[hubi]

Hi,

I have a quite weird issue in our Caliber, it's from the beginning when we bought it as a used car.

When accelerating, after I get around 2000RPMs to 2500RPMs, I have a power loos, and after a second, all is fine and the acceleration is smooth and continuous. I didn't change the fluid in it yet, and the car has 70 K Miles.

I think it's the transmission, but maybe it's the engine?

Any help welcome

Thank you

Hubert

 

[672aq]

The "Procedure" may help.

Search results for query: Procedure

www.caliberforumz.com

 

[45Cali]

Hi,

I have a quite weird issue in our Caliber, it's from the beginning when we bought it as a used car.

When accelerating, after I get around 2000RPMs to 2500RPMs, I have a power loos, and after a second, all is fine and the acceleration is smooth and continuous. I didn't change the fluid in it yet, and the car has 70 K Miles.

I think it's the transmission, but maybe it's the engine?

Any help welcome

Thank you

Hubert

I believe this is a big problem with this series that has sent many a good car to the scrap yard thinking expensive bad trans. mine was the electronic throttle unit. they made them with a little plastic gear wheel that deteriorates after about 10years. The ETC unit "talks" to the sensor in the pedal (a relationship i've never condoned) and those signals are sent in bursts that cause the stuttering during 2nd gear. I've found that higher grade gas helps with this because it fires faster and can keep up with the sensor signal pulses telling the intake to suck air. ooooo the rabbit hole of the Mitsubishi engine.

 

[hubi]

I believe this is a big problem with this series that has sent many a good car to the scrap yard thinking expensive bad trans. mine was the electronic throttle unit. they made them with a little plastic gear wheel that deteriorates after about 10years. The ETC unit "talks" to the sensor in the pedal (a relationship i've never condoned) and those signals are sent in bursts that cause the stuttering during 2nd gear. I've found that higher grade gas helps with this because it fires faster and can keep up with the sensor signal pulses telling the intake to suck air. ooooo the rabbit hole of the Mitsubishi engine.

Thank for your reply.
Do I understand that you had the same issue with the loss of the power during acceleration?

 

[45Cali]

Thank for your reply.
Do I understand that you had the same issue with the loss of the power during acceleration?

Yes. When I first inherited my 2010 Caliber SXT 4cyl the first issue I encountered was a failing throttle unit (ETC) intake.
This failure causes a little charge bolt icon warning light to appear in the cluster indicating either full failure (blinking consistently), or temporary failure (stays on) which requires a reset sequence of turning the key on fully without starting then pressing the accelerator pedal down fully and releasing it slowly while counting 20-30 sec. for you to fully release the pedal. Turn key off, open door to turn car system off for full reset. If this procedure works then you have the same issue I had. The part might be warrantied or part of a recall, I did not dig just glad the fault causes it to close instead of get stuck open electronically and had to have thrown it in neutral if possible and pulled over to shut off.

Went to the scrap yard, found the best looking one from all the series (Jeep; Compass, Patriot; Chrysler etc. they all have this engine in them 2009-2012), popped it in. (easy unbuckling of the airbox and intake tube then unbolting it from the lower front of the engine. You will want the tube out of the way), did the reset procedure which essentially retrains the the PCM to the sensor's circuit.

As I said, I still don't like the relationship of how all these units "talk" to each other to regulate fuel, air and drivetrain. Pedal talks to ETC, ETC talks to PCM which asks the MAF if this is all ok then PCM tells the CVT what speed to shift at (herein begins the 45-50 hill climb confusion) and I'm sure I probably missed someone in there such as wheel speed/ABS sensors AND Transaxle valve control and speed sensor telling the PCM if everyone is ready to rock. If they didn't recall the ETC they should because alot of them are now failing and making people think their trans is out because of such a low speed pull. I could tell because it actually pulled me all the way up that hill in 1st and was getting fuel so the air is what was not flowing. If a simple code reader is telling you nothing it is this issue. If it's telling you things that sound like any of these other symptoms, it's probably this issue.

A shame that this happened but happy picking my friend if you get into it because there's literally tons of them in the scrap yards now so look for vehicles that are obviously there for other reasons i.e. wrecks remembering that Chrysler Dodge Jeep put these engines in many different vehicle so you don't swap a bad one for a bad one.

Mine appeared during and slight hill climb at the perfect angle to engage the climb assist feature but also at the wrong speed (45-50mph) which is where the top gear and OD want to engage/disengage so the stutter putter began, the ETC went out and I had to finish the hill in low gear 10mph until I could get pulled over and research the issue, do the reset and get back on the road. The original continued stuttering after that so I swapped it. Been ok since.

I've also noticed that these engines despise anything less than 90grade fuel as well. If you haven't tried premium in it and the plugs and coils (NGK) that actually should be in a Mitsubishi racer versus what US domestic recommends to sell their product. Most parts stores will tell you these cars don't really need iridium or platinum plugs and high tension coils but that's their robot response. Just be mindful that other things will need tuning and upgrading if you do this. Simple performance air filter because these engines like to breath so at least take the stupid battery cover air baffle off because that thing no.1 doesn't fit for a snug consistent air flow which causes the ETC to act up as well. The ETC is getting pulses from the sensor in the pedal and I believe they are calibrated to performance spec which if your not using performance parts and fluids etc. is going to cause these cars to act like slow errand runners instead of the get up and go commuters they are designed to be.

 

[45Cali]

If you weren't able to follow the link that 672aq posted it leads to this which is a version of the procedure I described above. There are various opinion on the exact sequence and time but I trust this one so disregard mine and use this below.

Originally Posted by bigtsr
While surfing the for Caliber parts off the net I noted another fact about the
fly by wire throttle system posted by a Caliber owner. You can recalibrate the throttle yourself to eliminate flat spots or pauses in its response curve according to the post, as I am not having any problems in those areas I thought I would post the procedure here and anyone wishing to try it could post the results.

1-ignition to RUN but do not start
2-wait until all the idiot lights go out (engine light should be the only one to remain on)
3-slowly depress the gas peddle to the floor (take at least 15 seconds to gradually push it to the floor, do not waver as you push)
4-slowly release gas peddle to full up (again, take at least 15 seconds to gradually let it back up, do not waver as you let up)
5-ignition to off
6-DO NOT START IMMEDIATELY! Allow to sit for up to 1 hour, then start and check for difference in response and linearity.

 

[45Cali]

If you weren't able to follow the link that 672aq posted it leads to this which is a version of the procedure I described above. There are various opinion on the exact sequence and time but I trust this one so disregard mine and use this below.

Originally Posted by bigtsr
While surfing the for Caliber parts off the net I noted another fact about the
fly by wire throttle system posted by a Caliber owner. You can recalibrate the throttle yourself to eliminate flat spots or pauses in its response curve according to the post, as I am not having any problems in those areas I thought I would post the procedure here and anyone wishing to try it could post the results.

1-ignition to RUN but do not start
2-wait until all the idiot lights go out (engine light should be the only one to remain on)
3-slowly depress the gas peddle to the floor (take at least 15 seconds to gradually push it to the floor, do not waver as you push)
4-slowly release gas peddle to full up (again, take at least 15 seconds to gradually let it back up, do not waver as you let up)
5-ignition to off
6-DO NOT START IMMEDIATELY! Allow to sit for up to 1 hour, then start and check for difference in response and linearity.

 

[45Cali]

Oh yeah, guy in pic not me. Not sure why he's about to unclamp the coolant line and spill antifreeze everywhere but I do not recommend that. Just use and extension on your socket to reach down to the ETC. The coolant line will be slightly in the way yes but is flexible AND HOT so do it cold, and actually will help stabilize your wrench while turning.

 

[chrisf2012]

I'll just add that the throttle body can fail without the warning light appearing on the dash...happened to me. The fact that I drive a 5-speed and not a CVT might play into this.

 

[hubi]

Made a short video: