Car dying....

[Riven]

I have been pushing my car a little, getting it up to about 5000 RPMs. The thing that has me a bit worried is the car seems to die suddenly after about 10 seconds at that level. The car suddenly drops to 0 RPMs but, I still have full control of the car...I am luckly and have been able to coast out of traffic.

I was wondering what could cause that. My only idea is they regapped the sparkplugs wrong, I asked the guy that regapped them and he said he did it to .025 inches :shock: instead of the .039 inches.

The car starts right up after this is I let it sit for 1/2 a minute and I pump the gas a couple of times.

Thanks for your help,
Scott

[Jesse]

re-gap those quick to .41

no matter what it says, put NGK v-power coppers in there at .41 and that will fix something, but I don't know if that has to do with your car dying. I think it may.

[Riven]

Well, I got new plugs, I was going to wait until Saturday to put them in but, I guess I will do it tonight.

Thanks,
Scott

[TJC]

If you get platinum or iridium plugs, they always come pre-gapped. At high rpms, you might have a fuel delivery problem so it dies b/c it can't get the proper amount of fuel (bad fuel pump, fuel filter, dirty injectors). You also do reg. maintenance like oil change and both oil and air filters too.

[Kain]

Sounds like you're hitting the rev limiter, and hard. But, that's not untill really close to 6500 rpms, and you said only around 5000 are you having problems. You're obviously getting a fuel cut of some sort. I'd suspect the fuel pump, the fuel filter, or the injectors. Of course I'd also inspect the wiring associated with all of those things as well. Or, maybe even an air shortage? You have a fuel injected car, pumping the gas pedal does absolutely nothing. I really don't think it's your plugs. I've seen cars with less than .020 gap that would still run (really crappy, but they still ran)

[Riven]

Well, tired the new plugs out and about the same, I got the rev right around 5500 to 5800 before it died. Well, I am guessing it is not a die deal...I don't really plan to push my car that hard. The only reason I even found this was because I was on the highway going 75, and I need a little boost to get around another car.

I have some fuel injector cleaner in there now.

One other thing, I am not sure how long the car was sitting before I bought it about ten days ago. So, it could be old gas in the tank. All, I know is the rims were rusted on and the oil in the engine was pitch black when i went to work on those areas...

Maybe, I will try changing the fuel filter...if it only acts up at that high of RPMs I am not going to worry about it too much since i don't plan to race her or anything.

Thank you,
Scott

[manybrews]

1)spark plugs are NOT going to cause that. they could be 3 years old and worn out, and as long as they still arc from the electrode to the ground they will work fine.
2)fuel injector cleaner is a total waste of money. it is not going to help your performance, and it certainly isnt going to "clean" your fuel injectors. any quality gas you buy is already loaded with detergents, so the weak stuff you add at the gas station is useless.
if the injectors are in fact clogged, they need to either be professionally cleaned, or replaced (neither of which ive needed to do more than a handful of times on mitsus, and these were all ancient mitsus anyway)
3)a fuel filter isnt going to be the problem either.


we need to know more.

[bongi]

replace the fuel filter, the 5500-6500 rpm is just a coincidence, if it is clogged it takes that amount of rpm to let the fuel flow, after that it dies and if you release the gas runs just fine. that is the filter alright, eventually when it gets totally clogged you will have hard starts. plugs even if it is bad will not give this, usually it is rough idle.