Engine Stalls on Long Left Turns

I am having an issue with my 1997 Eclipse GS-T. My issue is that when taking a long left turn (Highways, Off Ramps, Rotary's, etc) my engine will stall out. Sometimes it will start right back up on its own without me touching anything and continue driving, other times I have to engage the clutch and wait till the motor stops rotating (Engine rotates because car is in gear during stall) and restart it myself. It doesn't always start right away, sometimes I have to wait a few minutes or so before it starts. When the motor restarts on its own it's not like a bump start, it restarts smoothly as if I just turned the key. Sometimes when it restarts on it's own I will get a couple loud pops out the tail pipe, not every time though. Sometimes it doesn't fully stall, my tach will drop and the car will buck and go right back to normal. Only the tach drops out, the rest of the gauges stay working with no abnormal readings. The stalling does happen sometimes while driving straight and right turns but not as much as it does while turning left. This problem doesn't happen all the time, in fact its quite random when it does. The past two weeks it hasn't happened once till a 2 hour drive today around a long left corner on the highway. It almost seems as if I am losing spark to the cylinders. The reason I believe that it has to do with the ignition system is because of the loud pops I get out my tail pipe when it restarts. In my mind the pops are the excess fuel that fills the cylinders when/if the ignition system shuts down and burns up when the ignition system starts back up. I also have this random misfire going on as well. When I'm cruising around 3000+ RPM the engine will start misfiring completely until I restart the car or engage the clutch and let it drop to idle for a second or two. This problem is very random as well and does not happen all the time. Once and a while I will have the stall, restart right into the misfire but that does not happen very often. I have P0300 Random misfire code and P0505 IAC Motor Malfunction code. The stalling started happening after I rebuilt my cylinder head after burning an exhaust valve. The misfiring was there before I did the head. During the rebuild I did a light port and polish job myself (Gasket Matched Ports, Smoothed Out Ports and Bowls, Ground Intake Valve Guides Flush), 3 Angle Valve Job, & Oil Port Mod to the head. I replaced my intake cam because the one that was in there was to small and was bouncing around in the cam bearing/mounts (For lack of a better term, Brain fart on correct term). I also replaced my Crank Sensor and Spark Plugs as well. As well as install a 1g BOV. This issue is boggling my mind, I'm at the point where I wish it would just completely shut down so I can figure it out in my drive way. As of now the issue does not happen at idle so I'm having a hard time diagnosing it, pretty much just have theory's at the moment. Any input, opinions or advise would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping someone out there has had a similar issue to what I have going on. Thank You for your time, Have a great day.

ok couple questions here. Its a 97 eclipse, but what CAS are you using? Also is your BOV recirculated, and when was the last time you did a boost leak test?

I'm running the 97-99 CAS. Yes the BOV is recirculating, I'm running an unmodified 1g BOV. The recirculating hose was a bit big to fit on the BOV but I put a couple layers of shrink tubing around it to build up the diameter of it so the hose fit a little better so the clamp didn't have to do twice the work. I'm open to suggestions on more proper way to recirculate the 1g BOV. I also made my own BOV adaptor flange for the 1g I did run a boost test after I finished the head job, I also retested it about a month ago just to make sure the leak didn't get worse, which I had the same results. I have a very small leak at the throttle plate shaft. Its such a small leak though. I do plan on rebuilding one of my 2g TB's or switching to a 1g TB if I can steal a decent one out of the bone yard.

One thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that I also swapped out the power steering pump because my original one was leaking. I know its a shot in the dark that the pump could be the cause. I did read something the other day that said that 1 wire switch in the top of the pump is meant to kick up the revs during a turn to keep the car from bogging or stalling. I'm not sure if that's true or not. I always thought it was to relieve pressure if the pressure got to high, like a little bypass or something. Even if that was possibly the cause how would that keep the car from firing off sometimes after the stall.

Thank you for your interest, I'm open to any advice or thoughts you may have. I'm at my Witt's end with this issue. I wish it would just happen all the time so then I could run all the tests I want and figure it out in my driveway instead of how randomly it happens going down the road.

dsm_jd wrote:I'm running the 97-99 CAS. Yes the BOV is recirculating, I'm running an unmodified 1g BOV. The recirculating hose was a bit big to fit on the BOV but I put a couple layers of shrink tubing around it to build up the diameter of it so the hose fit a little better so the clamp didn't have to do twice the work. I'm open to suggestions on more proper way to recirculate the 1g BOV. I also made my own BOV adaptor flange for the 1g I did run a boost test after I finished the head job, I also retested it about a month ago just to make sure the leak didn't get worse, which I had the same results. I have a very small leak at the throttle plate shaft. Its such a small leak though. I do plan on rebuilding one of my 2g TB's or switching to a 1g TB if I can steal a decent one out of the bone yard.

One thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that I also swapped out the power steering pump because my original one was leaking. I know its a shot in the dark that the pump could be the cause. I did read something the other day that said that 1 wire switch in the top of the pump is meant to kick up the revs during a turn to keep the car from bogging or stalling. I'm not sure if that's true or not. I always thought it was to relieve pressure if the pressure got to high, like a little bypass or something. Even if that was possibly the cause how would that keep the car from firing off sometimes after the stall.

Thank you for your interest, I'm open to any advice or thoughts you may have. I'm at my Witt's end with this issue. I wish it would just happen all the time so then I could run all the tests I want and figure it out in my driveway instead of how randomly it happens going down the road.

Its true about the power steering pump, but I dont see it causing your problem as long as that wire is hooked up. Even still if its not it shouldnt be much of an issue.  Id be doing some boost leak tests if I were you. I'm willing to bet you just mind be suprised by what you find. Just another tidbit, but what production month was that car? Did it originally come with the 2gb CAS, or is it an early enough 97 to have had the 2ga CAS? Also, I know this is like beating a week old dead horse by saying this but have your crankshaft end play checked. Its kinda scary that you say this happens on long left hand turns

I feel the same way about the power steering pump, was just kind of a shot in the dark. I've just been going over what I replaced while doing the head job over and over in my head trying to figure out possible causes. I didn't have this issue before doing the head. I had the random multiple misfire before the head job and still have the misfire as well. I've been thinking that the random misfire and the stalling may be going hand and hand, and that if i maybe fix one it may take car of the other. I've been chasing this misfire for quite a while now. I've switched the coil packs and the ignition transistor with the extra ones I have with no result, unless every extra part I have is faulty. I installed new plugs (NGK IX Iridium BPR6EIX) when I did the head. I'll run another boost leak test as soon as I can. If it was caused by a boost leak wouldn't it be an all the time thing instead of mainly left turns? It does happen sometimes while going straight and right turns but not as much. It only really happens during a long left turn when I'm holding a fairly consistent steering angle (Like a rotary for example), if I take a short corner or sharp corner it doesn't really happen, with a few exceptions of course. There was a few two week period where it didn't happen at all. The Production Date is August 1996, and yes id did come with a 2gb CAS. I checked for crank walk when I was doing the head, I almost always check for walk every time I'm working around that area. I didn't have any end play when i checked it during the head job, but I will check that as well when I get the chance and take a measurement. If there is any excess end play, wouldn't it be fine as long as it stays with-in the crank sensor reading slot (For lack of a better term)? I was working on this kids 95 GSX a while back, his crank was walking out far enough that the crank plate was hitting the sensor and breaking it. I replaced the crank sensor when I did my head because the wires were very brittle and the insulation was cracking, I got a sensor from RockAuto.com (BECK/ARNLEY Part # 1800540). Any thought that my issue could be ECU related? I recently had most of my wire harness (From where it exits the cabin over the right front tire to the core support) untapped to check checked over because I had an issue with my new alternator not turning on. There was nothing wrong with the harness, it ended up being that the 4 wire plug at the alternator was wired backwards. Which was weird because my original alternator was working fine up till it died. I've also tried the wiggle test while in the drive way on the harness above the intake manifold to the coils, Injectors, cam & crank sensor, etc and had no change in idle or anything. I was hoping to find a broken wire to my ignition but found nothing. I feel that I am losing spark but still getting fuel because of the backfiring sometimes when it's able to restart on its own. Which seems to happen when I straighten out the steering, not all the time though. Same when I have to restart it manually, it seems like if I try while still in the corner it won't start sometimes and that I have to straighten out and wait a few seconds (sometimes longer) for it to start. It's wierd, the only consistant thing about it is the stall during the long left turn (not every left turn though, sometimes it's fine, sometimes not) the rest is just random.

**Skeptical Fix**So yesterday I did 10 laps around my local rotary where it usually always has the issue happen about half way around the rotary after entering. No stalling, car ran fine with out any issues. I even did 3 more laps about 20-30 mins later. For sh*ts and giggles I swapped out the power steering pump out to the original one. Wasn't actually leaking, was the hose leaking. I thought the front seal went and was just being tossed around by the belt. Just had to heli coil one of the mounting holes. Needless to say some how the pump was causing, at least so far. It's been a week today that I swapped it out. I'm still really skeptical about it, I feel like it's just hiding for now and will happen any day now. I still can't imagine how that could be the cause, I'm guessing it had to do with that little one wire switch. The pump felt fine,no binding or tight spots when spinning the pulley. I am still having the random misfire though, that has been there since before head. I did a boost leak test yesterday, I had to tighten a couple clamps slightly and still have the leak at my throttle body, all small slow leaks. I just picked up a 1g throttle body so hopefully that swap will fix the TB leak and add slight gain in power. If it leaks I will just have to grab another or rebuild it. I think I've already said that I've swapped coils, the transistor,plugs and done multiple wiggle tests to try and eliminate this random misfire. I'm swapping the wire set out tonight with a set I just picked up. It happens around 2800-3000 rpms and above and goes away if I clutch in and let it drop to idle for a second or cycle the key of and on once. Some days it happens a lot, some days once, some days it doesn't happen at all. Wet or dry weather makes no difference, it's just completely random. Throws P0300 Random Multiple Misfire code. I put in a new crank sensor when i did the head thinking that was the problem but no change. Any ideas, advice, or stories would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your time.