1993 Eclipse just stoipped.

First trouble ever. 1993 Mit Eclipse 1.8 just stopped at a light. Have taken it to 2 Mitsubishi dealers and they cannot diagnose problem. When you turn the key to start the car, the engine catches and races as long as the key is held in the start position. When the key is released to the normal run position, the car dies.

The dealer has tried a new distributer, ignition switch, ignition relay and several other things. I put in a new fuel filter, fuel pump, and the problem remains.

The service manager says this is the second time in his 34 years of service he and his mechanics cannot diagnose a problem. Anybody have an idea of what's going on? I love this car.

Tom Young

your saying that the car cranks when its in the start position but in the run positing it dies?

thats f'd up. What happens if you have someone jumping the car and try starting it and put it into the run position, just for ****s and giggles. It probably wont change anything but you never know.

That's right. It appears to be getting good gas. It get5's a spark, but the spark is not bright blue. Anyway they tried a new distributer. I will try to jump it with another battery connected to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the reply. Any idea is worth trying.

Tom Young

Yeah. It runs and races as long as the key is in the start position. Letting it return to the run position kills it. Two different dealers could not find the problem. New distributer tried, new fuel pump, filter, relay, and a host of other things. Help!!

The only other thing i could think of is that there is a bad wire somewhere, but i would have thought they would have found it. Im really racking my brain on this one and i cant seem to figure it out either. This is the first ive heard of this happening.

replace the ignition switch