MX-3.com

Hello knowledgeable people of mx-3.com, I really hope someone can help me out because I love this car but lately it has been causing lots of problems

Today, I was driving home from the gym and a bit before my house i was in fourth gear and all of a sudden, the rpms dropped so I pushed the gas more, and when I released, they dropped again!

And then I thought i was fine coasting in neutral, the car just stalled! I coasted, while stalled all the way to my house, restarted the car, kept the rpms at 5000 (they kept dropping so I had to put the clutch in every few seconds and then put it into 1st again). Thankfully, the car is on my driveway, but i have NO clue what is wrong. My mechanic is 40 minutes away and school starts in 4 days! UGH!!

You guys have helped me out before so PLEASE try and help me again I know you guys are a smart bunch but I have no clue whats going on! Is it the clutch? If you have an idea of what is wrong, can you tell me a ballpark figure on how much the cost would be? I appreciate everything guys, thanks!

please do not double post!
Most of us just check "view new posts" and really don't want to see the same thing several times.

oh s--- sorry! i didnt even realise that it was a double post cause I posted it but it didnt show up so I just went to the transmission section! i didnt notice, can I delete one of them?

Okay I checked the vacuum hose like you said in the other post (I decided to post in this one now that I know it's not a tranny problem)

There was no apparent leaks or anything but i fiddled around with it and then started up the car and took it around the block a few times. It was fine, but was really sensitive with the gas and nudged and jerked when i would accelerate or take my foot off the gas at high rpm's, this never happened before.

I read some stuff on google and other people with similar problems have said that when this happened they left the car off for 20 minutes then turned it back on and it was fine, but after 15 minutes of driving it went back to the problem. I don't really want to drive far and risk stalling in the middle of a big road, what should I do?

What you JUST described sounds like a distributor problem.

sounds like vacuum leak. check accordion tube right before throttle body, theyre prone to have cracks

so it could be a leak, or a distributor problem? ugh, guess its back to checking the hoses!

From time to time my car would do this on really hot days cuz the disty was over heating.

The thing is, it was fine on hot days, when it started having a problem it was normal temperature days (10-20 celsius).

Okay , and I checked the hoses and they all seemed fine, no apparent leaks. However, there was a slight whistling from the engine when the car was running but I had no clue if that was new and i never noticed it before, and I couldn't find its source

I took the car to our mechanic and on the way there the problem happened again! after 10 minutes of normal driving it would just stall in neutral and I had to floor it to s--- in the gears and barely made it to the shop. Now, after 2 days at the shop, the mechanic says he has driven it around a few times during these days and 'sees no problem'. I explained it to him, exactly what happened, but I guess he needs to see for himself. (what a waste of gas lol, oh well). Yet, still no problem. I think it only happens after DRIVING a full 10 minutes. So now school starts soon, and I have no clue what to do, because I think I'm getting the car back tomorrow with no fixes.. what should I do? School is soon...

Also when I bought the car it was with a new distributor, so I don't think thats the problem.

Spray some brake cleaner or something over the intake piping and see if the RPMs rise. That will show vacuum leaks. Check all your little vacuum hoses for tears or holes. Sounds like a disty problem kind of too. Having a spare disty never hurts and is good for testing.

Because your symptoms occur after 10 minutes of driving = normal operating temp I suspect your problem is temperature related.

What you're describing is a severe loss of power after the car reaches normal operating temp. It is a long shot, but is it possible your catalytic converter is plugged?

This has happened before.... I just forget what it was. I'd put all of my money on either:

1. Intake leak - could possibly only open after engine bay is warm.
2. Distributor - because its made by Mitsushitsi and thats how they roll.

Hit up a j/y with a return policy and grab a disty that looks good. Test her out. Or, graba buddies.

I have a spare B6 one that I know works that I could send your way.

If there's a whistling noise it sounds like you've got a bad radiator/coolant cap and it's leaking and releasing pressure, which might be causing your car to overheat. Check your coolant and check all the caps.