The other day i was driving my car and out of no where whenever i would get on it, the whole car would just start shaking. Whenever the car just sits there idling, it is obvious that it is misfiring. We also checked the dipstick and it smells like gas. We think maybe one of the injectors might be shooting improperly, that would explain the misfire and the excess gas passing through the rings. Anyways we arnt sure yet and i figured i would see if u guys had any ideas? I will be out in the garage freezing my ass off all day trying to figure this out....

Oh yeah, and the engine light is also on.

Pull the code.

is there any way to do that without seeing the dealer?

if you have a friend or someone on here with a data logger yes, if not then no, just go in there and ask them to put the computer on it if you can get it to the dealership, usually if they're not asses about it they won't charge you just for reading the code

...or hook up a small light or LED to the pins in the diagnostic port and count the flashes

well its not the injectors, we check them today. we also replaced all of the spark plugs... it still has a sort of sputter sound to it, and when u push the gas pedal down the car starts shaking irratically and very hard time building up rpms. I still havent had the code checked. But the nearest mitsu dealership is over 10 miles from here, and i dont know if i feel comfortable driving that far. I'm looking into getting a trailer, anyone else have any ideas?

My talon did that when the ECU went bad, but it could be a number of things. Good luck!

I think Autozone can pull the code for you, too. It IS a '97, right? They can pull all OBDII codes.

so can Advance Auto

niether place charges for pulling codes, where do you live??? maybe if you are close enough I can bring a OBDII scanner home from work and test it for you, just PM me

It was a "misfire on cylander 1", new wires did the trick.

thanks everyone

uhh, the misfire is back... what the hell? I was driving today, and all of a sudden when i started to accelerate, it started to misfire. I put brand new wires in before to fix the problem. I havent had a chance to see if one went bad or what. I will probably know by the end of the night. But lets assume that one is bad, why would it go bad within a day? And also if its not the wires this time... what could it be?

ding ding ding...and you are correct, i didnt have them on good enough, because i popped my hood and i a freaking bolt of current grounding itself on the engine because it wasnt plug in any more.... faulty installation job

Ok suposedly if you turn the car --- on off on off on off on-- the code should flash, well that is as I under stand it anyway. I have not had the oportunity to try this out yet but cant hurt to try. Later D L Love