dodge / chrysler / mitsubishi colt 200 1989

hello
X-posted
trying to learn about my car the aforeMentioned colt 200 (1989, well
maintained 1 owner i.e. owned by 1 family) and have a stupid question
and i do apologize in advance!
car HESITATES / LAGS on acceleration... very rough idle in gear
(automatic transmission) especially in reverse.... (NOT when hitting the
gas petal)
(it idles @ 500 rpm)
i've found on the interNet causes for hesitation / poor engine
performance which include H2O in the tank; bad ignition wires, bad fuel
filter (it does <apparently> have rust on the fuel filter and the last
nonChrysler mechanic didn't want to try to rpl it since it could have
damaged the fuel lines...???)
this was < 1 month ago and he replaced the spark plugs and their wires
the air filter, the pollution control valve; the distributor cap, and
the ignition rotor
QUESTION: the ignition rotor: does this contain the ignition wires?
i would be very grateful for any and all advice.
thank you in advance!
..

 

Hello again Tanya. Glad to see you found these newsgroups. People here are
very helpful and I am sure that someone will have a Colt service manual or
have owned one at some point so you should get some good advice.

As to the ignition rotor, this is inside the distributor cap and this is
where the ignition wires terminate (spark plugs on one side, ignition cap on
the other). The rotor spins on the distributor making contact with the
rotor caps terminals at the appropriate time to send high voltage electric
pulses to the spark plugs through the cable and fire at the appropriate
times to detonate the fuel air mixture (after the compression stroke). On
older vehicles there were something called "points" that actually had small
contacts on them that made/broke as the distributor turned thereby
generating the low voltage electric pulse that was transformed into the HV
signals by the HV coil. If your vehicle has points then these should have
been replaced and re-gapped along with replacing the distributor cap and
rotor. Most vehicles today have "breakerless" ignition so rotors, points,
and the cap are no longer moving parts and a distributor is no longer used.
I do not know what your vehicle has since it is old enough to still use the
old design or have been a modified version that did not have points.

Good luck!

Bob

 

Hi,
Being '89, it must be fuel injected engine. It so,
turn the ignition key on/off/on/off/on/off/on in 5 seconds and watch
check engine light blinking. It'll give two digit code. i.e. if it
blinks 3 times-pause-5 times = 35. You may fetch a fault code which will be
helpful. Is the idle in gear or in neutral? If in neutral, that seems
little too low.
Tony

 

Hello Bob,
Thanks for the reply and the explanation!
[...below...]

i don't know whether it has points or not..."points" are not mentioned in the
owner / user manual.
i do understand the above -- thank you --
so replacing the ignition rotor would not imply that the ignition wires were
replaced i assume
(just wonder because the waterInTheTank theory sort of fell apart yesterday
(still lags and vibrates) and i read that this could be due to worn ignition
wires)
thanks again!
sincerely
Tanya

 

thats right... It's a mitsu, so the key thing won't work.....just like if you
tried it on a Talon or Stealth.