1995 Mitsubishi Galant 4G64 SOHC - Hard Starting

As the title says... 1995 Mitsubishi Galant 4G64 SOHC starts but almost always having trouble with starting the engine.

The engine will turn and will try to start but will die immediately. The engine will try to start and then will die immediately without any hesitation.

With a little persuasion, and several waiting and attempts, it will start and run fine.

I even cruise the freeway at 70MPH or so, and drive in stop-and-go rush hour traffic, silky smooth, without stalling as long as I dont shut the engine OFF because I'm pretty sure I will have trouble re-starting it.

Hard starting occurss intermittently and randomly. Sometimes, it will start with the 1st try, but sometimes, on the "nth" time. It doesn't matter whether the engine is stone-cold or fully warmed-up.

On one occasion, I shut off the engine to fill up gas at the pump and had a hard time re-starting the engine.

Here's what I did, so far:

1) Changed the spark plugs, spark plug-wires, cap and rotor.

2) Cleaned the MAF sensor (inside the air box between the air filter element and the rubber duct connected to the throttle body) with CRC MAF spray cleaner.

3) Unplugged one injector harness at a time while idling to verify if pumping fuel, the idle gets rough when injector which lead me to believe that there is fuel and there is signal from the ECU.

4) Removed the front timing covers off to check and verify the timing marks and they all line up accordingly with cylinder #1 at TDC, compression stroke.

As I have mentioned, the car drives great with no problems once started but the problem is getting it started.

Any ideas? Please help! This car is my daily driver and any help, assistance, suggestions and ideas are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

--- T-Doug

Continue with your basic maintenance change fuel filter next.

Its either fuel issue or spark issue.

About spark problem - next time you have the problem, pull each one of the spark plug wires stick a screw driver in the boot and get the screw driver near any engine metal part about 2-3mm away and have someone crank the engine.. If they all spark then your distributor is good. If spark is weak or missing then its time for new distributor, no way around it. Crank position and cam position sensors are in it, so it has to be replaced. If you have to buy a new one - make sure you get a distributor for 94-95 Galants, 96-98 models have different distributor although they look similar. there's a notch on the distributor shaft so pay attention where that notch is when you pull the distributor, so if you have to replace it, you put the distributor with the notch pointing the same way.

About fuel problem - next time it happens and you have been cranking the car, you need to wait about 30 min for the fuel pressure to subside. Unbolt the 2 10mm bolts to remove the feed line off the fuel rail and put it in a bottle. Have someone to crank the car the flow should be very strong and consistent. If its weak or its breaking up or something then your fuel pump is shot. Replace fuel filter as suggested above.

It important to perform the checks in this order - spark and then fuel. Why? Cuz if you have spark then both crank and cam sensors are working. With the cam sensor working, it sends a signal to the ECu to activate the fuel pump. Without that signal the fuel pump wont start and if you preform the checks backwards then you just replaced the fuel pump for nothing. Now if you get no spark, but you smell raw fuel and the engine gets flooded, then the cam sensor is good, but the crank sensor has an intermittent issue.

I may be getting an intermittent spark issue because I have those symptoms/conditions as you described. There are times when with just one turn of the key and the engine starts right away and sometimes, I have to do this dance of turn the key and wait, and no start, then repeat... until it does. But when it does, it runs normally, silky smooth and no hiccups, as it should, until I turn the key OFF, then I have to cringe every time I turn the key to START...

As you mentioned, I do get that raw fuel smell whenever the engine fails to start, so I am under the impression that fuel pump is good, fuel relay is good and ECU is good as they are all sending fuel to the injectors/engine.

As far as the spark, I already verified that there is spark. If it's strong or weak? I am not sure because I have nothing to compare it with (other vehicle is a Diesel) and I don't have a baseline of what is a strong spark or what is a weak spark. All I can say is there is spark, it's not blue, not white, not yellow, but it's more of a pink spark.

With all that being said, I think we can all narrow it down to the Distributor (which you said is like a 3-in-1, distributor/coil, cam position, and crank position sensors.

Someone suggested to check the Coolant Temperature Sensor. Do you happen to know where I can find the coolant temp sensor and what is your opinion on that? I did some reading on pages after pages of threads here which are related to no start on 7th Gen Galant, it was said that a bad Coolant Temp Sensor will make the fuel rich, thus flooding the engine with excessive fuel in addition to my distributor's questionable weak and inconsistent spark.

And yes, when this hard starting drama started, I now notice smoke at the tail pipe, like the engine is running rich, that why I've included the Coolant Temp Sensor into the equation.

Like you've said, I am also leaning towards the distributor to a strong candidate of being the culprit but I just hate to buy and change expensive parts that are working. I really wanted to pinpoint what the real problem is before I start replacing parts.

Are you sure you have spark when the issue is happening? I mean if you had spark you wouldnt be smelling the raw fuel. And if you had spark then you didnt have the issue, am I correct?

On the coolant temp sensor - the coolant temp sensor only switches the ECU from open loop mode to closed loop mode. ECU is in open loop at first start up in the morning and wide open throttle. When the engine is cold in the morning the ECU doesnt use the oxygen sensor, it runs off enriched ECU map to help the engine warm up quicker. As the engine warms up, the coolant temp sensor changes its value which is detected by the ECU which turns into closed loop mode and it starts using the oxygen sensor to control the air-fuel ratios. If the coolant temp sensor goes bad then the ecu is stuck in the morning rich map where it would run rich all the time, giving you bad gas mileage

you can find a brand new distributor on ebay for under $100.

Local parts store would charge you over $200 for it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mko

Are you sure you have spark when the issue is happening? I mean if you had spark you wouldnt be smelling the raw fuel. And if you had spark then you didnt have the issue, am I correct?

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That's exactly the same reason it baffles and puzzles me... there is spark every time I check for one

Just an update, for future references and for other members who will encounter the same problems...

For the past month or so, since my last post on this thread, I've been nursing the Galant and doing the same ritual (saying a little prayer with fingers and toes, crossed) with each attempt to start the engine and with a couple of attempts or on a good day with just a single attempt the car will start and run fine until Saturday afternoon when it finally quit and will not start at all, and low and behold, there is NO spark whatsoever.

Yesterday, I decided to try my luck and made a quick stroll around our local bone yard just to see what it has to offer and found a 7th Gen Galant, a 1994, and the engine appears to be intact with about 160K+ miles on the odometer and pulled its distributor. (mine is at 216K+ miles)

I swapped the boneyard distributor onto my beloved Galant, ball-parked the distributor timing, buttoned her up, turned the key and Yesss!!!! She's alive!!!! It started right away!

So, to recap, the symptoms are the engine is hard to start or it will start but dies immediately after it starts as if someone turned the key to OFF, but runs perfectly as long as the engine is running. The car runs fine and silky smooth, it doesn't stall or hesitate, no cough, no hiccups. It's been like this for the past 5 weeks or so until it finally refused to start no matter what. Replaced the distributor and has been always starting on the first attempt, without dying as it should, since. So the culprit is a bad distributor.

Thanks for all the input, insights, advise and ideas, Gentlemen!!!!

I read this and was gonna say distributor. My first 7G was a 95 and did the exact same thing when the distributor went.