hi,
i have a 97 eclipse 5 speed and i deliver pizza.while driving the other day my car stalled at a light when i was in neutral.it died numerous times afterwards when i would stop or be under 3 mph.the car seems to be a little rougher now and has no idle since when you turn the car on,it will stall unless you give it gas.the car's CEL is on and was read as a small evap leak. Someone please help me with what this could be...also,i just got a new exhaust put on professionally for me and i replaced a cold air intake with a stock airbox if that helps...thank you!

 

My best guess guess is the evap solenoid has gone bad.

Here is a little background info:

"The evaporative emissions system is in place to keep vaporized/evaporated fuel from going into the atmosphere. It does this by allowing the vapors to be drawn into the engines intake stream in a controlled manner.

The ecu uses the purge solenoid to control the purge control valve, which is what lets the fuel vapors to be drawn into the intake stream (when the ecu sees the correct conditions to allow this).

Also, there is a one-way check valve inline between the purge control valve and the canister."


I would check these components to see if anything is pinched, misrouted, or disconnected, and go from there. Hope that helps and btw I always tip the pizza delivery folks 20-30 %. I can't believe the people that think just giving an extra buck is adequate for what you work for and have to pay for yourself.

 

haha well thank you and yeah man i totally agree! It's just wierd and i don't know what to do because i brought it to one shop and they said no codes came up.i'm not sure if the CEL and idle problem go hand in hand but i really can't afford to be guessing..ya know? what steps would you take in order to get this fixed?

 

It can also be something as simple as a clogged gas cap vent. I didn't want to say this since I just mentioned that in another post and people would think I'm repeating myself. Try running the car with the fuel cap off and see if it idles ok. If so it's a clogged cap. Running a car with the cap off will cause your CEL to come on but since yours is already give it a shot to eliminate that as the cause.

The best thing you can do when you go in for service is be informed about the problem and how things work. If the CEL is on there HAS TO BE a code showing up. That's just common sense.

 

how serious does this problem seem to be and which would you think it is probably over?

 

Like I said my best guess is the solenoid. Take the car somewhere else as the first shop obviously didn't know what they were doing (and should refund any money you paid them as a check engine light must have a computer code as to why it is on) . Take it to a Mitsubishi dealer or a foreign car specialty shop in your area.