94 Mitsubishi Galant Starting Problems

Try explaining the symptoms since "has frequent, but intermittent, problems starting" is extremely vague and not much to go on. Does the starter engage properly? Do you hear a click? Do you smell gasoline vapors? Give us a hint on what you are experiencing.

Bob

Don't know what ignition type you have but a leaky distributor cap could do it. Get a new seal.

Almost surely an electrical problem. Secondary ignition is most likely.

The only difficult part is duplicating the problem. Once duplicated, it's a simple matter to find out if there is no spark or no fuel.

Sorry that I',m lomg oin responding. I;ve been awway on business...

The car/starter turns normally, but the engine won't turn over. No unusual clicks, fumes, anything; but it simply won't turn over. It seems that waiting an hour or two (after several tries) results in the car finally starting (causal relationship?), and (rarely) keeping the pedal pinned to the floor on a final attempt will get it to turn over. Again, moisture/rain, max-humidity seems to be a major factor. Thanks again for your time and consideration.

Bill T.

The next thing to check for is spark at the spark plugs when it won't start.

Good idea. Moisture could be in the distributor cap, unless it's a Distributorlesss-IS.

Thanks for the insight. Some additional information...

Once the car finally turns over, it runs rough as hell for a minute or two, sputtering and wanting to stall. I initially thought that moisture was condensing in the fuel tank, but have been religiously feeding it dry-gas or fuel treatment. No apparent difference...those damp days -- especially going from cold to warmer temps -- seem to hex it.

As an aside, I do have a distributor. Based upon all of your input, I checked the cap and it seems tightly sealed. I puzzle over how moisture would even get in there. If it's of any consequence, the cap is mounted horizontally/on its side. Would it be worthwhile just to replace the cap?

At times, the trick to getting it started is to hold the accelerator flat on the floor when attempting to turn it over. Maybe a coincidence, or maybe not.

Thanks again.

Bill

Had similar problem with a VW Jetta. Turned out to be a weak battery and a set of plug wires that were none OEM. I replaced the battery and put a set of Bosch wires on it which fix the problem.

I didn't want to do the wires since I had just replaced them a months before, but .... they were bad.

Indian Summer

I missed the point about the "keeping the pedal pinned to the floor.' When I was in school, this meant that injectors shut off when pedal's pinned to the floor. The computer's assumming the client is having a flooding problem. So it shuts off, comes on later.

When it floods, usually takes two hours on its own to dry up. But you can assist it by shutting off fuel. Eg., pulling a fuse.

My guess is that by sitting overnight, the injectors get no exercise, and when it's first turn on it squirts mad, some even get stuck in the 'on' position. Imagine us getting up from bed when we age. Eventually fuel dies out or injectors return to normal state and idles smooth. If it's so, have them cleaned, I mean reverse flow cleaning etc.

OK

So what happened when you checked for spark?

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 01:35:47 GMT, "Indian Summer" wrote: The key words, "at times" doesn't convince me it's a fuel problem.

I had the same problems with my '94 Galant. The car is basically a station car and has less than 40K miles. Last summer I started to notice gas leaking near the filler after topping off. Turns out the vent pipe from the tank (small pipe that runs along the filler pipe) had rusted and was leaking. It must have also let water in because it started to stall. I too used dry gas to try to clean out the line. That worked, but I had the vent pipe replaced.

Then the stalling returned until it just stopped. I got towed to the nearest dealer (mistake!) and they replaced the plugs, wires and distributor. The car would still hestiate and stutter when cold. I hope I found good mechanic because he checked it and found that the Mitsu dealer hadn't attached the new distributor's ground wire or adjusted the timing (as needed with the new dist. install). He also cleaned the throttle body. It is running better once warmed up, but she still hesitates. I have had the tranny checked and that doesn't seem to be the problem.

Because of the age (10+) I'm doing the 60K this week. Maybe that will help.

One serious bit of advice, avoid Mitsu dealers for service. I have found that besides the managers being condescending, the mechanics don't seem to know too much.