1990 Viento

[FNFAST VR4]

The Mrs and I bought ourselves a 1990 galant as a cheap runabout. Only problem is that it uses almost as much fuel as the VR4! It has a new air filter, oil & filter, fuel filter and spark plugs, and the auto trans has been serviced by mitsi in the last couple of weeks.

Considering its an 1800 and I don't really thrash it (the whole point in having it was to save gas, as she lives in Henderson and I live in Papatoetoe) I don't think it should be using this much.

It has this random problem where it stalls when you take off from a stand still. We got mitsi to look at it, and they said there's a problem with the ECU, it is not reading the output from the idle sensor. They tested the sensor and the wiring and its all good. It was going to cost $600 for a second hand ECU, $800 for a new one, or $350 for someone to come and look at the other one. As we'd spent $300 odd dollars on it already we flagged it at that point, and decided to see if the trans flush helped things at all.

It is running heaps better, and seems a lot happier to drive (if that makes sense lol) but the fuel usage is still not fantastic.

Could the idle sensor issue be causing this? The Mrs wants to sell it as I might as well be driving the VR4, but I want to make sure we do everything to check out the issue first, as we paid $750 for it and it has done less than 130000km, and is in pretty good nick apart from this!

[elnevio]

IIRC, the 6G ECUs (I know not if this is region-specific, or even country-specific) can be prone to capacitor failure. Kieran (again, IIRC) had this with his black 6G, which required the ECU to be opened up and the leaking capacitors replaced. I don't know what this entails exactly, but an electronics expert should be able to point you in the right direction. Obviously, this would still require some level of investigation...

[bradc]

Clearly you two need to move in together

[elnevio]

Clearly you two need to move in together

Still found it funny even though I'm not quite sure who you were referring to! If me and K, then I think I am already too close geographically for his comfort!

[MarkSanne]

The elec.capacitors (looking like small, blue or black, round containers) in the 6G's (all 1987-1994 mitsi's with injection motors actually) are all going to fail at some point. They leak acid onto the PCB and the components which causes all kinds of troubles. From weird engine behaviour to stalling and running rich (safe mode). If these are replaced (costs of these components are only cents) and you're in a bit of luck it'll run like never before and have better milage.

One of my 6G ECU's (before):


After:


Have any pics of the Viento btw?

[FNFAST VR4]

I need to renew my membership before I can post pics I think. It has your standard blistered clearcoat lol. It's in pretty good nick though! I hope to pull the ecu out this week and have a look. I noticed when we put the alarm in it lat weekend that the ecu has been replaced already as it has wreckers writing on it.

[Subaru ETA]

lol so thats you galant parked in the parking space you vr4 is usually in!

o and can you tell your workmates to stop waving out to me lol

[FNFAST VR4]

I don't work there as of last week, but yeah that was my beast lol. It's not like we even look similar haha.

[Subaru ETA]

lol what did you do at TFS? we look after your lease cars after hours.

obviously they think there is only 1 white galant vr4 out there

[FNFAST VR4]

lol what did you do at TFS? we look after your lease cars after hours.

obviously they think there is only 1 white galant vr4 out there

I did credit control / collections. Rarking up people who weren't paying for their cars... bit of a soul destroying job really haha.

Got to find a new job now though!

[MarkSanne]

Just out of interest: noticed any trends between carbrands and people who weren't paying?

[FNFAST VR4]

Just out of interest: noticed any trends between carbrands and people who weren't paying?

I had a large proportion of hiaces (couriers) and camrys (taxis)... you can draw your own conclusions from there... lol