01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Ok..I know this aint a mitsu..but it has a mitsu motor. lol.

01 Dodge Stratus coupe..Mitsu 3.0 V6. around 168,000 miles.

The problem with the car is..It will start, run poorly, than just die. After that it will not restart. It attempts to but just will not fire off.

The owner says he changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor. And they do look fairly new. The only thing I have done to the car was change the timing belt..it was horrid. And I replaced the fuel pump.

So far I have checked for both spark and power to the fuel pump. When the car runs there is 13.6 volts at the fuel pump. The power never goes down until the car dies. Than while cranking it will have 10.5 to 11 volts.

The car does have spark during the no start situation. And it will attempt to fire but just wont take off..Kinda acts like its out of fuel. But its not. And the injectors are firing.

I am kinda at a loss on this one. I have been racking my brain on what it could be. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh..Obviously..car is comparable to the 3g eclipse with the v6 and an auto.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

What is the fuel pressure like at the rail?

You dont happen to have a scope for a scan tool to where you can watch injector pulse and spark overlay to see if the timing is off?

I had a customers car come in that wouldnt start, it would pop and sputter but not start, ended up finding out the dowel pin that goes into the cam gear broke and the cam twisted 20*. Somehow did not bend any valves. Only way I found this was with a scope to watch the crank trigger and cam trigger and see they were a ways off.

How is the fuel filter. Best thing you could do is check timing first, then test fuel pressure. Get a number, just because it has fuel at the rail does not mean it has the correct fuel pressure for the injectors to fire. If you have good pressure, then test fuel flow while cranking. Little button on the side of the fuel pressure tester, put the hose in a bottle and watch the pressure when you press the button to see how far it drops. Then let the fuel sit in the contain for a little bit and see if it separates. Indication of water. Also have seen that happen.

Good luck.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

I dont have the correct special tool to check pressure at the rail. I am looking at ordering one.

I might be able to borrow the scan tool from work to check the other stuff. I will try that tomorrow.

Timing is good..I just replaced the timing belt and had it running the day after and checked it with a timing light.

these cars dont have a replacable fuel filter. Only one is the sock filter on the tank.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

I did order the correct parts to test fuel pressure at the rail today...should have them sometime tomorrow. Than I will post the results.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

You do know that a timing belt has nothing to do with the ignition timing?

Is there a check engine light? are all your sensors reading correctly? (ECT/CKP/etc.)

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

No check engine light. Scanned with our scanner from the shop and everything looked ok. I didn't personally do that part. One of the mechanics did.

I did check the fuel pressure tonight. for the whole whopping maybe 1 minute that the car ran i had about 50 psi with vacuum connected. Which is close to what the book i have says it should have..

however..after it died it would only get up to about 20 psi of pressure. After sitting for a little bit, it would build close to 50 psi but still wouldn't fire off.

And your right..I didn't quite read that right on the ignition timing. Sorry.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

If you have access to a scan tool with data stream, watch the crank sensor and distributor RPM's while you're cranking and see if they are similar in numbers or reading at all.

If they are both very close in numbers to eachother, I would suggest a compression test. I know it sucks but it could tell you a lot.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

I will try that this weekend. Hopefully it will warm up. lol. Doubt it though.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Also..is it possible to have a bad Crank position sensor but no check engine light? I have been doing a bunch more reading over on club3g and there seems to be a lot of this kinda issue that the cps was bad.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Thats why I said to check it with a scan too. You can datalog the crank position sensor and see if it is in sync with the distributor/cam position sensor.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Sounds like fuel pump to me. Exactly how my Starion acted when it died.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Supposedly the fuel pump has been replaced three times already, and I just put in what i was told a new pump...didn't change anything

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

So little update on the car. Ordered the kit to check fuel pressure. Right off the bat it would get to 50 psi. And than it would just die out like usual. Right after dying out it would get to around 20 psi on first crank, than get up to 50 psi like normal. So I am not sure its a fuel related problem.

I was checking around and noticed that the IAC would get very warm and would not move at all. SO i put a new one in. However, now it wont start at all.

Some people over on Club3G said to check for intake leaks. So I pulled the upper plenum to check that gasket and everything looked good. IT did smell like fuel bad. But that was probably from me trying to start it so much. Only thing I noticed is the EGR valve may not have had the vacuum plugged in. I am not 100% on this cause I had to move the vacuum lines around a bit to get everything out.

Now while there I decided to check the plugs. The rear three are completely black, and were soaked in fuel. The fronts looked like they had worked at some time, but were fuel soaked.

After replacing the IAC I could not get the car to start at all now. It will spit and sputter like its attempting to. But just wont.

All the research I have done leads me to the distributor. However, it was a reman one that was just put in around June of last year. I am going to try and check spark again. Hopefully soon. But I am starting to look for another dist for the car.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Try cleaning the airflow sensor which is pre air filter. Use some carb cleaner or electrical contact cleaner, clean off any corrosion and let it dry. See if that helps.

This worked on miss that my dads Mitsu V6 had. (93 spirit)

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

I cleaned the maf sensor with that cleaner from carquest before I replaced the IAC. Still didn't help.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Clogged fuel filter? Are you sure the timing belt is lined up correctly since that is the last thing that was done to it?

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Try turning it over and have someone spray starting fuild in the intake.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Sadly only fuel filter on the car is the sock filter on the pump and I have replaced that.

And I have checked the timing belt twice since starting this project. And so far so good. When I initially got it together after replacing the timing belt the car ran for an ok amount of time. Probably around 5-10 minutes. Than just died out. The previous owner said thats the longest it has run in a while. Ever since than it has continued doing the start, run for not even a minute, and die.

If i can get it into a garage I am going to check the timing on more time. But I am not sure when that will be. As of right now I am doing all the work outside.

Also I have tried using starting fluid and it has the same affect. Spits and sputters like its attempting to start but wont take off.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

Sounds like you should check your compression and your timing belt. Cause any car will run off starting fluid if the car has fuel issues. Sonuds like you need a can of gas and a match. Sit back and watch a show.

Re: 01 Stratus..starts than dies..than wont start.
 

I am going to do a compression check tonight hopefully. And Maybe get it in the garage to check the timing belt again. But I am not thinking this is a fuel issue. More a spark issue. Or something not telling it when to fire.

And if I didn't want this car for a winter beater I would def just take it and have some fun. But we will see. That may still happen. lol