2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse Car Misfired P0301, now it wont sta

Tiny
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  • 2001 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE
Engine Performance problem
2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse 6 cyl Front Wheel Drive Manual 104xxx miles

My mitsubishi has been misfiring 2 days after I have put in premium fuel. The code; P0301, misfire, cylinder 1. About a week or two, I noticed that if the car starts misfiring, I can restart the car, and the misfire would go away. Today, coming back from work, it started to misfire, then died. I tried to restart, but the car would die again, then I restarted and held the gas pedal, at about 2 - 3k rpms, then the misfire went away. Then when I got home, she died out, and will not start unless I keep my foot on the gas.

Replaced with no change in performance; wires, spark plugs, coils, distributor cap and rotor, cylinder 1 injector.

I also noticed that, when I turn my key to ON position, I cannot hear my fuel pump pressurize. Could that be the cause of the whole problem? And could the fuel pump have thrown me the P0301?
Sunday, April 19th, 2009 AT 4:04 AM

7 Replies

Tiny
MONTY STEPHENS
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I was thinking fuel pump and also how a bad misfire might cause th timing to be lost.

If its the fuel pump, your car would probably not run at all. Like you said when you turn your key on the pump should run for 5 seconds or so. If you don't hear it, turn on the key a few times and then nd let it pressurize the system. The with a rag covering it pop the fule fittinga dn see if gas sprays out -- or get a gauge ($30 autozone).

Bad fuel would also make it run bad.
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Monday, April 20th, 2009 AT 2:54 PM
Tiny
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I am going to go ahead and order a pump today or tomorrow. Today I tried starting the car again, it would barely turn on and stay on, but misfired like hell, seems like all 6 cylinders are misfiring now, which drives me to think fuel pump even more. When the car would run though, if I accelerated, the engine would start misfiring, again. Cause of insufficient fuel getting into the engine. As far as turning the key, I did like 20 times, no luck, I can hear my relay clicking, but pump wont budge. Either way, anything ignition-wise has been changed, so it has to be fuel delivery now, fuel pump.
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Monday, April 20th, 2009 AT 5:58 PM
Tiny
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I'm thinking iit is the pump -- then it wouldn't run at all. I'd like one of the pros to comment because my experience with fuel pumps is when they do go out, they go out completely, ZERO fuel moves. Your motor cannot suck fuel from the tank to the injectors without the pump.

Before you spend $85 -- run your codes. Also, check the condition of your fuel, start by pulling a plug or two and seeing if they are wet fouled or nice and dry and fuel starved.

The codes will send you in the right direction.
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 AT 10:18 AM
Tiny
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The only code I got before was a P0301. Well I got a new fuel pump. Same problem. When I turn my key to ON position, I can hear my relay clicking like this; click - cla - click, and no sound from pump. But if I pull the cover off of the fuel pump relay, and touch it with my thumb on top, it activates the fuel pump and pumps into the engine. But after a little bit, one of the two relays that are used for the pump, get really really hot, to the point where you burn yourself.

Now replaced; Spark Plugs, Wires, Coils, Dist cap and rotor, cyl 1 injector, fuel pump, fuel filter.

Now, I'm thinking either ECU, Relays or Fuel Pressure Regulator *FPR* Could it be my ignition switch? Or the inertia switch?
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 AT 2:45 PM
Tiny
MONTY STEPHENS
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It could be a bad relay, I guess. You could swap relays around and see if that makes a difference. That is easy. I would want to put a volt meter on my fuel pump and see if its getting power. I don't have my repair book here to see what that code is.

To save $$$ -- I went to a junk yard last weekend and found all kinds of MITS parts at low low prices I also found that the Galant is about the same as our cars in most things so you don't have to look for just Eclipses which are not real common (they had 7 Galants and 1 Eclipse). I bet they'd sell a relay for $1.

I didn't know our cars had an intertia switch, I guess they all do. It shuts off power, so if its triggered, you get ZERO volts.
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Friday, April 24th, 2009 AT 3:14 PM
Tiny
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Took my car over to Midas, what bastards! They said I need a new timing belt kit, new intake plenum gasket, new injector O ring kit, and a new water pump. Little that they know, I have replaced the intake plenum gasket about a week ago! Found one of my injectors to be faulty, so heading out to a junk yard soon.

Parts that fit our cars *injectors* 99 - 03 Galant 3.0L, 00 - 05 Eclipse 3.0L, 97 - 02 Mirage 1.8L, 01 - 03 Sebring 3.0L, 01 - 03 Stratus 3.0L.
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Friday, April 24th, 2009 AT 3:50 PM
Tiny
MONTY STEPHENS
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I went in for tires several years back and a similar thing happened: they said new ball joints, shocks, tie rod ends. I just wanted tires.

It won't be a fuel injector. They last a long time (200K miles) and with 6 of them, your car would run Ok even if one was a little or a lot faulty. You need to verify that you have fuel and spark. Pull a plug and let it rst against the block and have someone turn the motor over and see if it sparks.
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Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 AT 6:58 AM

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