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My car is suffocating!.. sometimes
I drive a 2004 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GS, and it drives great. Except under one very specific circumstance, where it gets awful for a while.
When I start my car, if I don't let it start all the way and warm up (at least to the point where the idle drops back down) before turning it off, it will run like it's flooded for quite some time thereafter.
When it's running badly, I have to keep the rpm's above 2000 or it will sputter and stall out (which makes stopping difficult - I put it in neutral a lot). Furthermore, I can hear the car's air intake being restricted. I know what the air sounds like normally going in to the car, and when I'm having the problem, it sounds like the car is suffocating!
It's my understanding that my car doesn't have a choke, per se, but it must have some sort of equivalent. Essentially it's acting like the choke is stuck in.
So on the rare occasions where I forget to let my car warm up, or if I turn the engine over but accidentally release the key too soon, I know for certain that the next time I start it, it will run like the choke is on.
It usually behaves like this for around 30 minutes or 15 miles, sometimes more, sometimes less. Eventually the "Check Engine" light will come on. Finally, the car returns to normal, and then eventually the "Check Engine" light shuts off, and I say to myself, "I have to remember not to turn the key with my greasy french fry hands!"
It seems like there should be a simple way to disengage whatever it is that's "choking" my engine. Anybody have any ideas?
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