I have a '03 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS that's doing some funky things...
My best friend is a mechanic of 26 years, and more recently he's been
working on Semis; however I think we have hit a wall and I would like to see
if anyone has any ideas.
My car is a '03 Eclipse GS with a 4 Cylinder 2.4 ltr engine with a single
overhead cam and has about 153k miles on it.
I have been driving on a misfiring cylinder 4 for quite some time now, and
finally I was driving down the road, I shifted from second into first and as I let
out on the clutch the car stalled. Thinking I might have just been an idiot I
cranked it back up and went down the road, and then again clutch in move
into first stall before letting the clutch out. This time my car wouldn't start, it
would fire and then immediately stall out.
We got the car back to my friends, but as the car would rev past 2k it would
make this rattling sound almost like a BMX bike. He assumed it was sludge
build up causing a lack of oil pressure causing the car to stall, and that the
noise was probably just a heat shield rattling. First we pulled the valve cover
off to verify it wasn't a bad roller or cam causing the noise. The cam and
rollers had no wear on them and oil pressure was sufficiently being
generated. Then we did a compression test:
Cyl 1: 170
Cyl 2: 150
Cyl 3: 90
Cyl 4: 100
Compression was low in cylinder 3/4 but should still be operational.
So we did a prolong oil treatment, and replaced the ignition coil that was
supposedly causing the misfire. We started the car but after getting to temp it
was still misfiring and stalling moving into first. So we replaced the plugs as a
couple were wrecked. Start the car, all 4 cylinders are running and the noise
is still there but it ran fine on my way home.
This morning, I went to go to work and we had the same stalling issue. I
have however learned that if I go from second to neutral the car won't stall at
a stop which seems weird. I don't know what to do at this point and neither
does my friend. The noise is a mystery, my friend said it may be my crank
but if it was the car would have died by now; and the stalling is still and
issue.
TL;DR My car stalls moving from second to first gear while the clutch is in,
but not when I go from second to neutral at a stop. The car makes a weird
rattling sound that makes it sound like I'm driving a BMX bike or I have a
dumb ricer muffler. Compression was low but operational, cams are fine, no
sludge, replaced the ignition coil and the plugs.
Thanks for the help in advance!
PS Don't bash my choice in car please.