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[SOLVED] Mitsubishi Lancer 1.3 GLX – Several problems

Home Forums Stay Dirty Lounge Service and Repair Questions Answered Here [SOLVED] Mitsubishi Lancer 1.3 GLX – Several problems

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  • #876209
    Tiago FerreiraTiago Ferreira
    Participant

      Hello everyone,

      We bought a new car just last week. When we went to see it and get it I inspected the car as best as I could and couldn’t find any major problems: a few aesthetic ones and the biggest thing I could find were a few tiny holes (maybe 4 or 5) in the exhaust pipe, a bit after the catalytic converter. No big deal I thought because a few weld dots and the problem would be solved. The car is from 1997 and runs on Gas and LPG. It has just under 100k miles (159k Km) which we thought to be good.

      We made the trip home without any problems: the car ran good on gas and on LPG and had no performance issues.

      One day after we got it home a few problems started appearing. I will explain them all because they seem to jump around from one thing to the other.
      On the first day in our home, the car had problems starting. We had to crank it for a while and then it would stall more or less on its own. If we accelerated (but not the whole foot down to fast) it could rev up. This problem appeared on both gas and LPG. My father, the owner of the car, called the previous owner who told him that this is because the spark plugs installed are special for LPG and that this is a normal behaviour until the car warmed up. I am pretty sure that is not the case but I might be wrong. Other than that, the holes on the exhaust remained the same and the car drove more or less ok if we pressed hard enough on the pedal. In other words, the car seemed to be loosing power on both LPG and Gas.

      One day later I made the mistake of doing a “free performance upgrade” 😛 I tightened the cable on the throttle because it had some slack. This led to the car having another weird behavior: on gas, if I put my foot down the car would rev up normally. On LPG, if I did the same the car would stall. However, if I pressed the accelerator pedal slowly enought (instead of 1-100% in less than on second), it would rev up just fine. I undid the “performance upgrade” and this problem disappeared.

      Yesterday I decided to put some aluminium tape on the exhaust to reduce the noise just until the weekend when I’ll have more time to properly weld it. This proved to work ok at the moment.

      This morning a few other problems arouse: the car had problems starting (although it was cold out, the car was inside where there were around 59ºF (15ºC) and outside there were around 40ºF (5ºC). When it started it had no power neither or gas nor LPG and it made a lot of smoke. A few moments later the aluminium foil broke and the car still had a very rough idle. The smoke then started disappearing but 3 minutes later I looked under the car and saw both the catalytic converter and another part of the exhaust, I think that it is only tube glowing red hot. While this was happening, I verified that smoke was coming of the exhaust with what I think is enough force. The car, even with the foot down, wouldn’t rev up very much in neither LPG or Gas. After seeing this, we shut the car down and I put it in the garage again (maybe one hour later). It seemed to have a bit more power again.

      After lifting the car up I removed what remained of the aluminium foil tape and checked the holes that increased in size (quite a bit). The exhaust doesn’t seem to have a lot of corrosion (in fact, I’d say that it is quite alright) which I find odd.

      So this is everything that happened until now. But I noticed another thing: it might be just my impression but I think that the car, on Gas, makes a very smelly smoke from the exhaust. What I mean by smelly is that it seems to smell a lot of gas.

      Yesterday I tested the spark plugs cable. I couldn’t remove the spark plugs because for some reason, I don’t have a socket that fits over them (tried every size). I measured the resistance and 3 of them had what I thought to be over the limit (8,5k, +/-) and one of them under the limit (5k +/-). I also tried another thing: with the motor running, I disconnected each spark plug, one by one. In all of them I noticed the roughening of the motor sound but in one of the cylinders it toke a lot longer to notice when compared to the other ones (instant versus a few seconds later).

      Upon searching online for reasons for this problem (that seems to jump from one thing to another) the most common solutions are:
      For the rough idle/loss of power/etc: bad sparkplugs/sparkplug wires/distributor, LPG tuned incorrectly, valves needing tuning, bad injector or bad mixture.
      For the red hot catalytic converter: clogged pipe somewhere or valves needing tuning.

      I tried to disassemble the exhaust but there is one screw that is set on not coming of. From that I could see it seemed to be not clogged. I removed the muffler and a lot of corroded metal came flying out when I put the car working but the other problems remained the same. ´

      Any ideas on how to solve this whole thing? Thank you very much in advance! 🙂

    Viewing 6 replies - 61 through 66 (of 66 total)
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    • #878296
      Tiago FerreiraTiago Ferreira
      Participant

        I have another update: I re-did the test of spraying water to the engine and see if I can see any sparks. I couldn’t see any (and this time I was 100% in the dark, at nightime and inside). However, the problem gets worse when I spray water: if I push the accelerator a bit (maybe 10-20%), the car chokes itself to death. Should I record a video? I think this means something is shorting out inside the engine compartment but I don’t know what…

        #878325
        MikeMike
        Participant

          Now that the spark plug wires have been replaced,there is no reason to spray water underhood.
          It is not good to wet wiring connectors and can only create new problems by shorting out connectors.
          For those of us on a continent where this model was never sold, it would be good to post a picture of the Mitsubishi data plate on the firewall and a picture of the entire engine.

          What brand and number spark plugs are installed?
          Are these new or are they the plugs that were in it when you bought the car?
          Since the engine ran better with the narrower gap, I’m guessing they’re LPG plugs

          I would not do any testing until the gap is better adjusted , so you don’t damage the engine.

          Changing the fuel filter will eliminate the possibility that the engine is starved for fuel due to a clogged filter.

          Did you check to see if your car also has another catalytic converter at the exhaust manifold?

          Unfortunately, I really can’t tell anything from your vacuum test, since the engine started to misfire before you could hold the RPM up for more than a few seconds.
          It sounds like the engine is surging at times and misfiring at other times.

          To get a useful result from a vacuum test, the engine speed needs to be raised to 2000-3000 RPM and held there for 20-30 seconds to see if vacuum is slowly dropping..
          Since it misfires above 2000 rpm, try holding it at 2000 RPM

          Another useful test is a “snap throttle test” (rapidly open the throttle to wide open throttle and quickly release it)
          To do this:
          Snap throttle to WOT until engine at 2500 rpm. then release. Vacuum should drop to 0 then go to 25-28 then back down to normal. If vacuum returns slowly and doesn’t peak the rings may be worn.
          If there is a long delay, look for a restricted exhaust.
          If the exhaust seems restricted, disconnect at manifold and repeat the now loud test.
          (Source: Haynes Fuel Injection book )

          I’m curious to know if the engine was designed to use both gasoline/petrol and LPG when it was manufactured
          or if someone installed an LPG system after the car left the Mitsubishi factory.

          #878414
          Tiago FerreiraTiago Ferreira
          Participant

            Hi!

            The car went to the mechanic today: he will remove the distributor and try to search for one in a few stores that he knows.

            The car has been adapted for LPG after leaving the factory. This is very common here in Portugal and only today we start seeing cars sold new with LPG option.

            The spark plugs were the ones for that car, not LPG ones.

            I must thank you both for your precious help. As soon as I have any more information, I will update this topic. If the car comes from the mechanic with the problem solved, I will put the solution here so that others with a similar problem can find the solution.

            Thank you!

            #878417
            MikeMike
            Participant

              That sounds like a good decision.
              Hopefully, the distributor will solve the troubles and, if not that he figures out the cause quickly for you.
              I look forward to learning what fixes the problem.

              #881395
              Tiago FerreiraTiago Ferreira
              Participant

                Hello everyone!
                Sorry for the delay but I wanted to be sure that the problem was fixed.

                As I previously stated, I brought the car to my mechanic because he was going to try to find a distributor to test. After a long search, he did it and the problem got solved!

                After that, a few more things were made to the car: the fuel pump broke so I replaced it, I adjusted the LPG in a LPG installer and I also adjusted the TPS: it was a bit off. At the moment, the car is running every day without any problems. It has passed the annual inspection!

                So, I have to thank you all for your help. With your directions I managed to solve a few problems in the car with success.

                Thank you very much and have a great day!

                #881401
                Billy AndrewsBilly
                Participant

                  Excellent! Thanks for posting the resolution.

                Viewing 6 replies - 61 through 66 (of 66 total)
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