2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse fouls out dis cap/spark plugs

Asked by Dmt4life Sep 13, 2012 at 09:54 AM about the 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

2000 Mitsubishi eclipse fouls spark plugs/distributor cap, after replacing both the plugs & the cap it will run fine for a couple of weeks then foul out again. I've gotten many mixed answers from mechanics & don't want to waste money fixing something that doesn't need to be fixed. Help appreciated

9 Answers

60,335

is there any play in the distributor shaft? Take cap off and try to wiggle the rotor any way you can, should move around much. Also how are the plugs fouled out? ashy? fuel odor? oil?

Nope, no play @ all. & the entire inner part of the plug gets covered by a black residue, it can be sanded off rather easy with very high grit sandpaper, though. Also the contacts inside the distributor cap & the rotary get covered by a white residue.

60,335

white residue sounds like corrosion. Does your car smoke out of the tail pipe?

1 people found this helpful.

Nope. Not at all. But I've replaced/cleaned the cap several times & this residue builds up to the point of fouling it out in approx a month. It starts spitting & sputtering at around 2 weeks then gets to the point where it misses too bad to run at all until the plugs/cap/rotary have been cleaned.

60,335

all I can say is to make sure no moisture is getting in the cap. That will lead to corrosion and then the plugs foul out becasue the spark is too weak to burn the fuel. They make wraps for this.

Yeah thanks, last mechanic thought the same & he actually insulated it, didn't help. My best guess is maybe it's firing too hot & causing a condensation effect from the temperature changes. I'll keep messing with it I guess.

My eclipse is sputtering running foul change part splugs value cover gasket put in new map air flow sensor its blowin some white smoke out exhaust

60,335

Constant white smoke is burning coolant. Usually means head gasket.

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