Hey guys, hopefully someone can help me on this. I did search for the similar problem but have not found any forum that helps so I am posting this. I completely understand about the whole search thing because trust me that annoys me as well. This is my very first post in club3g so hurray!....now back on subject.
I have a 2000 eclipse gs, manual transmission with 130,000 miles on it. The mods I have: Cold air intake, short shifter, aftermarket slotted and drilled rotors, aftermarket halo projector headlights, aftermarket turn signals and a catback exhaust.
Recently I had to have a water pump replaced because my head had over heated from a frozen water pump. I had my alternator belt replaced because it snapped. Also the mechanic replaced my timing belt. I do have a leak from the metal cooling coupler attaching to my head where the cooling enters into the engine but it isn't bad to where it would cause problems really.
Alright here is the problem. The other night when I had gotten off of work I got in my car, started it and everything was fine like normal. I got on the highway and was driving home normally like I always do. Then out of nowhere it just craps out on me when I pushed my clutch in, it went from 2500 rpm all the way down to 0 but my lights and the warning lights were working fine. I started the car back up again and pushed on the gas pedal and had it in gear and it was going but when I'm not pressing on the gas pedal and I'm in gear, I can hear a hissing or a sucking like a vacuum coming from the engine bay. now when I push my clutch in and keep it in it will die and go back to 0 rpm. Then I start it up and push on the gas pedal while in gear and I can go but there is that hissing, sucking vacuum like sound when in gear but not pressing on the gas pedal. When I push the gas pedal halfway the hissing noise is sort of there but isn't loud and when I step on the gas pedal the noise goes away. Now I thought it was a vacuum leak coming from somewhere and a hose had came off maybe. Well when I got home and popped the hood and tried to check to any hoses that might have came off, there were none but there was a lot of oil around my engine head. and I noticed that there was oil coming out of the valve cover on the sides. I checked my radiator and that was fine, also the fluid was still in there. I checked for oil in my radiator fluid or the oil coming from the valve cover if it was milky and none of both were.
Any SES codes? How much oil did you lose? So your saying it wont idle, but if you start it and hold the gas down some it will run with the hissing sound?
Nope no SES code at all. The oil just seems like it sprayed a bit like a mist because some of it is on my cold air intake. So it doesn't seem like a lot was lost to cause a big problem. But it is definently seeping out of the valve cover like where the rubber gasket it. It will not want to idle one bit and yes when I do step on the gas a bit the hissing sound is there.
Did you check the bolts around the valve cover gasket to make sure they were tight? That's one hell of a vacuum leak you got there. Replace your valve cover basket and correctly tighten all of the bolts and let us know.
Hmm..Sounds like the probable cause is either a vacuum line or a combination of (obviously) your valve cover gasket and possibly your intake manifold gasket. Check all your vac lines, pull your valve cover and get a new gasket for it and use RTV Silicone sealant as well. Then, if you didnt find any vac line issues, I'd go ahead and pull off your CAI and intake manifold, (you can be sure to see any hidden vac lines you might of missed in this process), and check your gasket for it. Im guessing its not an electrical issue or it would of thrown a code.
And when you said its leaking anti-freeze at the "metal coupling", are you talking about the thermostat?
Alright after I got home from work earlier today I checked the valve cover, the gasket, and the bolts. The bolts were pretty loose and I tightened them back up to how they should be and that fixed the oil leaking problem. I put oil back into the engine because it was very low. The vacuum hissing sound however is still there. I found the area from where it is coming from. Its coming from the area between a little bit before you get to the throttle body from the intake manifold, fuel rail and the head. So when your looking at the engine from a front view, it would be on the upper right of the engine close to the intake manifold right before the throttle body.
I checked the lines and I do not see any torn up or split open hoses. Everything seems to be connected properly as far as vacuum hoses and water hoses. I checked a few fuel hoses but not every single one since it became really dark and I'm going to hold off the rest of looking at it for tomorrow. But as far as I can tell, all the hoses seem to be fine. I'm just throwing this out there but is there a probability that maybe it has to do with my fuel rail? Oh and yes the thermostat connected to the head lol.
I also checked to see if there was oil dripping from the engine bay after I fixed the valve cover and I looked to see if there was a possibility that it is milky. It is not milky and there seems to be no oil dripping anymore over the times I kept starting it after I fixed the valve cover trying to figure out where the hissing sound is coming from.
The hissing is a leak of some sort. Check your intake couplers. Disconnect your battery and take the entire intake off. Then put it back together piece by piece and make sure every hose clamp is tight and that every coupler is solid. I rebuild mine a couple weeks ago and was surprised how lose it was. The cold makes the silicone lose its tackiness so it doesn't seal on the piping as well. Otherwise take some flameable carb cleaner and spray around your gaskets when its idling and if you hit the leak it'll rev your idle a little and you'll know you've found it.
I will take a look at everything tomorrow. Hopefully I will find it tomorrow. The problem is, my car doesn't stay at idle so I wont be able to spray carb cleaner around my gaskets to try and find where the leak it coming from. Good idea! but it wont help me since my car doesn't stay at idle .....
That's a pretty serious issue. If it is really that bad you may even be able to see the issue then. To me it sounds like a crack, which is possible with the overheating. The aluminum head/iron block combo isn't so favorable to that kind of heat, not that any engine is immune from it. If it were me, I'd start from the beginning. Take off the intake, tb, intake manifold and check them all and put then back together with new gaskets.
If it was a crack, how come I'm able to have it in gear and I can drive it down the road without pushing on the gas pedal and just riding the gear I'm in. When I do that the hissing noise is stilling going on. The hissing noise goes away completely when I have my foot full throttle (Did this on the way home the night it happened). Like when I press on the gas it will rev up when I'm not in gear and if I continue to keep pressing on the gas it will not die. I don't know how a car would drive with a crack in the engine. What's your opinion on this? God I really hope it's not a crack....
It sounds like a crack in your intake manifold I meant or a blown gasket (like the tb gasket or mani to head gasket). If it were a crack in the block you'd know... The head, maybe. The reason it runs when you give it gas is because the amount of air sucking through the crack (or whatever it is) isn't enough to skew your air to fuel ratio badly enough to make it run bad whereas if its idling the amount of air its pulling through the crack IS enough to skew it and make it die. If I recall, the GS has a steel intake manifold. Iron block, aluminum head, steel intake manifold, aluminum tb. See what I'm getting at? Overheating either made a crack or caused something to warp.
Yeah I would rather have a crack in my intake manifold than my head lol. Yeah, I completely see where your going now. I will for sure check for a crack in the mani and throttle body. I will also check to see if there is something wrong with the throttle body gasket or the intake gasket. But one thing I should mention is the throttle body gasket and the intake manifold gasket are pretty new. I replaced them last year around late september and I know I didn't mess anything up. So I have a feeling that both gaskets are fine. Your probably right about the crack, I mean it does make sense from how you put it. Hopefully I will find something tomorrow....
Doesn't matter how new they were. Age is no object when the engine has been subject to that kind of heat. In fact, the new gaskets could very well be the problem. What kind of gaskets did you replace them with? The stock gaskets are metal stamp gaskets. Most of the replacements I've found are felt, which isn't so bad for stock applications as they can seal a more uneven surface but they don't stand up to heat at all.
Worst case scenario here is the head is warped. Even worse would be if the block is warped but I haven't seen that happen much. Even if it is the head, they're cheap and easy to replace. Relatively speaking I guess.
The intake manifold gasket is metal but the throttle body gasket is felt. I will try to find some time tomorrow to look at the throttle body gasket. I did not have enough time today and when I did, it already became dark :facepalm:.
Alright so I looked for any vacuum leak with the throttle body gasket, doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the gasket. I do notice however that maybe something seems to be wrong with maybe the throttle body, I'm not 100 percent sure if it is coming from the throttle body, but I do know for sure it's coming from around the area I had said before. Now is there something in the throttle body that if it had gone out or broke, it would cause some kind of vacuum or sucking that would cause the car to die and not stay idle?
Sorry I have not been on here to update what was going on. Busy with the start of school for spring semester and work.
But I have figured out what exactly is was that was causing the vacuum leak issue. It is not the head, intake manifold, fuel rail, gaskets, injectors or anything of that sort. What is actually was is the throttle body. I wish I had a picture to put up on here to show you exactly what I am talking about but hopefully when I put it into words, you guys will know what I am talking about.
Well where the cruise control is on the throttle body, the side of the throttle body that is facing the front of the car where the engine is. A little bit below the cruise control sensor, there is a circle type hole looking thing with 1 screw that is supposed to go there and hold something in place to cover that hole up. Well for some odd ass reason, that screw and the cover came off somehow, I'm guess it was loose and over time with pressure, etc. it caused it to come off. I put a balled up piece of electrical tape in the hole (it obviously didn't seal it all the way :lol So it started up and reved up high to 3,000 rpm then fell back down to about 700 to 800 rpm where it normalyl idles at then revs up again to 3,000 rpms and kept doing this cycle over and over for about 4 times then died when the balled up piece of electrical tape fell out of it. So all I have to do is somehow find that one piece to put on the throttle body (which oreilly's and autozone do not have, I will try napa at some point), buy a whole new throttle body, or just use something to seal the hole and be sure that it stays sealed for the mean time (I will more than likely do this lol).
Anyways, thanks everyone for the help, especially silvertune for all the advice and input you had given me . I really appreciated it and I'm glad this was nothing serious.
That would be the FIAV(Fast Idle Thermo Valve), causes the engine to idle high at startup to warm it up. Has coolant flowing through it that warms it up to where it allows the idle to settle back to normal when warmed up.
This is a interesting post. I had my oil changed over the week end and now my car hesitates. I am wondering if maybe something has loosened. It just seems odd that it has happened since I got a oil change.
Im expiriencing this same issue, but I believe the leak I'm experiencing is coming from the little plastic ring that heads towards TPS from the side of the throttle body...what to do?
I have a 2000 eclipse gs and I'm experiencing same issue. My car won't idle unless i unplug the maf sensor but then its in bypass mode. I took off my cold air intake put my hand over opening to intake still won't stall. herd its suppose to. So I check all vac lines all look good but I feel air from behind the intake somewhere. Not sure where.
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