Hello Everyone,

I have a 2002 Lancer OZ rally. I am have troubles with it and it is really becoming a pain now.
Here is the summary of my story:
I bought this used car 3-4 weeks back. 67K miles on it. While buying mechanic did the usual inspection. 'Service Engine Soon' light was on but the owner said that 60K miles service has been done and since it was done by a local mechanic he could not enter the code and turn it off.
The mechanic who did the inspection using his computer by plugging that into the car said that this is on because of problems with air sensor and idle control sensor or something. He said it is not a big issue if the owner gets it fixed because rest of the car looks fine.
I asked the owner and he actually got it fixed, he showed me the part (some air sensor thing), which he claimed that his mechanic changed and 'Service Engine Light' was also off at that time, so I bought the car.

Now this is what happened starting next day:
1. First week: car was having very high idle speed ~1500-2000rpms. Sometimes even more. I observed that when I was stopping at red lights. I took the car to mechanic he said there was some recall for re-flashing the ECU and after that such high idle speed problem was expected and then there was another recall for this 'high idle speed' problem, so a TPS re-initialization was required. But my mechanic manually tried to reduce the idle speed, he did something under the hood with his screw-driver and idle speed actually dropped from 2000 to 1400.. but still it was high. He suggested me to get the recall done at mitsubishi dealer.
So I called mitsubishi dealers and they are so bad. None of them agreed to do TPS re-initialization recall done. Asked me for $350 just to reset the TPS. And this high idle speed problem was coming after driving the car for like 10-15 minutes.

2. Second week: I wasn't seeing idle speed problem any more. I thought it went away itself. I went to SF and once I reached SF, it started again.. but surprise this time too low and car started to stall at red lights. If I take my foot off the accelerator it stalled. Got so annoyed because of this. Somehow managed to come back from there, used hand break to stop at steep roads. After coming back I looked up on internet and found this forum and came across some thread about the same problem. I unplugged my ECU and waited for a minute and plugged it back and idle speed problem went away. But normal idle speed is 500-600rpms now, my mechanic said at some point of time that usual idle speed it 700-900rpms. Maybe it was because of my mechanic tried to lower the idle speed manually when car was running at high idle speed due to TPS re-initialization problem.

3. Next day morning: Got into the car and clutch feels nothing. I cannot shift it into gear. Had to tow the car to the mechanic he said I screwed the clutch plate. Slave cylinder leaked and spoiled the clutch plate as well. Alright got it changed and paid a lot of money. It hurts a lot.
Now when I picked up my car (after clutch repair) from mechanic, it was running fine. Brought it to home, waited for few minutes and took it to wash. After wash as I started it worked fine for just 2 minutes... After that again started to stall... if I release the accelerator, it will stall..

I am taking it to the mechanic again.. but I am too worried because of this car.. I am sure now that the previous owner didnt get the 60K miles service done.
I am not sure what to do. I am a new driver as well. Could some body please suggest me what could be wrong with my car? If it is stalling because of some problem with some sensor then why 'Service Engine Soon' light is not coming up now? Is it possible that the previous owner has got it disabled? but when I turn on the key, it lights up for few seconds..

I am really confused. I asked the mechanic if I should get it serviced but (while repairing the clutch) mechanic said that everything looks fine you can drive it until 90K and then get it serviced... but one of my friends said that Lancer 2002 needs a major service at 60K miles, I dont know what kind of service it needs at 60K miles.. Please suggest if I should get some sort of service done.. It is already costing me so much money. I would highly appreciate if you could give me some clues on what could be wrong with the car because of which it stalls at red lights.

Thanks a lot!
Asahlot

 

Sounds to me like indeed it is something involving the Mass Air Flow sensor. The fact that your "Mechanic" had to manually adjust something under the hood in effort to get the car to idle lower is a no-no. If I were you i'd have him adjust it back to where it should be. The low idle would be caused solely by his adjustment.

Honestly, the best thing you could probably do is to have the dealer go ahead and fix the issues your car is having. Those techs will know MUCH more then your mechanic will, and do proper work. Take it in, have it diagnosed, and repaired correctly. If you want to properly enjoy your new purchase, it's probably the best money you can spend.

With the lancer being an ODB-2 car, even if the 'Service Engine Soon' light is burnt out, anyone with a code scanner can plug it in and pull the codes. A car needing a 60k service is not going to trigger any codes unless something is wrong. Fact is it's very easy to re-set a code. Just disconnecting the battery cable will clear memory in a vehicle's system.

 

Thanks for your response! It is really giving me a lot of tension. Could somebody suggest me a nice mitsubishi service center in bay area CA?

 

It would be a better idea just to do your self , if in fact it is a Maf sensor that could be changed out in minutes . But to me it sounds more like a Idle positioning sensor .

Good luck !

It would be better for you to go to your local auto parts store and get the light checked , about 99% of the time they do check it for free , then come on here and tell us the code so we could help you even better .


- Antonio

 

I took the car to the mechanic today and he adjusted the idle speed manually again hopefully back to the position where it was before myself resetting the ECU. So idle engine speed is 500-600rpms now. Today it has been fine, didnt stall at red lights. Also previously idle speed was fluctuating too when I was preparing to stop at signal and car was just rolling in neutral but today it has been fine and it didn't fluctuate.
I don't know if it has got fixed or there is still some problem.

Codes: As I mentioned when I took the car to the mechanic for inspection before buying it he fetched the codes using his computer and here are those codes:
* P0135
* P0506

I think the 1st one was for oxygen sensor, which the owner claimed that he got fixed. The second was probably about idle air control, which probably got fixed when I reset the ECU. Right now the Service Engine light is not ON, could still there be some problem code in system's memory, which mechanic could fetch?

Thanks!

 

could be that when it was fixed the ecu wasnt reset

does it still stall ? my old car did that once and it was bad plug and wires

 

No it is not stalling now. But given that over the period of last few weeks it had been quite unreliable I am not sure if everything will be fine with it. Seems to run fine but as I said not sure if it will work fine for at least a year.

 

When I start the car, in the beginning the idle speed is very low ~200-400rpms. After driving for 2-3 minutes it comes to 600rpms and then stays there. What could be wrong now? and this behavior is sort of consistent.

Thanks,

 

Took the car to a different mechanic and he used his computer and figured out that the IAC valve is not working. Valve is actually not responding to the computer. He sprayed something into throttle body and asked me to see if valve starts working (thinking it could be sticky around it due to carb etc) . If doesnt work then might have to replace it. Checked the price online. IAC valve seems to be very costly like $400. That is insane.
Could somebody please suggest me some reliable/genuine website for buying car's used parts? or some way to get the valve in low price e.g. if some local company also makes the valve?

Thanks a lot!
Asahlot

 

Did a search on google and things like the following come up:

http://www.automotix.net/usedautopar...inventory.html
http://www.autopartsfair.com/mitsubi...ttle_body.html

Are these sites trusted? and getting a throttle body itself should be fine. right? since the IAC valve is inside throttle body?

Thanks

 

Never heard of the sites...
The IAC is not part of the throttle body, it is connected to it however (one the bottom of it).
And I would not buy this used, never know with parts like these.
Also you don't need to replace your throttle body to fix this.

You need to first make sure your IAC is bad before you fork over the hundreds for it.
You need to find a good shop that can for sure check the resistance in the motor of the IAC to see if it's bad.
Codes on cars can be funny some times and the part the code says is bad maynot be, but we can always check to make sure.

Go to

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/la...able-here.html

and get the 2003 service manual and search in the index1 for "Idle speed control motor" and it will tell you how to check the IAC to see if it's good or not.

Once you or a shop checks let us know.