
Stopped directly because I know what overheat does to a car.
Let it cool down, topped up again with coolant.
Drove off to put gas in it. Started up as normal, no smoke no nothing.
Drove off from the gas station and just a couple of minutes after that all this happened.
It did not overheat, the radiator hose that i did not fasten popped out and the car lost all power and just died, no stumble, no white smoke, no overheat at all. Just died like that and I tried to start it directly after that before I opened the hood and immediately i heard that it didn't sound right at startup. Yet again that SAME LAME CRANKING NOISE. I can recognise sounds pretty well because Im a well respected music producer here and Im obsessed with sounds and could hear that something with the starting wasn't right in the first place.
I guessed my starter directly, but the sudden stalling, CAN NOT GET IN MY BRAIN WHY!!!!

You still think it's the Headgasket??

The last thing really for me to test is to push it and see if it starts, if it does the the engine is ok and the starter GONE!
But if it wont start at all after we push it then I really don't know where to look further.
Maby I need to change the whole engine??? CRANKWALK??? HEAD WARPED???
Then this car really isn't made for young people who like to go fast.

Not Sincere Alex
Im very depressed now, AGAIN! =O/

 

[thomcasey]

Depending on where the head warped, it could affect compression in all 4 cylinders, and since out temp gauges suck, OUT LOUD!!, there is no way to tell the true temp you saw. But, with no compression, your motor should spin nice and free. Americans are good at driving cars with poor batteries. That will kill a starter in a heartbeat, so a push start on a hill would be a good test to see if you can get it to start. BUT, I would strongly consider a possible new HG, depending on your push-start results.

 

[Seamus]

You still think it's the Headgasket??

Its a headgasket if you are lucky. You should be praying it is only a headgasket. It sounds like you overheated it so bad that ring damage or ruined a head is a big possibility. That would be a more likely cause of 0 psi on all cylinders.

If the car had compression, but you where turning it on a weak battery, oyu'd still have some compression. You just wouldn't see the engines full potential. Don't get upset with us. You being careless damaged this motor. Overheating to this extent is the easiest thing in the world to prevent.

 

[TSIturbo91]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/fre...tions/344490-download-1g-service-manuals.html

I think if you have not yet you should check this out and download it. I downloaded it and it's a huge benifet to have.

 

[Kalabalik1]

seamus:

Im not upset with non of yall, im very pleased with all the help i get.
I still cannot test the compression because it really does not spin as it should.
To test compression the car has to spin fast and good right??
I doesn't, that is why i cannot test the compression at all.
And I know I haven't overheated it severe at all, I have been very careful with this car, it's my third eclipse, the other ones with no turbo of course and iv'e learned this engine and been very very careful with it untill that stupid hose.

The hose can't really cause that big overheat damage??? Can it really??

thomcase:

Thanks a lot, Ill test that today and come back with results.

I have another question to all:

Can a starter be faulty but still spin my engine??
The spin is unusually slower than normal when trying to start, even with a full battery.

Sincerely Alex

TSITurbo91:

Thanks PLENTY, I have it allready.

Ya'll really KIND here.

SINCERELY ALEX