About 6 weeks ago my timing chain broke while I was driving. I had it towed to a locally owned repair shop that I had used before. I had a tough decision to either repair or buy a new car. My Eclipse has 260,000 miles on it. The young man said he could repair it for around 1400 dollars and I said go for it. The bad stuff begins. A week later I call and its not ready. A few days I call and the original repair man is no longer working there. All said and done its been over a month. I’ve paid them 2300 dollars and the car stalls when idling. In fairness they did a lot of work; but I don’t feel like its safe to drive. They tell me I need to drive it a while to break in the new valves. I feel like an idiot. I’ve got all this money invested in repair; and I’ve just lost my job. I also feel like the repair man is not bad at his job; but maybe doesn’t understand Mitzubishi repair. Folks any advice would be welcome. I just want to get six to eight months more out of this vehicle. It was a great car that I didn’t maintain because of the cost. And I really hate the idea of buying a car right now.
Stalling while idling could be due to any one of a number of things; vacuum leak, Idle Air Control valve problem, camshaft or ignition timing not correct, EGR staying open, etc, etc.
While there’s a lot of this that is unknown, at least to me, i will say this. Telling you that you need to drive it for a while to break in the new valves points to someone who does not know what they’re doing or they just don’t want to mess with it and are brushing you off. That breaking in the valves part is BS.
I don’t think the shop really “repaired” your engine. A lot of damage to the engine internals can happen when a timing chain breaks depending on the engine rpm when the chain let go. I think they just cobbled your engine back together and hoped for the best. +1 to that breaking in the valves part is BS from ok4450.
When a timing belt (your car has a belt, not a chain, if I’m not mistaken) breaks on an interference engine, valve damage AND piston damage could occur. So I’m starting to think the same thing - they put it back together with minimal effort/work and are hoping for the best.
Stalling during an idle could be a number of things, but in your case, it could be the timing belt not being timed correctly. Other causes could be a vacuum line off/missing from the work, IAC or EGR problem, and so on. But my money is on incorrect cam/crank timing.
Breaking in valves does sound like BS.
Usually the better, more economical, path for a car w/260K and a broken timing chain would be a replacement engine rather than a repair. Replacement engines – these are usually rebuilt engines done at a factory that specializes only in rebuilds, and has all the tools and equipment for doing it efficiently, taking advantage of economy of scale – these rebuilt engines are surprisingly economical.
Go back to the shop and tell them ur motor keeps stalling. They have a lot of ur money. They will at least give the engine a look over. Taking off the head requires removing a lot of parts. Hoses, fittings, and so on. It might be an easy fix. Have u looked at motor ur self?