Mitsubishi Colt engine problems!! Please help

Hi all,

I've been having engine problems with my Colt for about a year but it's got to the point where I'm totally out of ideas. I've been trying all sorts of fixes suggested by members of many forums but nothing seems to help.

Here's the spec:-

Mitsubishi Colt UK 1.3i (4g13 engine)

102,000 miles on the clock Manual transmission 1994

Here's the problem:-

Car fires up straight away whether hot or cold but when cold will die straight away, fire and die, fire and die (you get the picture) Seems to take forever to find a steady idle but when warm seems to be quite happy. Main problem of this is that for the first 3-5 minutes of any journey it will almost certainly stall when pulling up to junctions, lights etc (dangerous to say the least due to breaks and steering being power assisted) It strikes me as being a mixture issue with the emissions smelling very rich, also, when it's cold it requires constant throttle to keep it going, even though i have the fast idle giving it some more revs.

Things i've already tried:-

New plugs New Leads New distributor (needed this as the car broke down and wouldn't go at all without a new one) New coolant sensor New fuel filter Drained fuel tank Cleaned all electric connections Tested O2 sensor and gives a reading once warm which appears to be within parameters Cleaned induction air filter Checked stepper motor

As you can see i've tried all the high profile checks but still the same problem with poor to non existent idling from cold. I've also tried all combinations of biss and fast idle screw but no joy.

Any ideas would be much appreciated, sorry for the long post but that's pretty much all i know, any other questions please ask.

Thanks all

David

Reply to
MitsuColtOwner
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Check the valve clearances, Tight valves will give just this problem, A known issue on the 1.3 motor if not maintained. jonny

Reply to
jonny

you'll have to excuse me for being a complete novice jonny but how would i go about adjusting the valves, any detail would be great on this procedure.

This is one suggestion that i haven't come across yet and am willing to trying anything

thanks in advance

Reply to
MitsuColtOwner

The Exhaust valves are 0.25 mm Inlet 0.20mm motor hot. You adjust them by slacking the nut on the top of the adjustment pin and screwing the screw up or down the Exhaust valves are all at the front of the motor, The inlet valves at the rear, Adjust Exhuust then Inlet, (avoids confusion) Turn the motor until No 1 set of valves have moved down , (valves have fully opened ,,,, "Been pushed down") Then you can adjust the valves on no 4 cylinder, / No 3 down adjust No2, / ,No 4 down adjust no1/ No2 down adjust No 3 I think it may be wise to get a garage to adjust them if you have never done this before. Tight valves will give exactly the conditions you describe in your message , so im sure this has been your problem all along jonny

Reply to
jonny

You hit the nail on the head, i adjusted the valves this weekend after deciding to do it myself with the help of a workshop manual off a very nice man on ebay.

All four exhaust valves were absolutely locked and the engine was extremely difficult to hand crank, this was even with a warm engine.

Set the valves to specifications and it ran like it did when i bought it, a total transformation (and best of all it was free!!)

Thanks Jonny and Stewart for your posts, i'd trade a mechanic for a forum site anyday.

Reply to
MitsuColtOwner

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