My Mitsubishi Starts and Shuts Down Right Away

I have a 2001 Mitsubishi Galant ES with 57,700 miles on it. It usually runs well and has given me very little trouble.

3 weeks ago for about five minutes it would start quickly and immediately shut off. After waiting 5 minutes or so it went back to normal. Then a week or so later, when the car was turned towards my garage door, it started, reved up to 2000

then went to 1000 rpm and died. This happened for about five minutes, trying over and over again without success to keep the car going. I waited about a half hour, tried again and everything operated perfectly. A few days later the check engine light went on and lasted for three days then went away. All this time the car is giving me absolutely no trouble.

So tonight I drove home from the train station, parked at my house for a while, went to get some food, parked at that same angle angled with the wheels turned as if going into the garage, and it happened again, the car started and after a second died. Tried on and off for ten minutes with no success. Meanwhile I rolled the car back a little and straightened it out on a level section of the driveway. Waited about a half hour, tried again and the car started right up with no problem!



So what’s going on? Can the way I parked the car have something to do with this or is this just an odd coincidence? The car was very slightly inclined, the wheels turned sharply to the right. I doubt it butt just checking. Does anybody have any ideas?

Conincidence. First step is pull the codes. AutoZone, Checkers, Advance Auto, etc. will do this for you free and it only takes a few minutes. Post any results for further discussion.

The Check Engine Light means the car is talking to you so you should listen to it.

Just offhand, I might say an Idle Air Valve control problem but it’s bit unclear to me if the engine will simply refuse to run when the throttle is depressed.
Will it keep running if you hold the pedal down a bit? If it does, then the fault is in the Idle Air circuitry, passages, etc.