Phillip weston

wont be a '91 if it's a V6 E53A model. It could be the ECU, has the catalytic converter light come on at all in the past! Does the interior smell like rotting fish/electrical burning smell!

It could be the distributor ignition module too, but generally when that plays up it will start, then stall a few moments later and will refuse to start again until the ignition module cools for a few moments, then repeats the process all over again. I guess if you have spark then that eliminates that fault - however I would have thought with a dud ECU it wouldn't give spark or fuel either. Is there anything that improves the chances of it starting like giving it full throttle when starting etc! A dirty throttlebody would only give poor idle/stalling with the ability to re-start straight away, usually it wouldn't make it not start.

It could just be that it needs a service, ie spark plugs and distributor rotor/cap. I had a 6A13 SOHC 2.5 Legnum which is near identical ignition wise and one day it was running fine and smooth then just stalled on me at an intersection and refused to start for ages, and when it did start it could barely maintain 500rpms. It turned out to be the center coil prong on the distributor cap which is spring loaded and retracted right in so the coil wasn't transmitting good spark to the rotor. After replacing the cap/rotor it still didn't start after all the repeated attempts earlier on - I had to pull the plugs out which were dripping wet, wind it over a few times to expel fuel from the cylinders and put in a new set of plugs and it was away laughing from then on.

I would pull the plugs out and check their condition, perhaps they are just worn out to the point that the spark is weak, and when cranking over when cold they are getting flooded with fuel and further hindering their chance of sparking effectively. The gap should be 0.7-0.8mm. Up to 1.1mm is acceptable but I wouldn't want to go any larger.

The 6A11 is hardly a difficult car to work on! half the plugs are staring right at you when you lift the bonnet. probably easier to get those front three plugs out on the Mitsi V6 than it is on a Commodore 3.8. though I do accept the rear three plugs can look daunting but when you've done it a few times it's a walk in the park, for which I can give pointers for. Even the most novice of mechanics should be able to get a plug change done on that engine in 30-45mins.

so what you should be saying is, that you bloody hate working on any car from the last 20-30 years! Even Ford/Holden were quick to adopt electronic gizzmos in their mainstream line-up before many of the Japanese manufacturers did, including Mitsubishi.

undo the 5 bolts and 2 nuts on the top of the upper inlet manifold where it meets the upside down Y pipe splitting up to go to each bank, then undo the 4 bolts on the rear of the manifold which attaches it to the metal braces. Undo the 10mm band clamps for the inlet hose from both the throttlebody and air flow meter and remove it entirely and put it aside. At this point you can either undo the two 10mm bolts keeping the throttle cable attached to the inlet manifold but I tend to just leave it in place. Undo any electrical connections, ie to the variable induction stepper motor on the cambelt side of the inlet manifold, and perhaps unplug the connector to the underside of the throttlebody also. You can either remove the coolant lines going to the throttlebody and plugging them up or just leave them still attached. With everything undone lift the manifold up about an inch or two, then fold it over so it sits above the gearbox, it will probably sit at about a 90deg angle depending what you've left attached, but will give access to the rear plugs anyhow. Make sure you clean up the surfaces of the Y pipe and the underside of the inlet manifold and clean up any residue on the (reusable) metal flange gasket. I like to apply a very thin layer of RTV silicone on both sides of the gasket but so long as the gasket is in good order and the surfaces are clean it probably isn't a requirement.

yep, told you it was easy :P takes me about 15-20 mins to do a plug change. They fit platinum plugs from factory in the rear bank at the very least for longevity, but standard NGK copper plugs will last an easy 20-30,000kms and will save you from spending $200 on spark plugs. Should be BKR6E for the standard copper ones.

I had the 1,8L V6 Viento, it wouldn't idle and a cleaned out throttle body did the trick, ezzpezzy.

His is not starting full stop.

sounds like it just needs some TLC. heck if it were wearing a Holden/Ford badge I'm sure it would have done the same :P (perhaps even earlier on and more frequently. haha - but that's just my opinion :D)

there ya go. 6 years and never been touched. unfortunately most used 10-20 year old Mitsubishis out there are the same case, and when they do break usually because of lack of maintenance, it's all Mitsubishis fault ;P

haha yes I was also waiting for that comment regarding price - have you got a BNT down there!

the cap and rotor for my 6A13 set me back about $200 from memory. Would almost be worth hitting up trademe member 'dasfi', he has a complete distributor available for $85, you could resell the dizzy alone minus the cap/rotor for near that price.

what prices have you been quoted so far and where was that from! just need to see if I can do better.

BNT with account is $143+gst for the cap alone, they can't get a rotor as their supplier has never stocked one.