Ok guys, have a bit of a strange one going on at the moment.

Cars on 198,000 almost ready for its 200,000.

Yesterday I was driving then I flicked my air con on, car started to missfire a little bit as though it was under heavy load. So I switched it back off pulled up to this chicks house and I could hear on idle it was still intermittenly? missfiring, once I go above about 1500 - 1700rpm its fine, clears up and will drive perfect under low load and high load. It is clearly a missfire because I can feel massive power cut from the car but only on idle and first few rpm's but not all the time...

WHAT THE?

Could be? : Leads on the way out? Plugs going? dirty injector? thoughts? Im leaning towards fuel and not spark as it would be more consistant if it was a spark issue through the RPM and not down low and not under low load...

Another thing wrong with your lemon :P
So it misses on idle yeah?
Could be what you mentioned or maybe fuel
When was the last time the fuel filter was replaced?

wait im confused. which is the lemon the te or the tr? or both. dual lemons!
maybe leave it and see if mitsu have anything to say about it when you do the service, as the car is generally pretty stock isnt it.
no harm in trying that anyway? if they dont know/dont care you havent lost anything...

sounds like a lead breaking down to me, test them with a multimetre

Yeah, this is what I'm thinking, lead breaking down and/or injector.... and as for the lemon, neither are lemons!! they just have character

Mine does this, but only in drive. The mechanics were stumped and just told me to run a few tanks of premium to see if it may just be dirty injectors (doesnt make sense though, because it clears up at higher revs). Pretty much Im just going to have to drive it till something fails.

Well I have only 1500kms till service and its going to get plugs, leads, new dizzy cap? (if they have them on the 3.0? still in 2.6 mode) the ducks nuts of 200,000's when im done ;) But if its gone when the service is done atleast ill have a list of wht ive done and we can work from there.

I dont think its fuel man cuz I run 95 as a minimum in my car never 91. the only thing im thinking is what was suggested above: 1. lead breaking down or 2. spark plug on its way out.... its more of a spark issue, cuz ive had my fair share of stuff ups in the 2.6..... its definately not a dizzy issue.

Kudos on pulling up to a chicks house.

May i ask, what is a misfire, and what does it sound like? I hope my car isnt doing it atm!

misfire,... is when the fuel in one of the clyinders isnt igniting 100% correctly, Leads, spark plug, spark plug gap... Could just be a lead earthing out, check it out at Night time mate ( if you havent done) and see if you can see a spark coming off the leads...

Extreme case... " MAPP or AFM " might be playing up causing the ECU to play around with the timing ( I've had this happen to me ) Either that give it a :beer: "aka drink" sure she'll love it hahahahah

Another possibility is the Idle Speed Control Motor not opening the idle valve enough when the AC is turned on.

I see what you mean about the ISC but the RPM usually starts playing up at the same time when this starts to go, thing is, my idle is still a perfect 850-900rpm.

As for the difference between a missfire and a backfire is easy. Missfire you will actually feel a power cut, pending how bad it is, can feel like hitting a brick wall if you accellerating quiet fast. Back fire is more like an over fuel issue and you get a bit of a bang come out of your exhaust, like my TR when it backfires I get about 1/2 a meter flame come out the back due to massive overfuelling issues. Then you can get the missfire to happen and cause a backfire, which ive also experienced.

^^^ not the best person to explain stuff I just know? And thanks for the kudos for the chick comment, ahaha, I was taking her to get her work clothes to stay the night. Probably wouldnt have stayed if my car didnt leave her house or left on a tow truck.

This issue is still occuring it just seems to be a little better, but still definately there. It will drive perfect as soon as I clutch in or sit in neutral you occasionally hear it backfire, some times it will play with me when I take off, but some times it doesnt.

Sounds like its playing some real silly buggers there, when you clutch out and fix the problem its indicating that it only does it under load.

Might be worth pulling the diagnostic codes from the ECU to see if there's anything electronic that's playing up, otherwise I'm out of ideas.

If after changing leads/plugs you're still experiencing the issue, check the fuel filter. If thats fine you can try disconnecting the O2 sensor, if the problem goes away, it could be a faulty O2 sensor. I had similar issue with my TF when I had it, random misfire and splutter, but with mine it got to the point it'll sometimes stall on take offs. With the O2 disconnected it ran much better, but obviously used more fuel. You can get O2 sensors (if thats the issue) for around $80 buck from memory.

Thanks for your help. I'll have to see where mine is as I am running a full exhaust system on my magna!

Do you know where the ECU is Ben?
You need to get access through the passenger side of the center console, I can show you where it is tomorrow night if you want?
No need to find it on the exhaust system, just unplug it from inside the car

ok man that would be great, its actually gotten worse now so I think its definately a lead or a plug so Im gonna order them tomorrow

Seems to be that its my spark plugs dying. I've replaced the front bank of plugs and its seemed to 99% fixed it, so maybe one on the rear is slowly dying, just an occasional miss on idle now. :) Lucky it was the front bank and not the rear, drove on the AMC meet tonight and it didnt miss a beat under acceleration.