At random, the engine will sound different and i loose power. My Check Engine light comes on, the rpm drops low, then the engine sputters. I can push the gas pedal to the floor and there is still no power at all. It just sputters maybe a little faster, but there's no power to push the car. I end up having to park to the side, shut my engine off for a few seconds, then start it up again and then usually it's fine. There are some days when this problem will happen every 10 seconds of driving. This power loss never happens when i'm at a stop light, it's always when i'm accelerating or just maintaining a certain speed.

During the summer i installed new NGK plugs and wires, and had a coil replaced, but i believe the problem happened before this (plug gaps were not set to specs). I had two shops at different times hook up to the ECU to see if a code pops up, but there was nothing. I'm thinking the Check Engine light only comes on because of the rpm drop, and maybe that's why there is no code showing. One guy said it could be the O2 sensor, and to keep the engine sputtering when it happens and try unplugging the sensor to see if that brings the engine back to normal. I tried unplugging it, but the engine still sputtered. Another person says it might be some ignition timing thing similar to a rotor cap on other cars. The O2 sensor is the one on the bottom, beside the engine block? Or is it the sensor attached to the air filter cover?

Any help would be appreciated. I've been dealing with this problem for over a year now.

You could try checking your MAP sensor, possibly a crank or cam position sensor as well.

1997 Eclipse RS (in winter slumber for head gasket repair and other projects)

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Injen CAI, AFX 55mm TB, P&P Intake Manifold, Crower Stage 2 Cams, Hooker Header, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Apexi S-AFC

Thanks for the info. Seems like it could be so many different things. I just hope i don't spend all this money replacing parts that don't really need replacing. One shop said replace the coil, so i did and it didn't fix the problem. Another place said replace the plugs and wires, so i did and that still didn't fix the problem.

Has anybody else experienced the same problem, or something similar?

Oh i forgot to mention my car. Just a 1992 Talon NT, FWD, 5 speed, centerforce dual friction clutch, cross drilled rotors, momo steering wheel and shifter, PIAA fog lights, suspension techniques springs, clarion pro audio.

this could be completely wrong, but could it be fuel related? i THINK the computer has different settings for idle and driving fuel settings, so that would explain why the car never dies at idle. again, i really dont know anything about it, just a random suggestion. obviously you want the check all the ingnition components first, followed by the sensors suggested above (the manual for the car should give you ways to check the sensors w/ a multimeter).

Almost sounds like an intermittant loss of a sensor, like maybe the cam position sensor or the crank angle sensor. IF you can beg/borrow/steal a datalogger and see what happens, it would help us help you diagnose the problem...
-=B-=

i agree, it does sound like either a bad sensor or it could be the ignition being screwed up. So check the wires and plugs first. Maybe try disconnecting your battery also to let the computer relearn the fuel maps. It sounds to me like an electrical problem-Gooodluck.

So is a datalogger something that can tell if a sensor is bad? What's the best way to figure out if any of the things you guys mentioned are faulty? I mean, how many sensors are there that could be causing this problem? If it's only a few, maybe i should just replace them all.

I don't think the problem would be with the wires or plugs, since i just installed new NGK ones this past summer. Although, you never know. If there was something wrong with those, i'd think my engine would just misfire occasionally instead of loose power completely.

So it seems i should check the wires, plugs, ECU caps, and crank/cam position sensors. So then it's definitely not the O2 sensor?