The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

by **Dave** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Ok, i've got a new problem, my car has begun to stall at low revs, especially after a spirited drive.
basically if i drove it hard for any lenght of time and then say come to a stop at the lights or a roundabout, if the revs drop below 1000 it'll stall, it'll tick over fine about that but if it drops the battery light flashes on and then the oil and then she just cuts out, it feels very rough then and there's a lot of engine judder. It feels like it's being starved of fuel.

now i changed the oil about 1000 miles ago over to castrol magnetec so it's not an oil problem.

i've got new spark plugs, plug leads, larger injectors (275cc) and a fuel pressure regulator and a decat. i've also got a different head gasket in there from when we were doing the turbo conversion, didn't change it back out but it basically just lowers the compression or something like that so it's safer to run the turbo!

I checked the injectors and fuel lines and there's no leakages, so i'm thinking it's either a blockage or the FPR is running too low on idle, it's below 1bar on the the guage at idle.
also the exhaust has gotten very rattly and there's a noticable metallic sound around 3500revs.

Anyone got any ideas?
i don't fancy bringing it along to my mechanic and paying money out if it's a simple fix!

by CJ » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:52 pm

Dave, how long has the car been running all of the mods prior to the problem occuring? Did you give the stepper motor a clean?

CJ

by **Dave** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:55 pm

It's been running them for a while now, i hadn't even thought about the stepper motor! would this cause the same symptoms?

got any pics of the one on the GS?

by CJ » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:59 pm

Dave wrote:i hadn't even thought about the stepper motor! would this cause the same symptoms?

Most definetely, thats the first thing I'd check. Search the forums for 'stepper motor' and check out Funkys cleaning guide - http://www.funky-fto.co.uk/idling.html

CJ

by **Myfeckin FTO** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 4:06 pm

Could be something to do with the set-up of the Fuel Pressure Regulator - Are you running an aftermarket ECU??
Have you fitted the turbo yet?

Could be stepper motor also - Is the GS stepper the same as the GR/GPX?

As for the rattley exhaust - are your baffles going?

by **Dave** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 4:07 pm

nice one CJ, i always think the worst, but i suppose changing the stepper motor for a new one isn't a simple cost effective fix either! hopefully this is it and it's not something more serious

by **Dave** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 4:17 pm

no new ecu as yet, have a greddy e-manage to go on but waiting on the turbo fitting, not done as yet as there a few things that have come up so we've had to put it off.
i reckon the baffles may be going in the exhaust alright!

i'll pull the stepper out this evening and see if that's causing the problems!

by **Myfeckin FTO** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:19 pm

Dave wrote:no new ecu as yet, have a greddy e-manage to go on but waiting on the turbo fitting, not done as yet as there a few things that have come up so we've had to put it off.

Could it be the fueling thats causing the problems with all the changes you have made? Once the turbo is fitted and the Greddy is on a bit of mapping might sort it.

More likely the stepper though.

by **Dave** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:21 pm

i honestly don't know, it's not right either way, i'll have a look at the stepper this evening, i doubt it's the ecu compensating for fueling i reckon it would just run rich rather than actually stall the thing?? i may be wrong though!
would an exhaust blockage cause it to stall as well?

by **Myfeckin FTO** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:42 pm

Dave wrote:would an exhaust blockage cause it to stall as well?

If the baffles are badly broken up then it will affect performance - but it wouldn't be just at idle - you would more likely notice it at speed with the build up of exhaust gas.

by **steelroe** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:34 pm

Might be wrong but dont think there is a stepper motor on the GS engine, will check also tomorrow. If there is the I will have a spare on on the gs I have scrapped.

by **kevinod** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:48 am

Dave wrote:It feels like it's being starved of fuel.

Maybe what you're describing is the engine getting too much fuel? If it gets too much it can cause problems too, not enough oxygen getting in for the amount of petrol getting in there. It'd be 'drowning' the combustion.

Kinda links up with bigger injectors, and driving hard (more fuel used) and then idling (needing less fuel, so if it gets too much...).

Kev.

by **Dave** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:52 am

i was thinking that it could be this too, i might just throw the smaller injectors back in until i have the turbo sorted!

by **Dave** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:45 pm

had a blast at changing the stepper motor, it's different than the V6's, i cleaned it and it seemed ok, nothing noticeably wrong so i put it back together and the problem was still there!
decided then to drop it into a garage locally!

the dude said that there was dirt in the throttle "valve", now i wasn;t talking to him personally but he cleaned it out and put the FPR up slightly and it's back working fine again!

question now is, how the hell did dirt get in there?
could it be the K&N filter i'm using or what?

by **Mustang** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:03 pm

question now is, how the hell did dirt get in there?
could it be the K&N filter i'm using or what?

Dave,
No filter is perfect, The butterfly valve getting clogged would not be uncommon, I cleaned the valve on my car recently to sort out a 'lumpy' idling problem (common on the 156). The valve can get stuck, leading to incorrect fuel/air mixture, etc

by **Dave** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:05 pm

hmmm. nice to know it's not uncommon!

at least my baby is ok, i've to give up the gpx now! :cry:

by **kevinod** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:06 pm

Dave wrote:had a blast at changing the stepper motor, it's different than the V6's, i cleaned it and it seemed ok, nothing noticeably wrong so i put it back together and the problem was still there!
decided then to drop it into a garage locally!

the dude said that there was dirt in the throttle "valve", now i wasn;t talking to him personally but he cleaned it out and put the FPR up slightly and it's back working fine again!

question now is, how the hell did dirt get in there?
could it be the K&N filter i'm using or what?

Did you by any chance have any connected bits off when working on fitting the turbo?

Could just be a build up over time though, car is ~10 years old, even a tiny bit regularly will eventually cause problems somewhere I'd say.

Kev.

by **Dave** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:13 pm

i had the head of the engine off! :shock:

but i suppose the car is old and this is the first problem i've ever had with it!

€20 for the mechanic to sort it for me!

bit pricey i thought! :lol:

by **kevinod** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:24 pm

Dave wrote:€20 for the mechanic to sort it for me!

bit pricey i thought!

I bet he rubbed his chin and inhaled sharply when you described the problem, didn't he? :lol:

by **Dave** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:27 pm

he's not my mechanic, a friend of mine dropped it down to him!

he actually did my friends first service (Marc), but everything had already been done, he changed a filter and that was it, cost him €50!

most first time to a new mechanics would say oh i changed the oil and pads and this that and the other!
seems honest enough which is pretty rare nowadays!

by **Dave** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:03 am

It's not fixed!
got home last night and took the car out for a spin and what happens is it idles fine for a minute or two and then starts to judder and the revs drop and it almost stalls!
it stalled twice on me this morning so i'm not a happy camper!

by **PT FTO** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:20 am

Dave wrote:It's not fixed!
got home last night and took the car out for a spin and what happens is it idles fine for a minute or two and then starts to judder and the revs drop and it almost stalls!
it stalled twice on me this morning so i'm not a happy camper!

That will be the 20euro repair then................ :wink:

by **Dave** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:23 am

yeah i jinxed myself by the looks of it! :evil:

by **soc** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 3:48 pm

Dave wrote:yeah i jinxed myself by the looks of it!

just a thought (and probably a wild shot in the dark) - have you checked your distributor? My brother had a problem where he had a hairline crack in his distributor which resulted in stalling after the engine had heated up - this was because the crack got bigger as the dist cap heated up and expanded.

Like I said, a shot in the dark, but worth checking all the same...

by **Dave** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 3:54 pm

i had a distributor go on me in an MX3! doesn't feel like that, i'm going to see if i can get any error codes out of it and go from there!

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