1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse Help Me!

1998 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE
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CHUCHA01
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Engine Mechanical problem
1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic

While i'm driving down the road, within 5minutes my car just stops. No power, no brakes, no steering. I try to restart it and it won't. I wait sometimes a little while, sometimes a day. It starts and does the same thing all over again. I checked the ingnition coil, got new wires. Also, when i'm NOT using the air conditioner the car gets hot in temperature (while driving and in idle), when I use the air conditioner the temperature gauge stays normal.
Thank you in advance for your response.
Susan M.
Jun 17, 2010 at 4:59 PM
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CARADIODOC
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Hi Susan M. Welcome to the forum. First of all, it is important to understand, if you don't already, that you will never lose brakes and steering when the engine stalls. You will just lose the power assist. You will have to work harder to steer and push a lot harder on the brake pedal to stop. I just mention that because there have been stories over the years of misinformed people crashing because they didn't even try to turn or stop because they thought they couldn't.

A common suspect of this type of stalling is the crankshaft position sensor or camshaft position sensor. They often fail by becoming heat-sensitive, and will work again when they cool down. If the Check Engine light turned on, there will be a diagnostic fault code stored in the Engine Computer that will indicate the sensor with the problem.

It sounds like the computer controls for the electric radiator fan are not working. They are often bypassed to run anytime the air conditioning is turned on. The coolant temperature sensor is a likely suspect. Also check if there are different fan relays for the radiator fan and AC condensor fan. A quick check for a defective relay is to switch it with one of the other identical ones. They are under the hood.

caradiodoc
Jun 17, 2010 at 7:37 PM