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About 2 months ago, I bought a ’98 Eclipse RS (how did I go from mustang to mitsubishi, I don’t know.) Even though the used dealership we went to lied to us trying to justify paying almost twice its blue book value by claiming it “undergoes a thorough inspection and passes” when there’s spots of rust, the oil leaks (or burns), the passenger-side headlight may have a short somewhere (it’ll randomly turn off while I’m driving or hit a bump; lately its been less faulty), and a few other things (I will post more pictures/a video soon, showing some of the issues) I was obsessed with this car and had first-car blindness (well, technically 2nd car. I almost bought a 2006 Hyundai Elantra auction car which was in worse condition) and was furious to find a better model (GS, may’ve been a GS-T or GSX) for the same price in far better condition 2 days later…but, live and learn. Granted, 5 pm on a friday isn’t a good time to buy a car because I couldn’t take it to a mechanic to have it looked over before buying…but again, young and stupid obsession and I had been searching for a 2nd gen eclipse for months (even though they were made in a city ~40 miles north of me)
I’ve noticed that even though the temperature doesn’t show overheating, it’s running awfully hot. Occasionally when I start the car, it has a fast idle and puffs out white smoke (I question if this is the burnt oil, it smells somewhat like it) it has gotten to the point where I have to add a quart of oil every few days to a week to keep from running dry/killing my car. When I drove it earlier today, I noticed more lag when accelerating than usual, and at low speeds in a parking lot, I could hear and feel it chugging slightly. When I got back home, there was steam and whistling coming from the radiator cap, which kinda worries me as I’ve never had that happen…around 4,000-4,500 RPM, a faint squealing noise starts, somewhat similar to a turbocharger whine (although it’s a non-turbo) A friend of mine said it may just be a pulley squeaking. I had a mechanic friend take a somewhat closer look and took it for a test drive, claimed he heard a bad wheel hub, although I’m not sure if it’s a wheel hub, bearing, or just bad tires.
Right now, my main concerns are the immediate hazards (possible overheating, rough engine performance, etc.) I plan on adding more information and visual aid, but could anyone offer any advice as to what I could do? I would have taken it to an actual mechanic and have them look at it, but I’m a broke-as-a-joke student on the hunt for a job, and I can’t get help from anyone else at the moment :/
PS Sorry for the terrible writing/weird subject changes, I’ve been a bit mentally fried lately and car troubles are the last thing I need…
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You have multiple issues here lets address the overheat first. To me it sounds like symptoms of a bad head gasket. White smoke is burning water, blue is oil, and black is fuel. Bad head gasket will also cause poor performance and misfiring for the obvious reasons of water in your fuel mixture/fouling of spark plugs, etc. Absolute first thing I would do is a block test. This will tell you if you have a combustion leak into your coolant system and then go from there. Steam dumping out of the cap also doesn’t sound good, sounds to me like over pressurizing which again would be caused by a head issue.
2: Oil loss, you lose oil 1 of 2 ways, you leak it or you burn it. If you suspect that you’re burning oil then you need to do a leak down test and or a dry/wet compression test. The wet dry test will tell you the condition of your piston rings, and when an engine burns oil more often than not it’s due to the fact that the rings are worn out. Both test will tell you this, but the leak-down test will tell you the exact percentage loss, and will tell you from where in the engine it’s escaping.
Yeah one of the prettier car bodies ever put on a car. The three stages of the Mitsubishi 4g63 engine were A. sorta good engine B. terrible engine and C. excellent engine. Of course, once they got to excellent engine they quit making it. A second generation Eclipse has engine B if it hasn’t been replaced. People that own these things become excellent mechanics, often times professional, because of all the work they do to keep their machines running. I tell you this just so you know what you got yourself into. I am the former owner of a first generation car with the sorta good engine.
Anyway, one of the common problems with this engine is anytime you get it hot the head warps. So, agree, do a block test.
Thank you for helping me narrow it down/figure out what I need to do 🙂 I will be sure to look into that and get to fixing it as soon as I’m able to, not sure how long that’ll be though.
As far as the engine goes, it’s an RS, not GS-T or GSX so from my understanding, I actually have a Chrysler 420a engine in there, but I could be wrong…
Quick update: I only drove for a total of ~15 minutes and it overheated to the point of cutting out (thankfully I was 2 ft from my driveway) I checked the coolant reserve tank and it initially seemed empty, but now I’m not sure if its filled with water or proper coolant. I also noticed that the radiator cap is loose, which could cause overheating and may have been why steam was leaking out. By the way, what exactly is a block test ShopTech? The sooner I can isolate the problem, the better
Lets hope it is the Chrysler engine.
A block test is a kit available from most auto parts shops and consists of a vial of fluid you hold in place of the radiator cap while running the engine. The fluid in the vial changes color if exhaust gas is coming out of the radiator.
If the block test checks out as okay I’d consider coolant system maintenance: check that the fan is coming on, new thermostat, new radiator cap, new coolant and a tight connection to the coolant reservoir. If still overheating then consider installing a new radiator.
You might benefit from reading through these.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/what-to-do-when-your-engine-overheats
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-performance-issues
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car
Good luck and keep us posted.
I’ll go a step further.
Check your local Lemon Laws. If the car had any sort of warranty? I’d return it for a full refund and start fresh. This is what gives used (not this “Pre-Owned” Bullsnot crap) dealers a bad name.
The car will need much attention, and the window for any possible legal recourse is running out–if it’s not out already.
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Sadly, its out of my hands…I’ve owned it for almost 2 months now, and can’t really return it/take any legal action, at least that I know of (unless there’s some way of proving that they blatantly lied about the condition and the “inspection” they claim it underwent, amongst other things….2 months after purchase, that can be proven that it was in that condition before I bought it :/) Again, shouldn’t have jumped on a car purchase at closing time just before the weekend, when any local auto shops that could’ve taken a look were closed
Don’t beat yourself up over it.
We got burned on a 2000 Tiburon that turned into a basket case a couple of months after purchase by doing something like that… You’re not alone.
Okay. Run it by the numbers then.
Start off by giving Eric’s videos a good look over. This guy knows his stuff and his videos are very informative.
And I would 100% do the block test. If that fluid changes color….At least you know where things stand.
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Fair enough. I kinda figured I’d be dumping money into a 16 year old car at *some* point.
Indeed, informative and sometimes a bit of (un?)intentional humor thrown in XD
Seeing as I’m having issues with oil AND coolant, I’ll be sure and get on that, hopefully sooner than later. Before I go anywhere, I need to check the radiator cap and determine what is going on in the reserve tank.
Sorry Eric, I know it’s not one of yours. But it shows the test kit and procedure. You might be able to borrow a block test kit from a buddy in the mechanics field if you’re lucky.
This shows the block test kit in action….
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The puff of smoke at start up is often caused by worn valve stem seals.
Here’s what happends, Your radiator cap is not just a cap, it’s a pressure valve. PSI or pressure in your system raises the boiling point of the water/coolant mixture. Your cap is rated at a certain PSI for your coolant system, when that pressure exceeds your caps rating it pushes open and allows the coolant to go into the overflow tank. If your cap is bad than when it gets hot it will constantly start dumping coolant into the overflow tank, eventually over flowing and losing it, and causing an overheat condition. Your car will shut off when hot and will crank slowly when hot because since the block, head, etc. is getting so hot it expands and the friction is to much for it to handle. Keep us posted.
Drove for the same amount of time as I did yesterday, but I added some coolant to the radiator before I left. The temp gauge didn’t get above the halfway mark, but when I got back home, I popped the hood to check, and sure enough the radiator cap was hissing/steaming…I think it was kept pressurized by the gunk caked on the plunger of the cap before o_o
I also noticed in the right light what looks like oil splashed on top of the engine, by the spark plugs…could this just be accidental spillage from refilling it, or is it possibly where I’m losing oil?
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