Timing too advanced

CALLUM MORTON

MEMBER
1998 MITSUBISHI MIRAGE
1.3L
4 CYL
FWD
MANUAL
143 MILES

The car runs barely unless you unbolt the distributor and advance it past the point where it could still be bolted in. Once there it seems to run great.

6 Replies

CARADIODOC

CERTIFIED MECHANIC

Sounds like the spark plug wires are in the wrong locations on the distributor cap.

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Thursday, July 28th, 2016 AT 11:57 PM

CALLUM MORTON

MEMBER

Weve tried moving them around and looked weve set it up with the numbers in the distributor but the way it is, is the only way when the car will actually start

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Saturday, July 30th, 2016 AT 1:01 AM

CALLUM MORTON

MEMBER

As well as that I just remembered something that may or may not be helpful once we advance the dizzy so that it idles well if we put in the gas pedal it takes a second or two before the engine seems to notice. That only happens once we've just advanced it so I do not know if it matters.

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Saturday, July 30th, 2016 AT 1:07 AM

CARADIODOC

CERTIFIED MECHANIC

The combination of symptoms sounds like the timing belt has jumped a few teeth. I would start by checking that.

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Saturday, July 30th, 2016 AT 1:40 AM

CALLUM MORTON

MEMBER

I have just put a timing light to it and if I am right by the timing marks its around 22 degrees advanced. Does that mean I need to just get the cam belt reset?