Serious Car Problem

[victorvaj]

I have a '97 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS (automatic) with stock engine and it seems that this car may have a lot of problems. First of all this car is leaking Oil and Transmission fluid. What should I do? Next when ever I am driving, I push on the accelerator, it seems that the car just downshifted or lose power then will run fine. Next, sometimes when ever I drive my car, my engines begins to start shaking very much, then my engine just dies or about to die. But sometimes, my car has a hard time starting up. I think it is a battery problem, but I took it to AutoZone to test and came back good battery. I dont know if there SPECIFIC BATTERY for cars, but I have a small batter for my eclipse, thats my other question. These seems to be my problem with my car. What should I do?

-Vic

[Killa]

If you car leaking oil and tranny, you ask me what should you do ? well fix the the leak, your car loose power, there is alot thing that can cause your car to do that,

How many miles is your car ? I bet its over 100k miles and had been not taking care by preview owner, money pit time . That was chrysler are.

Engine shake - your leaking oil, check if the oil is full
Tranny down shift it self- your leaking tranny , check if you have enought fluid.
Engine loose power - Do a complete car tune up, like spark plug and wire, fuse filter ( gas ), get yourself a Haynes book at auto part store ( auto zone, advance auto part ....... ) read and learn.
No your car do not need special battery, any battery run 12v will work.

by the way, you in wrong section of the forum,post at the "Problem Diagnosis" section. When ever you having problem with your car, and use " search " welcome to the forum and good luck with the car.

[gthompson97]

Do a COMPLETE tune up on it. I mean everything, you're probably getting horrendous gas mileage with it too I'm betting.

1) Drain all the oil, pull off oil pan and replace the gasket. Install a new filter and fill up with oil.
2) Drain all the transmission fluid and pull the tranny pan. I'd suggest getting a new filter and gasket on that as well, then fill it back up with tranny fluid, check your owners manual for exact fluid capacity as I have seemed to forgotten.
3) Change out the spark plugs.
4) Change out the fuel filter. Depending on the car, it may either be inside the engine bay, or underneath the car on the passenger side.
5) If you want to spend the extra money, I'd say invest in some new spark plug wires.

A simple tune up can go a long ways with our cars, and you have to keep it maintined regularly (like any other car) if you want it to last long and be a good car.

[david-b]

Loss of power can be caused by many things. Just as Killer has stated, depending on the miles, you may need a big tune up. Plugs, wires, oil, tranny fluid, radiator flush, fuel filter... all the neccesities. If it's high mileage and it wasn't done, you may want to consider a timing belt, water pump, and oil pump, and all the neccesties of the change too.

The leaks are bad. Do you see where it's leaking oil from, or is the level jsut always getting low? You may have a bad head gasket if it's jsut burning. That could cost quite a bit if done by a shop, but they will do the timing belt for you then too. Doing it yourself is always cheaper.

Where is the tranny leak coming from? If it's a lot, then that could be a problem there too. I have a small leak on my tranny but its on the top of the casing, so it's very little. If it's easily accessable, you can get a welder to fix a crack. If it's anything more or in a harder to reach place, then a shop will want to drop the tranny and fix it then.

You're bad idle could be caused by a bad TPS, IAC, or EGR. One thing to do is buy some throttle body cleaner, take off the intake pipe, and clean the throttle body. As Killer says, in the Haynes manual, it says everything on how to do it.

Welcome to AF!

[Thor06]

What they said, and read the rules. This thread should be in the Problem Diagnosis subforum.

[EDMUND65]

mounts may be shot also