Hey guys, I need a little help before I put a stake through the block to put this car out of my misery.

As I'm driving down the road, the damn thing will just die. Period. I have to shut the ignition completely off, then restart it, and the first several times it'll work. The last couple times (as I'm pulling into my parking space, thank goodness) it'll die and not want to restart till it's set for a while. I took it to my mechanic, but they couldn't get it to replicate the problem.

It's a 95 GS, if it matters.

Any ideas?

 

Oh, and it leaves me with my lights, radio, everything else working perfectly. Just the RPMs flatline. I can do a rolling restart (push the clutch in, turn the ignition completely off, then restart with the key while still rolling down the road) but neither bumping it over with the key or popping the clutch works. It doesn't sputter or anything, just no warning and it's dead.

 

check all your battery connections. my friend had a similar problem and it turned out to be bad battery cables.

 

Agreed, electrical connections or the ASD relay on the firewall. I don't think it to be the crank or cam sensor because it won't restart from a clutch start. It sounds to be an electrical restart by the way you're having to restart it. Thanks for the added detail btw, it helps.

 

I suspected a bad battery connection, and I knew for a fact that one of the terminals was iffy, but replacing it did absolutely nothing. Sadly, my knowledge of car electrical systems isn't exactly comprehensive, I can check the battery connection and fuses, the rest is pretty greek to me.

I've got it sitting at the mechanics (courtesy of AAA and a tow truck, she died on me in the middle of the road and NOTHING would get her rolling again) so here's hoping she'll misbehave for them this time, too.

 

Check the ASD relay on the firewall.
https://mitsubishiforum.com/m_137146/tm.htm
Do you hear any clicking while trying to start it up? What do you get when you try to start it?
Don't put your money on the techs at the garage. They are "general techs", they will go for the most obvious out of all the cars that they work on. I'm not saying that they are useless, but they are there to make a buck.

 

No clicking, the starter and soleniod are rock solid. It tries like hell to start, just doesn't. And the guys at the shop admitted that it's an electrical problem, so we're taking it to the auto electric shop on Monday so they can pinpoint it.

Very interesting info in the link. It does seem to fit the bill, but how can you tell if the relay is faulty or if the ignition reference sensor is screwed? When the techs were checking it over earlier, they tried to say it was the fuel pump, but after talking with me decided that I was right in the idea that it's electrical. Like I said earlier though, I just look at electrical components like a cat looks at a computer. "Interesting, but WTF does it do??"

I just hope this problem doesn't cost me yet ANOTHER arm and a leg. If this keeps up, I'm just going to be one very confused torso with an empty bank account. [&o]

 

welcome to the world of owning an eclipse...

 

Thanks, I think. But somehow that's not as reassuring as I was hoping it would be.

Is it bad when your mechanic REALLY wants you to get a different car?[sm=helpout.gif]

 

thats is a bad sign, or just a lazy mechanic.