CH Lancer Rough start

crumpledoor13

New Member
Hi all. My 04 CH is struggling to start when cold. It will crank over and splutter to a start, then get to normal idle and be fine. Car runs fine and when warm starts without issue. Its getting worse to the point it almost wont start when cold. Seems like it isn't getting enough fuel to fire up straight away when it's cold. Could this be a faulty relay for the fuel pump prime? Where are the fuel pump relays located if that could be the issue? Thanks
 
Hey there!
Fuel pump relay lives in the drivers side fusebox. Pull down the “hidden” glovebox and remove it from the trim. You’ll find the relay there. Being as yours is 2004 - im gonna say 4g94. The fuel pump does not prime. It runs only when the engine is turning. This is to build oil pressure BEFORE the motor has fuel and can be started.
If you wish to test the fuel pump, bridge the relay with a paperclip or short run of wire. Have the fuel line removed from the rail and make a friend watch the fuel coming out. Being as your motor runs fine when warm, I wouldnt bother checking.

personally I would check the idle air controller function - reset its zero position. Test for airleaks with a smoke machine. Maybe a dirty throttle body or dud position sensor. Ideally you need a smoke machine and a scan tool to pull live live data.
 
Hey there!
Fuel pump relay lives in the drivers side fusebox. Pull down the “hidden” glovebox and remove it from the trim. You’ll find the relay there. Being as yours is 2004 - im gonna say 4g94. The fuel pump does not prime. It runs only when the engine is turning. This is to build oil pressure BEFORE the motor has fuel and can be started.
If you wish to test the fuel pump, bridge the relay with a paperclip or short run of wire. Have the fuel line removed from the rail and make a friend watch the fuel coming out. Being as your motor runs fine when warm, I wouldnt bother checking.

personally I would check the idle air controller function - reset its zero position. Test for airleaks with a smoke machine. Maybe a dirty throttle body or dud position sensor. Ideally you need a smoke machine and a scan tool to pull live live data.

Thanks SDate42. Yes its the 2.0 4g94. On the weekend I did take out the Idle Air Valve and cleaned it to see if that helped. What I didn't do was disconnect the battery to reset the ECU after cleaning it. I assume this is how you reset it to zero position?
 
Did you end up solving this issue? I am experiencing the exact same thing on my 05 CH. Over the past few weeks, when starting the engine while cold it has become progressively more hesistant to the point where it will start, go up to about 1000 then drop down and hang around 5-600 for about a second then rise to normal RPM. After this it runs perfectly and starting the engine after it warms up is completely normal.

So far I have reset the IACV and can hear it ticking when turning the key to on but not starting straight away. I will try leaving the key at ON for a couple seconds before starting it next time and see if that helps.
 
Mine was the same, started 2 mths ago, would take 3-4 start attempts where it would splutter and try to start, it would start and run well, like you said rest of day started first time every time.
Now (only exception being if you tried to go quick and put the gas pedal down engine would completely stop until you backed off the gas) then start again. But if you drove normally no problems, anything over 1/2 pedal, engine cuts out like starving fuel.

It guessed it wasn't fuel pump as only replaced it with new genuine one, plus drives ok otherwise.

I thought culprit might be TPS sensor, bought one from wreckers, fitted it, all good for 3 wks, then back it came again. So bought another one (china unbranded from ebay) only lasted 3 days then back it came again.
Original TPS sensors are hard to find new, but i managed to get one from Japan for $80, hoping it works when i get around to fitting it, until then putting up driving normally and 2-4 start attempts first thing in morning.

Will let you know what happens when i fit it up and adjust settings on tps sensor.
 
Mine was the same, started 2 mths ago, would take 3-4 start attempts where it would splutter and try to start, it would start and run well, like you said rest of day started first time every time.
Now (only exception being if you tried to go quick and put the gas pedal down engine would completely stop until you backed off the gas) then start again. But if you drove normally no problems, anything over 1/2 pedal, engine cuts out like starving fuel.

It guessed it wasn't fuel pump as only replaced it with new genuine one, plus drives ok otherwise.

I thought culprit might be TPS sensor, bought one from wreckers, fitted it, all good for 3 wks, then back it came again. So bought another one (china unbranded from ebay) only lasted 3 days then back it came again.
Original TPS sensors are hard to find new, but i managed to get one from Japan for $80, hoping it works when i get around to fitting it, until then putting up driving normally and 2-4 start attempts first thing in morning.

Will let you know what happens when i fit it up and adjust settings on tps sensor.
Is it a 2l? If it is it could potentially be the coils/leads as well as the MAF
 
Yes its a 2lt, new mitsi factory fuel pump, not showing any codes up on OBD1 code reader, I cleaned the MAF, coils and leads tested ok, ill fit the new factory TPS sensor when i get a chance, (adjust it as factory manual specs) then i see what the odds are of having 3 x TPS failures one after the other hmmmm.
I did read somewhere the the ecu's in the overseas 4g94's where prone to failing and causing strange problems, but never heard any problems here in aus, that ive seen anyway?

Weird problem, if you floor it it cuts out, just like the old carbies did when you had a bit of dirt in the main jets, back of and put foot down slowly and it revs up to red line, no misfires, nothing, add that to the pain in the ass starting procedure
Its enough to "Drive you to drink", but truthfully i don't need much encouragement to do that !
 
Yes its a 2lt, new mitsi factory fuel pump, not showing any codes up on OBD1 code reader, I cleaned the MAF, coils and leads tested ok, ill fit the new factory TPS sensor when i get a chance, (adjust it as factory manual specs) then i see what the odds are of having 3 x TPS failures one after the other hmmmm.
I did read somewhere the the ecu's in the overseas 4g94's where prone to failing and causing strange problems, but never heard any problems here in aus, that ive seen anyway?

Weird problem, if you floor it it cuts out, just like the old carbies did when you had a bit of dirt in the main jets, back of and put foot down slowly and it revs up to red line, no misfires, nothing, add that to the pain in the ass starting procedure
Its enough to "Drive you to drink", but truthfully i don't need much encouragement to do that !

It's worth testing / putting a known good set of coils and a known good MAF into it to rule those out.

I've helped two Mates of mine with the same issue however one was a 1.8 and the other was a 2L, and for the 2l could fixed the issue and for the 1.8 coils/leads and a MAF fixed it.
 
Good thinking, Yes, that was was my second plan of attack after installing new fact TPS sensor, its all well and good testing on stationary car, but under load things change and may show up something then.
 
Good thinking, Yes, that was was my second plan of attack after installing new fact TPS sensor, its all well and good testing on stationary car, but under load things change and may show up something then.
That's true as well, but have you tested the TPS sensors to make sure that theyre actually dead/have failed?

Try unplugging the MAF sensor on a cold start and see if it fires up first go rather than 4th or etc
 
Will try that tomorrow and see what happens, didn't bother testing tps sensor as when i replaced it, all was good again, but yes i will test them and check resistance on them. I actually tried to pull one apart to clean it, but mitsubishi did a wonderful job making it a throw away item.
 
Will try that tomorrow and see what happens, didn't bother testing tps sensor as when i replaced it, all was good again, but yes i will test them and check resistance on them. I actually tried to pull one apart to clean it, but mitsubishi did a wonderful job making it a throw away item.
Let me know how it goes tomorrow. My mates 1.8 did the exaxt same thing, I brought a set of known good coils and that got rid of it for the most part but it was still there, chucked a MAF on and it went away
 
Well JacksonRop2442 your were right!! disconnected the MAF on the car and it started first time and was idling ok. Even though i cleaned the maf 2 mths ago and it did not show up as a fault code on OBD 1 code reader, so i guess that means that the maf is faulty or did i miss something else?
 
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Well JacksonRop2442 your were right!! disconnected the MAF on the car and it started first time and was idling ok. Even though i cleaned the maf 2 mths ago and it did not show up as a fault code on OBD 1 code reader, so i guess that means that the maf is faulty or did i miss something else?
If you can get your hands on a known good one, try that first, and if everything's all good on cold starts etc and full throttle even while idling and it doesn't cut out then that's more than likely the issue.

Usually with these cars, you need an obd-2 scanner that can read the MUT-II protocol that these actually run on, and if there was no CEL (Check engine light) on on the dash, then it more than likely wouldn't be picked up by any scanner.

The only time when I had a CEL come on was when I left it unplugged by mistake after cleaning it and the throttle body
 
Yes i had a OBD 2 scanner, it was Mitsubishi coded only, what they didnt tell me was it only works on 2006 and later CH models with 2.4,and models up to current end model run. Unfortunately the early CH lancer (CG's?) use a different MUT protocol, yes it has an ODD2 port, but uses OBD 1 protocol.
So only very specific code scanners will work, plug in OBD bluetooth scanners are useless.
Only the vident series 1700AU and the 1710AU, or overkill 1730AU sold by fuel economy solutions / auscanners.com.au seem to be ok, I asked them if any other makes (reasonably priced ones) would do the job, but they didn’t know any.

Other than that my son brings home the snap on workshop scanner, and checks codes.

So i have a code scanner that works on all 2006 and later mitsubishi, all models, but not mine. Only used it once on daughters Tridon cummins diesel turbo, worked well, otherwise it gathers dust.
 
Thank you guys for the replies. Since my last post I've found that leaving the key in on for a bit before starting does nothing. I've kind of stopped trying to fix it for now since it still starts every time and once started runs perfectly.

I will try the MAF sensor soon and plan on swapping out the fuel filter anyway next time I'm working on it.
 
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