Right, i picked up my Altera friday morning... it's been driving sweet. Everything was going well untill me n a mate stopped outside mcdonalds to eat on friday night, when i tried to start the car...nothing...

my initial thoughts were... "right the battery is gone, better get a new one tomorrow", we managed to get some jump-leads and jump start the car, and everything was fine on the drive home.

I got up for work on Saturday morning for work and drove it in without any problems, no worries...
Now on the way home is when the problems started, every time i came to a stop it loses its revs and just stalls... it cracks back up first time and away i go again, but every time i come to a stop it just dies. I can't drive in it in this condition so i'm using my dads old 85 Mit Colt until tomorrow when i can get it back over top the garage and get them to sort it.

Basically just wondering if anyone has encountered this problem before or even knows what the problem is, and if it will cost much to repair...
Car is under 3 year warranty so i'm not fussed if it's expensive or not, would just like to know what the problem is.

I've been told that the maybe the surge from the jump leads may have knocked the comp skew-wiff and the timing is out...
I've also been told the auto-choke may be sticking...

Thanks.

When you jump start these, the ECU needs to learn how to idle again because in effect, it has been reset by the flat battery. I can only assume that you drove off straight after jump starting it? Therefore, disconnect the battery again and leave it for 10-15 minutes so that the ECU resets. Reconnect and start the car, letting it idle for another 10-15 minutes. Don't shift it into gear or drive it. Just let it sit in the drive way idling. Hopefully, that should fix the stalling problem considering that you said it was driving fine before you got the flat battery.

If it's starting ok but not driving ok could be the alternator.
Do you have a multimeter? measure the voltage accross the battery terminals with the car running, if it's not around the 14.4v mark, the alternator has had it.

When you jump start these, the ECU needs to learn how to idle again

Yep that's right. Mitsubishi made retarded cars that don't know how to idle :roll:

It's sounds like you just need to get a new battery.

Yep that's right. Mitsubishi made retarded cars that don't know how to idle :roll:

It's sounds like you just need to get a new battery.

I got a new battery from the servo last night, connected it but started driving more or less straight after hooking it all up...
Still was stalling... :cry: i'll do what Bill said when i finish work tonight and ill see how i go.

Tried searching for you but I can't find it. It's not the ecu, its the tcu. You have to do some certain pattern putting it in and out of gears before you drive it, then drive it a certain way. I'll try find it again...

When you jump start these, the ECU needs to learn how to idle again because in effect, it has been reset by the flat battery. I can only assume that you drove off straight after jump starting it? Therefore, disconnect the battery again and leave it for 10-15 minutes so that the ECU resets. Reconnect and start the car, letting it idle for another 10-15 minutes. Don't shift it into gear or drive it. Just let it sit in the drive way idling. Hopefully, that should fix the stalling problem considering that you said it was driving fine before you got the flat battery.

The above worked, or atleast seems to be at the minute.

If i start to have trouble again ill get it looked at...

Thanks again Billy!

Yep that's right. Mitsubishi made retarded cars that don't know how to idle :roll:

It's sounds like you just need to get a new battery.

haha wrong, my batt has been disconnected for 2 weeks and it starts and goes and runs propley 1st time :badgrin:

I love the knowledge base here
"when you jump start a mits you need to reset the comp"
"Check your altinator"

Guys, no offense but when you post please do so with some knowledge or even basic understanding.....

For starters, quicksilver did not even state if the car cranked and did not fire or if it was simply dead. He does not state enough info about the stalling problem either to state what this could be. And all of you geniuses have also negated to tell Quicksilver that Magna's do not have a auto choke, they have a fast Idle and it is ECU controlled and if it was not turning off the revs would be higher not lower. Also, when you jump start a Magna it needs to have the ECU reset? Bollocks. The ECU will retain it's memory with as little as 9v at such a low current you could hardly measure the draw. Thus why a 9v battery in the cig lighter socket is used commonly when disconnecting the battery to make sure the ECU retains it's memory!

Poss problems,
You just purchased the car? I assume as you have a 3 year warrenty it was in a yard sitting for a while, if so you may have had a corroded battery terminal, putting the jumper leads on may have disturbed the terminal and now it all goes. NEVER jump start any EFI car unless your leads are surge protected!
Stalling, is a harder one without looking at the car. I would first LOAD test the battery before drawing any assumption it is shagged, if it is then try replacement. If the alt was shagged you would be constantly jump starting thus it would be obvious aside from the alt light being on.
Find out why the car would not start in the first place and you will then most likely find why it will not idle now.

I love the knowledge base here
"when you jump start a mits you need to reset the comp"
"Check your altinator"

Guys, no offense but when you post please do so with some knowledge or even basic understanding.....

For starters, quicksilver did not even state if the car cranked and did not fire or if it was simply dead. He does not state enough info about the stalling problem either to state what this could be. And all of you geniuses have also negated to tell Quicksilver that Magna's do not have a auto choke, they have a fast Idle and it is ECU controlled and if it was not turning off the revs would be higher not lower. Also, when you jump start a Magna it needs to have the ECU reset? Bollocks. The ECU will retain it's memory with as little as 9v at such a low current you could hardly measure the draw. Thus why a 9v battery in the cig lighter socket is used commonly when disconnecting the battery to make sure the ECU retains it's memory!

Poss problems,
You just purchased the car? I assume as you have a 3 year warrenty it was in a yard sitting for a while, if so you may have had a corroded battery terminal, putting the jumper leads on may have disturbed the terminal and now it all goes. NEVER jump start any EFI car unless your leads are surge protected!
Stalling, is a harder one without looking at the car. I would first LOAD test the battery before drawing any assumption it is shagged, if it is then try replacement. If the alt was shagged you would be constantly jump starting thus it would be obvious aside from the alt light being on.
Find out why the car would not start in the first place and you will then most likely find why it will not idle now.

wow, that was a bit long winded.
since you are the greater knowledge of mitsubishi's, can you explain the following....


When you jump start these, the ECU needs to learn how to idle again because in effect, it has been reset by the flat battery. I can only assume that you drove off straight after jump starting it? Therefore, disconnect the battery again and leave it for 10-15 minutes so that the ECU resets. Reconnect and start the car, letting it idle for another 10-15 minutes. Don't shift it into gear or drive it. Just let it sit in the drive way idling. Hopefully, that should fix the stalling problem considering that you said it was driving fine before you got the flat battery.
The above worked, or atleast seems to be at the minute.

If i start to have trouble again ill get it looked at...

Thanks again Billy!

it appears to me that the guys here who lack even "some knowledge or even basic understanding" have figured out and sorted the problem.


lol

I think that I was clear enough when I stated that the battery would have to be pretty much completely dead for the ECU to loose it's memory.

If this were the case, the car would not go full stop and when he stopped the car it would have been pretty much obvious when all electrics now being run by the altinator stopped when the key was turned off? As I said, if there was a dirty battery terminal which was then disturbed when the leads were put on, this can semi explain the problem, however having said this, a few seconds of no power will also not clear the ECU as the latent voltage left in the capacitors will keep it going for a minute or so, thus why you are instructed to disconnect for at least 15 minutes

I am not the all knowing however simply put, I work on many of these cars, I have done the relevent training and I have been working on cars over 20 years, so yes, I do know what I am talking about

I love the knowledge base here
"when you jump start a mits you need to reset the comp"
"Check your altinator"

Guys, no offense but when you post please do so with some knowledge or even basic understanding.....
I'm not a mechanic or even pretend to be, but i'm just going off past experience, and the OP had similar symptons as to when my alternator was on it's way out. Sure enough we didn't get much info to go on, but there's no harm in "checking" these things out as it's really easy to check whether the alternator is working or not.

haha wrong, my batt has been disconnected for 2 weeks and it starts and goes and runs propley 1st time :badgrin:

I think you need to tune your sarcasm detector.

(hence the rolling eyes in my post)

Gotta tell ya that I was a little sceptical that resetting the ECU (or TCU) would mean it needed to be retrained.
That was until I disconnected the battery for about an hour this arvy on my TJ to install a new HU. Once I reconnected the battery, it wouldn't idle at all, it kept on dropping the revs down to next to nothing and then stalling.
It took me about 30 minutes of letting the car idle in neutral, then in gear, and then with the airconditioning on, till it finally started to idle properly

Whats the go with that, why can't it idle properly with the default settings. Is it because the engine has 200,000 on it and the ECU or TCU needs to act differently for an older engine??

Glen

Gotta tell ya that I was a little sceptical that resetting the ECU (or TCU) would mean it needed to be retrained.
That was until I disconnected the battery for about an hour this arvy on my TJ to install a new HU. Once I reconnected the battery, it wouldn't idle at all, it kept on dropping the revs down to next to nothing and then stalling.
It took me about 30 minutes of letting the car idle in neutral, then in gear, and then with the airconditioning on, till it finally started to idle properly

Whats the go with that, why can't it idle properly with the default settings. Is it because the engine has 200,000 on it and the ECU or TCU needs to act differently for an older engine??

Glen

It's nothing to do with the engine management system. No one with a manual has these problems. It's the autos. Theres a transmission learning procedure you're supposed to do with the stick but I can't find the link any more. Either that or let it idle for 15 mins in park/neutral.

People are acting like the ecu goes and deletes all its maps and has to guess how to make the engine run again after the battery gets disconnected :nuts:

Guys, no offense but when you post please do so with some knowledge or even basic understanding.....

How do i post with some knowledge when this is my first car...

I've never even touched a car magazine and have never been under the hood, i know very little about this kinda stuff. I intend to improve my knowledge in time, but at this moment my main focus was to get this car going again.

So at the min i couldn't really help this side of things.



For starters, quicksilver did not even state if the car cranked and did not fire or if it was simply dead. He does not state enough info about the stalling problem either to state what this could be.

I must have given enough info on what was going on otherwise Billy Mason PI wouldn't have given me a solution to solve the problem would he?...

All is still well at the moment with the car, and i will take your advice and go buy some surge protector jump-leads so that hopefully this doesn't happen in the future.

Here is the link to re-learn the transmission:

http://aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16115&highlight=auto+relearn

very interesting, begs the question why the transmission would need to learn how not to stall the car..

Glen

Mine had similar probs, new battery fixed it up. What i'd do would be to buy a new battery - good one - and go from there, if it still doens't fix it, will probably be your alt.

How do i post with some knowledge when this is my first car...

I've never even touched a car magazine and have never been under the hood, i know very little about this kinda stuff. I intend to improve my knowledge in time, but at this moment my main focus was to get this car going again.

So at the min i couldn't really help this side of things.




I must have given enough info on what was going on otherwise Billy Mason PI wouldn't have given me a solution to solve the problem would he?...

All is still well at the moment with the car, and i will take your advice and go buy some surge protector jump-leads so that hopefully this doesn't happen in the future.

Mate, the reason you posted was because you wanted to know what may be the problem. I was not having a go at anyone however as usual people do not like it when an opinion differs to thiers.

With a little more info such as did the car crank and not fire, was the car totally dead, did you have electrics and no crank etc makes a big change to making an accurate diagnosis with what the problem may be.

The problem with guessing is it may cause you to look in a different direction or even worse, make a minor problem worse as happens frequently on all forums.

Mate, the reason you posted was because you wanted to know what may be the problem. I was not having a go at anyone however as usual people do not like it when an opinion differs to thiers.

With a little more info such as did the car crank and not fire, was the car totally dead, did you have electrics and no crank etc makes a big change to making an accurate diagnosis with what the problem may be.

The problem with guessing is it may cause you to look in a different direction or even worse, make a minor problem worse as happens frequently on all forums.

I 100% agree with you mate, but you can understand my situation... first car, strange things happening, me panicing.

In hindsight i should've given you those kinds of details, but it was a quick post and not really thought out.

Sorry if it looked like i was ranting at you, writing on a forum can sometimes come across as more agressive than what your actually meaning irl when your doing thw writing... (If you get what i mean?... :nuts: )

{Admin edit, watch swearing please }the ecu, tcu?? (Lord help us..), transmission etc, etc...
I'd look at the ISC, and use a rag drenched in throttle body cleaner to wipe all the gum/carbon off it. Do that, while replacing the "O" ring with a new one from Mitsu spares.
Clean out the gum and crap around the butterfly in the throttle body as well.
Take it for a short drive, and I'm 99% certain your car won't stall or play up!

The ISC is just under the throat of the throttle body. Look for the black plastic looking thingy with the square black plug on it. On some earlier models, the black plastic thingy was actually tan/brown in colour. It is held in by 2 phillips/8mm head bolts, don't drop them! The throttle body is the alloy opening to where that fat rubber tube goes into, close to the firewall. That's the easiest description I can provide.