An odd thing happened during our road trip from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. After stopping to refuel with about 70 miles left to go, our Outlander started making this strange loud clicking sound. It was definitely coming from the engine compartment. It almost sounded like something was bouncing around in there. I pulled over at the next exit to check under the hood and under the car, but there wasn't anything there. The loud sound only seemed to happen during acceleration. Revving the engine while parked did not reproduce the clicking. We got back on the road after we found our nearest Mitsu service center. We were still about 40 miles from it. During the drive there, the clicking noise would start up whenever we would accelerate or go up a hill. I also noticed that the fuel economy took a 5 mpg dip. After exiting the freeway, the car began to stutter when moving from a dead stop. Any time I was pulling away from an intersection as the light turned green, it would sputter until it got up to speed. Unfortunately for us, we arrived at the service center with less than an hour before closing. Their techs hooked up the Outlander to see what error codes were showing and they found that the car was not running on all cylinders. They inspected the 3 front spark plugs and found them to be fouled up. They did not have the time to switch out the other 3 because there was not enough time before they closed. They instructed us to return on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday here in the US). Has anyone here experienced anything like what I described? I apologize. I'm not very technical when it comes to cars. Our Outlander is very young and with just under 18,000 miles on it.

 

Bad gas, lower than nornal octane , water in fuel. Good luck

 

Thanks, 2011GT. It might have been bad gas. These symptoms happened immediately after I refueled. We'll see tomorrow after the service center looks it over.

 

Sounds like bad gas causing knocking due to contamination.

 

Well, it looks like ivanz and 2011GT were correct. I had a contaminated tank of gas. Long story short. The station I filled up at had dumped in diesel fuel into the same tank as their premium fuel. That was the source of my problems. The fine people over at San Rafael Mitsubishi in the bay area took great care of me. Got the Outlander running the way it was before the fuel mix up. It was a big job and cost $1000 to clean out the fuel system. Took several hours to complete. At one point, my Outlander was up on the lift, rear tires off, exhaust system removed, and the gas tank on the floor of the garage. Very sad sight. Michael the service manager called the gas station I fueled up at to inquire about fuel contamination. The manager (who I also spoke with later) was polite and owned up to the mix up. I contacted him today to go over his insurance information to compensate me for the repair bill and the bad tank of gas. He was very helpful in the process. I'm glad I am not stuck with the bill after this bad experience at the pump.

 

WOW.....can you imagine how many other vehicles that would have messed up? Very happy to hear he owned up to the mistake!

 

It was a large and busy gas station off of interstate 5. Dozens of cars for sure before it was caught. This was a huge goof up. Michael the service manager who helped me out told me it's a puzzling mistake since the connections for the underground tanks are shaped differently to prevent this kind of mix up. Lucky for the gas station owner he has insurance.

 

Happened here last month with a large gas station as well. They paid for everyones car to be fixed.