Peculiar engine hesitation - Vapor Lock?
 

Hello all, I am new here. I have a strange problem with my stock gen 1 Eclipse: Sometimes my engine will completely lose power and ability to accelerate. This doesn't happen all the time, actually only a couple times in the last 2 weeks. I don't drive the car all the time, it happened both times after it has been sitting for a couple of days. So what happens is, I will be driving along and all of a sudden, the car will lose power. It doesn't stall on me (that is the really weird part), but pushing on the gas pedal will only boost RPMs to at most 2000. The car will not accelerate from this point, only shake and sputter if I let out the clutch. Both times this has happened I turned the car off and back on, and it was fine for the rest of the journey. Once it happened on the freeway, and once it happened on a slow back-road.

Has anyone ever experienced, or heard of anyone else experiencing this before?

My first thought was something in the fuel system, but the fact that it doesn't stall and it works after restarting seems peculiar. Second thought was the electrical system, but it also seems like it would happen more frequently if this were the case. It is not very reproducible; I couldn't go out and make it happen right now if I wanted to (I tried). Please help! :(

Somebody said that it is possible that I got a batch of bad gas. This morning I put some Sea Foam in a new tank of gas, I will see if I experience the problem again.

What engine do you have?

Its the 1.8 liter. it is reading code 15 from the check engine light which is the throttle position sensor or the idle air control motor sensor. I replaced the TPS, and it doesn't make sense that it is the IAC, because the car idles fine. Should I go ahead and replace the ECM? My gut feeling is telling me that if I don't change it, that that will end up being the problem, and if I do change it, that won't be the problem. All I know is.... the problem seems to be oxygen related, and it is getting worse.