Mitsubishi Repair: 1991 mitsubishi galant, throttle position sensor, vacuum leaks

Question
hi there, my 91 galant has 114494 miles and i can't remember when i have to get the timing belt serviced? also, i have some oil leaks i need to take care of but in the last two weeks, the car feels like its out of gear all the time! it happens when i try to accelerate, revs up and then chucks and then when i put the breaks on it chucks as well. if i get going to up to 40 mph or so it runs fine - no stalling or chucking. could this be related to the oil leaks
(oil pan cracked as well as leaks around the thing you put oil in) or could it be related to the timing belt issue? the motor mounts were all replaced 1.5 yr ago. anything you could surmise will help! thanks linda!

Answer
Tana:No oil leaks won't mess with the running of a engine unless the car is looseing a lot of oil. You do check it often, right? When is the last time you did a good tune up? That would be distributor cap, rotor, stark plugs and wires? The chucks or stalling could be caused by one of these or more of these... fuel injection system out of adjustment or excessively worn, fuel filter clogged, vacuum leaks or your throttle position sensor could be loose and moving around. So the computer can not get a good reading off it. I tell everyone with your year of car to have it coded. AutoZone would do this for free, it would rule out any problem with any sensor(s)or the computer. You know don't you that Mitsubishi farmed out the building of their computers to another company which did not build very good ones, a piece will start to leak into the computer and with time will kill off the computer. This leaking shows up many ways but if you had the car coded; and the computer was going bad it would show up with that coding. Coding is when they hook your car's computer up to their computer which reads all the sensors and the computer; it either kids out a good report or it tells of problems. Another thing you could have checked is the fuel pump, you know don't you that you should not let your tank get below 1/4 tank of fuel, because the fuel is what keeps the fuel pump cool. If you do that to much, you will with time burn out the fuel pump. Though I don't think that your problem because the car runs fine when you push it, so the fuel pump has to be doing it's job. But the fuel filter might be clogged. As far as your timing belt, when it goes; it just goes. I would say with the miles you have one your car, I would get the car in for a replacement. Because if the timing belt breaks while you are driving the car, it takes the valves with it and then you will have to have engine rebuild.Remember to keep an eye on your car's oil because of the leaks, get that timing belt replaced and a tune up would be good too. Hope this helps and good luck! Linda :o)