Engine sputters and shuts off

DANIEL CANTINO

MEMBER
2002 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE
3.0L
V6
2WD
MANUAL
160,000 MILES

I have the car listed gt model. Recently the car started sputtering while driving. I replaced all wires, plugs, and gaskets. This time it sputters, wouldn't accelerate and shut off. One time if I feathered the pedal the car would sputter then go but twice it shut off. I took it by a. Shop and mechanic said the timing is not advancing and to change distributor. I don't think that's it. What do you think?

Saturday, August 24th, 2019 AT 12:42 PM

3 Replies

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Hi,

This is possible but I would wonder how they determined it was the distributor? Basically, the PCM is responsible for setting the timing. Please see the attached documents for detail.

Basically, the timing is manipulated to achieve the best possible performance.

If you can provide me the detail about what they found to condemn the distributor and I can help confirm this or tell if they are "guessing."

thanks

Images (Click to make bigger)

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Saturday, August 24th, 2019 AT 5:18 PM

DANIEL CANTINO

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I asked him if it could be a few things and the only thing he told me was the code that came back was the timing was not advancing. Now I'll be honest I have no clue what this means. Or how to fix it. But everything I asked him he just said didn't control the timing from advancing and said he believed it was the distributor so I ordered that part which will be here Tuesday but for some reason I don't think that's it. The car has no other symptoms besides what I wrote above.

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Saturday, August 24th, 2019 AT 10:57 PM

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Okay. He very well could be correct. The distributor is what is used to deliver the spark from the ignition coil to the spark plugs. The internal components of the distributor (rotor) will actually rotate and if the PCM wants to advance or retard the ignition to get better performance it will do so through the distributor.

My only concern is that the distributor is just doing what it is told. However, depending on what the code was, it may limit it down to just the distributor.

Clearly I don't know this mechanic but at this point, he has more info than I do and I don't see any reason is wrong. I can't say he is correct but I would suggest to just follow through with it and see what happens. If he is wrong, I am sure he will help you out with whatever the issue is.

Let me know what happens. Thanks

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Sunday, August 25th, 2019 AT 1:13 PM