I Have a TH 2000 Magna Sports with the following problem.
After driving perfectly normally for a period of time (always different) the accelerator all of a sudden becomes inoperable. That is the car is still running, can change gears, all appears normal exept that electronically the accelerator will now not work at all. Also associated with this (intermittently) the TCL light will blink on the instrument panel. This problem may all of a sudden go as quickly as it came but for the most part you need to turn off the engine and then back on and you may be able to limp home. I'm just trying to get an idea before the dealer 'rips me off', which they have a great track record of doing. When fixed unfortunately 2 things will happen, a dirty letter to Mitsubishi and.. I will never buy a mitsubishi again. A shame as I had high hopes after 'Toyotaing' for many years. Ah well, any help appreciated.

It sounds like the Traction Control System could be faulty. Have you tried turning TCL off?

:stoopid:
not that i think you're stupid, i just agree

Tried to turn off the TCL but it makes no difference as I said it's intermittent and the resultant problem isn't always the flashing TCL light. I just thought someone may have come across this before.

Appreciate the quick replies!

Traction control light will blink on if your aternator voltage drops below around 11.5V. The car isnt on the brink of stalling or anything? The throttle is directly linked by a cable to the TB so im wondering how it can become in operative.....unless what i have mentioned above is happening and the TCL is cutting air flow to the engine.

Traction control light will blink on if your aternator voltage drops below around 11.5V. The car isnt on the brink of stalling or anything? The throttle is directly linked by a cable to the TB so im wondering how it can become in operative.....unless what i have mentioned above is happening and the TCL is cutting air flow to the engine.


That's correct, the throttle is not "drive-by-wire" technology.

Before this phenomeneon occurs, does the car drive perfectly?

That's correct, the throttle is not "drive-by-wire" technology.

Before this phenomeneon occurs, does the car drive perfectly?

Yes before this the car drove without a hitch. I can honestly say it was a pleasure to drive as it has been regularly serviced and rarely goes more than 10000 without an oil change. I had no warning, precursor, to this happening. The only thing I can possibly relate by events it that just prior to the car going faulty it was caught in a severe sand storm (I mean severe!) close to a beach, half an hour before the problem appeared. There was a lot of sand in the engine bay and the car for that matter. I was able to drive the car for half an hour away from the beach before the problem surfaced. Don't know if this has anything to do with it. I checked and cleaned the air filter. Got some pleasure by resetting the computer (disconnecting battery) which gave me a day and a half of the usual idle problem. Once the idle problem cleared this original problem resurfaced.

Again, really appreciate the help.

does anything at all happen when you stomp the accelerator? it could possibly be a throttle position sensor, but then engine would still do something,

perhaps theres some sort of restriction on your intake somewhere, that would cause the throttle to do nothing (ie something else is restricting the flow of air to the engine instead of the throttle butterfly)

other than that, would need more details

Edit - Now i see your bit about the sand, how much was in the air filter? perhaps its a good idea to get the car checked out, if the sand is causing problems then i wouldnt take any chances

Had the problem diagnosed today and they found the following.
It appears the the Thermal Air Intake Sensor is faulty which apparantly causes the symptoms as described. And wouldn't you know it Mitsubishi (finally) said 'oh yeah we seen that before'. Unfortunately though no part available till next week so they told the computer to deal with it until then which it appears to be doing. 'They' by the way is Ultra Tune, after too many bad experiences practically and financially Mitsubishi will never get their hands on the car again.

Thanks for all your help and feedback I can' tell how much I appreciated it especially the speed with which it came.

Thanks again
Dutchy.