Question
The Engine
I've been working on a 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS 2.0 4 cylinder 420a for a half year now. It started as a project car, and is almost finished, but it backfires.
I try to start it, it cranks idles and run rough. It just backfires. I tried to drive it down the road and it just jumps really bad and then eventually it will go but then it dies.
I've noticed that we put gas in, but the fuel gauge stays at empty. When we check to see if fuel is flowing to the engine, through the throttle body, there is a lot of fuel being sprayed. Could this be a fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, or injector problem? Could it be something else?
AnswerHi Donovan,
The fuel spray should be very fine and uniform at idle and it should stop without dripping when you turn off the engine. Have you tried for fault codes using the ignition key? On-off-on-off-on and leave on, doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains on, to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat the process to be sure of an accurate set of aflash counts. Then tell the counts in order of appearance and we'll go from there. The back firing makes me wonder if the timing of the crankshaft and the camshafts is correct, but let us see what codes show up.
Roland
PS Please rate my answer. Thank you.
