Problems....:(

[mrs_hart]

Alright, I'll introduce myself first. My name is Jenna and I'm 17 years old. I have a 1997 Eclipse GST. My car is becoming a piece of shit!!! Ok ok, I know you're probably thinking that I don't know how to take care of my cars, well I do. I live in Iowa and there is snow everywhere so I'm not going to drive it and keep in mind, I got my license suspended like from November to the beginning of January so I really haven't been able to do much with it. I had a 12" alpine type r sub in it and it fried my first Sony cd player. Well, I went to put a new Sony in it and everything and my altenator went out. This was back in like September-October and my mom took it into wymores and it was $475 to fix it and she did and then in january when i did get my license back, my car stopped running. my cd player started to flash and my car had no power whatsoever and my lights dimmed and everything. now, i need a new ignition tower, my headlights don't work, my tailights are illegal, i have a hole in my exhaust, my car idles really bad, makes weird noises, and it makes a screeching sound when i turn. my boyfriend said it was a bad computer chip that is fucking with it but i don't believe him and i have custom headlights and the retard that put them in did it wrong and the thing is like melted...it's a piece of shit, i swear! it's beautiful and everything, but....damn! please help. how much do you think it'd be to fix all of this? my dad is a lawyer so money isn't an issue here. i'm just curious.

[Blackcrow64]

Oh sweet mother...


Only God knows how much it would cost. It sounds like you need to just scrap it and get a new one to start with. And DON'T let the boyfriend touch it next time...

[mrs_hart]

My dad is a huge dick and doesn't think I should have a car like that, but he's retarded and he bought a new F250 turbo diesel then turned around and bought my mom a new expedition eddie bauer edition, but he won't fix my car and he won't do shit with it. he's so dumb and my bf is poor so he can't help out or anything. i'm very impatient when it comes to jobs, so i don't have them and my mom said she's going to take it in to mitsubishi motors when the snow goes away and when we have decent weather. i'm really sad and my car is on my mind 24/7....i have some pictures of it during the summer....










There you are.

[Thor06]

Well Jenna, sounds like you need it to get a good look over from a respected and knowledgable DSMer. In my experiece, 97% of these fuckwits they issue ASE certifications to dont really know what they are doing and they always seem to have their way with your pocket book for labor. For example, $475 to fix an alternator? Damn son, that is like a $150 part, so that means they probably got you for like 7.5 hours of labor at $40/hr labor rate (thats pretty normal back home). It should not take them a full day to change a damn alternator, though a pain in the ass it should only like a two or three hour deal tops. I only know one DSMer in Iowa, I think the Decorah area but hes an asshat anyway.

Finding a smart local DSMer is a good way to go, but we can help too. You'd need to describe it better though. So will the car physically turn over? Have you charged the battery recently or had it tested? If it wont turn over and the lights are dim, it sounds to me like is just mostly dead battery. Leaving a light on would have totally drained the battery and the lights wouldnt have even come on, so if it is infact because your battery is low then either you have an alternator or alternator belt problem.

Originally Posted by Blackcrow64

And DON'T let the boyfriend touch it next time...

And to that.

EDIT: Its a sexy car by the way. Also, I've never heard of an aftermarket exhaust getting a hole in it, I bet you just had the flex pipe or a gasket go, or maybe a bolt or two loosen.

EDIT #2: The screeching sound from turning is probably a wheel bearing. If I remember right, it will be the opposite wheel bearing of the way you are turning. Also, I see you have a front mount intercooler. Chances are the rough idle is from one of the intercooler pipes not getting tightened on all the way. Thats my guess anyway, idle problems on turbo DSM's are almost always because the pipes arent tightened down good.

[Mikelb]

Hey Thor, a lot of that was most likely helpful, but if I'm correct... that's a grill, not a FMIC...

could still be a stock hose to the SMIC though...

[gthompson97]

GOD that's a sexy car. How big are those rims? 18's, 19's, 20's? They're huge. Annyways, I think Dustin (thor) is right about the battery being dead. It may even be junk if you ran it completely dead when the alternator went bad and then just let it sit like that for a few months, especially in the cold. Batteries do tend to freeze up in the cold when they're dead and then they won't hold a charge for shit. I'd suggest charging it completely up and if you still have the same problem, get a new battery. The battery is most likely what's causing all the weird electrical problems.

You say it also has an idling problem? What kind of idling problem? Does it stall out, idle to high, bounce up and down, or what? Sometimes that can be an easy sensor fix or even as easy as just tightening a loosened clamp down. A little more info on this would help greatly.

As for the issue with your CD player burning up, it could either be because of a faulty CD player, or the wiring may be messed up and that might have fried it. I would make sure that you have the wiring correct before you try install a brand new one, wouldn't want the same thing to happen again now would ya?

About the ignition tower, I'm guessing you're talking about the coil pack? The part that the spark plugs connect to? How do you know you need a new one of those? Did you take it to a shop and they told you that or what? There are ways to test them yourself with a multimeter to see if they're bad or not, if you want directions on how to do that I can sure get them for you.

I'm not going to lie to you, but most of the shops around the US don't know how to work on these cars. They can act very strange from a simple little problem, which at a shop can lead to tons and tons of wasted money thrown away. I suggest any time you have a problem with it, come and ask us first, we can usually solve most problems over the net and save you alot more money than taking it to a dealer or repair shop.

P.S. Dustin, Mike's right, that's a grill not a FMIC.

[Blackcrow64]

I can vouche for batteries freezing... and blowing up... lol

Last month I had the battery in the Firebird freeze and blow the side out from it expanding... It was kinda sweet.

[gthompson97]

Originally Posted by Blackcrow64

I can vouche for batteries freezing... and blowing up... lol

Last month I had the battery in the Firebird freeze and blow the side out from it expanding... It was kinda sweet.

Yeah. Wanna know what would have happened had you been driving when the battery blew up?

THIS:




But it's all good. I got everything put back together and somewhat working. Now I just gotta figure out why I don't have any fuel pressure....

[Blackcrow64]

Originally Posted by gthompson97

Yeah. Wanna know what would have happened had you been driving when the battery blew up?

THIS:

Oh sweet mother...

Yeah, mine didn't do that until I took it out and gave the battery a toss and it blew up when it hit the frozen ground... Wow... That shit could have eaten my face or something.

[gthompson97]

Haha well 99% of it isn't from battery acid. See, the battery exploded and caught something on fire. Then from there the flames came from under the hood.....looked like a fireworks show or something, a really, expensive...fireworks... (wipes tear) show.

[Mikelb]

lol, yeah... I was helping a friend work on his car... and he grounded the positive to the chassis with a screwdriver... a really expensive (and in your face) fireworks display... shit blew acid everywhere...

him being the fucktard he was, he left the acid in the engine compartment, where it eventually ate through all kinds of shit... he taped the hoses up and drove the shit out of the car til it finally gave out...

from the look (I do like) of the rims, I'd say most likely 18's... car looks like it's stock height... and the rims really fill out the wheel well nicely, I say drop it an inch or two...

[Thor06]

Originally Posted by gthompson97

About the ignition tower, I'm guessing you're talking about the coil pack?

Heres my theory on the whole electrical situation. Help us out here Jenna, give us as much info as possible, that will make diagnostics much easier. Its sort of obvious to me that the battery doesnt have enough charge. Two things cause that, a bad battery or the alternator not charging the battery at all or well enough. When she went to turn on the car, she turned the key and nothing happened. Then some dipshit thought that since the key appearantly wasnt working in the car, they said, "Oh, bad ignition tower" when they were referring to the steering column.

What I would do is take the battery to Napa or Pep Boys or what ever parts store you fancy and ask them to test your battery. If the battery is bad, there you go, get a new battery. If the battery is good, have someone (maybe the parts store will) charge it for you good. Take it back home and put it in the car and try to start it. If it starts, drive it around and stay close to home for a while. If it dies, then your alternator isnt working good, in which case you go to the guy that put the new one in your car and give him a good kick in the nuts and a hard ass chewing. If you get a good charged battery in there and nothing happens, you have a different problem.

Find a DSM guy yet? If not, go to the auto shop at school and ask around for someone with a DSM. If no one in the class has one, someone in the class will know someone with one.

[XeVeNskyLiNE]

Quite the list of little pain in the asses.

I think since "money isn't a problem", get an Optima battery and make sure to get a warranty on it. That was if any electrical problems come up, more than likely it was wouldn't be coming from a battery of that caliber, and if it is the problem is definitely elsewhere. I also agree that your wheel bearings might be bad, that's pretty easy to replace, but they're like $120 from AutoZone (argh!). I'm having to change one out soon, so if you need help I can along with the other guys walk you through that one. As for everything else, just take it step by step and eventually you'll atleast get it in decent shape.

And your taillights are illegal? Huh wuh? Who told you that? Now mine are illegal because you can't see the "reflectors" (yea I really got ticketed for that), but only one cop has EVER gotten on to me about that. Even a state trooper didnt say anything.

[XeVeNskyLiNE]

Oh another thing! Check your alternator choke fuse! I spent around $300 for my battery and alternator just to find out it was $12 fuse that shorted out.

[gthompson97]

I would not suggest doing wheel bearings yourself unless you know exactly how to do them, that can be very dangerous. And I've had a few cops question my taillights before, it's really a matter of personality if they want to be a dick or not.