2012 CJ 4B11 Not Starting

Remington

New Member
G'day all, just found this forum and really hoping there is a Mitsubishi or a gun technician here who could offer some help.

I've got a 2012 Lancer that doesn't start. This car has about 38000 klms on the clock, is one owner, never been to a panel shop, is totally stock and has only been driven by my elderly folks.

Backstory is- the car had about 60 bucks worth of PULP put in it (it is always filled with PULP) and drove for a few minutes and probably less than a kilometer before the car came to a set of lights. On attempting to take off, the car spluttered and stalled. Then after a number of cranks it spluttered enough to move the car away from traffic. The car was towed away and I was told about the issue.
At first, like most.... I assumed bad fuel due to recent fill. I filled a clear bottle from the fuel line in the engine bay and it looked and smelled ok. It even lit up nicely when I sparked some up.
So I didn't think anymore of the fuel theory.

Checked for fault codes with a cheapo scan tool and there was a MAF related code which cleared and never came back. To satisfy myself, I swapped the MAF with the one fitted to my car to test, and still no good. The petrol Pajero and Lancer share the same sensor.

I have tested fuel pressure with a gauge and it's good. I have removed the fuel pump / filter assembly and inside the tank looks very clean. I have even placed the assembly in a container and had new clean fuel poured into whilst somebody was cranking... still no go.
So far I'll discount fuel pump and fuel quality. The fact it failed after a fill seems like a sheer coincidence.

Spark is good and strong after removing coils and testing plugs against an earth when cranking.
Injector pulse is there and bright on the noid light.
All fuses are intact, nothing blown.
Tacho needle bounces when cranking and live data shows cranks going up... so crank sensor is good yeah?
Both keys do the same thing, so it's not immobiliser related. Not that an immobiliser would stall a car mid flight.
Compression test good, all even.
Plugs wet, fuel smell in pots and mist blowing out when engine cranked... so injectors working yeah?
Battery voltage good with battery being less than a year old but was fully charged the day after some brief testing was done.
Both cam sensors have 12v power, good earth and show around 5v on signal wire. Back probe signal wire and engine crank shows voltage fluctuating so they are good, yeah?
No damage on exhaust system and fumes come out the back so don't think it's blocked.
Engine doesn't run when trying to spray Aerostart towards throttle body. Throttle flap sweeps nicely when ignition switched on and off.
No sign of air or vacuum leaks, no perished or damaged hoses. Wouldn't expect it with the low mileage.
Engine is crystal clean and sludge free, it has yearly services where full synthetic oil is used.
Timing marks line up when valve cover was removed, so not a bad chain, yeah?

The way I have written this up wasn't necessarily the order I tested things. But this frick'n engine has air, fuel and spark and still not firing up?? WTF??
I only have very limited time to do my testing due to distance and my newborn but I really want to solve this problem and have this thing running again!

Has anyone seen anything like this before on a Lancer?
A company that repairs engine ECU's etc said they haven't seen issues with Lancer computers.
I don't have a very good scan tool or workshop manual but I have plenty of tools and know how!

Sheesh, long first post so hoping it's not too boring.
 
Hey mate, welcome! Seems like youre pretty handy with the mechanical side of things without the help of someone else haha.

Basics to check; Compression - Ignition - carburetion.

Being as you already looked at air and fuel, I’d throw a comp tester on the car just to verify. The 4B engines are known for timing chain issues, not that anyone likes to admit it.

I’d also happily drain the fuel tank and get a fresh 20l from a different servo. Usually after bad weather there are a few servos local to me that get water in the fuel and can guarantee I’ll get phone calls from friends about their cars that won't start after a day or two.

Good luck, happy testing!
 
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