I have a 96 Eclipse 420a. My car is acting very wierd. This problem is on and off which is why its wierd. It just started doing this about 1 week ago out of the blue.

Sometimes I can start the car and it will act normal and drive normal. Then other times I can start it and it will die on me. I can give it gas and it acts fine. I can even rip up and down the road and it seems just fine and I notice no power loss. However, when I come up to a stop and put the clutch in the rpms will drop to 0 and the car will die. It starts right back up but will die the next time I stop. I have no Check Engine light on. Could a bad IACV do this and if it is bad are they supposed to throw a Check Engine light? I have ruled out the fuel pump since I can still give it gas. I have been told also maybe fuel filter or bad tank of gas??

I would like any suggestion/opinions as I am stumper! Thank you!

yea clean the IAC and see how she likes it

edit: how's it idle?

I wonder if you might pull the MAP and clean it out too? :wary

You know ive been meaning to post this same problem too but was afraid of getting flamed out by other 2gnt people saying to just do a search. Ive done my search a few times and have not come up with a similar problem just crappy idling and sputtering on low RPMs.

I have the exact same thing too. In the mornings for the past few weeks I start my car and if I give it a little gas just sitting in the driveway and let go of the pedal the car dies. Also driving out the neighborhood, on the first stop sign im afraid of letting go of the clutch to break because the car dies there too. Its only after a very thorough warmup before I drive out that the car does not die.

I thought it was any of the sensors attached to the TB or MANIFOLD. I changed my O2 sensor on the exhaust and it got a little better but still it would shut down. Ive been meaning to use that MOPAR combustion chamber conditioner fix people swear by to get it fixed but decided to just use SHELL Vpower gasoline for awhile to clean the valves out and the combustion chamber because well the comercial says it has 5 times the ammount of cleaning agents regular gasoline has. I have felt some improvement with that too. I think im going to keep using it, see if it works.

Im surprised I get carbon buildup in there because I ported and polished my cylinder head down to a mirror finish myself and installed new valves with the proper seating procedure, there is nothing for carbon to actually hold on to. Of course I may be wrong. So so far ive ruled out:

1. Fuel delivery problems (makes no sense to blame that)
2. ECU (I have two and tried both of them, same shit)
3. O2 Sensor (replaced it and problem stays)
4. Sparks,cables (all brand new, BOSH platinum+4 on XACT wires)
5. Coil (I also have another one and tried both)

If you guys know that the problem can be fixed by replacing or just cleaning a particular sensor attached to the manifold or TB please let me know. I have noticed carbon buildup on the TB as is normal but maybe one of the sensors has been fouled or damaged by this buildup.

You said this only happens when you put the clutch in??? If so, that makes it very interesting .... I'm wondering if it could be one of the sensors on the tranny not sending correct A/F/RPM info to the ECU when the clutch is depressed. I need to think on this ...

Originally posted by techboy
You said this only happens when you put the clutch in??? If so, that makes it very interesting .... I'm wondering if it could be one of the sensors on the tranny not sending correct A/F/RPM info to the ECU when the clutch is depressed. I need to think on this ...

Well not exactly. Its hard to explain. I mean, when I come to a stop I put the clutch in and throw it in neutral and slowly stop. Anyways, thats when the rpms drop and it dies. Sometimes it wont die. It will go down to 0 and then pop back up around 6-800 rpms. And sometimes it will die when I start it. Its just very bi-polar. And now it has this new thing where it fixes itself. It will die on me a few times and then the rest of the drive it will act just fine. That is why this is so difficult to pinpoint. I am going to play with my throttle body tomorrow and clean it out and look at the Idle Air Control Valve. I almost wonder if I got a bad tank of gas????

my money is on the iac. i had this problem, cleaned it, and it went away. if you think about it....the iac plays no part when your just ripping up and down the road, but when you throw your car in neutral.....and your butterfly is closed....you are at "idle" of sorts....so your engine is depending on that air getting through the idle port.

p.s. and to whoever was complaining about flamed getting told to search....try it..it helps. the reason we tell people to search is because things like this have happened to hundreds of members...adn its been discussed constantly...often as much as once a week for years on end. we dont tell people to search to be mean...its just when things have been asked 100000000000x, it gets a bit old having to retype and retype the same thing.

Thanks for the help everybody! I do appreciate it.

Well, I took off that throttle body inlet (I believe that is what you would call it) and cleaned the hell out of it. It was pretty dirty. Got some Lucas fuel treatment for the gas tank.

Now the car runs like a champ! So, it was eithier something between a dirty throttle area or a bad tank of gas.

I do appreciate everybody's suggestions though. Thank-You!!

for the record...next time completely remove the TB. no use in washing that mess down your combustion chamber. and completely remove the IAC to give it a good cleaning. but glad to hear the car is running well.