Driving a '98 CE Lancer with a 4G93 SOHC, bought the car with a bit over 100k on the clock, and as far as I can tell, the engine, tranny (4 speed auto), and all other associated bits are still the original parts.
From when I bought it the car has been running fine, but lately the engine has trouble starting intermittently (say about 8 months), usually it starts and runs fine, but every now and then, it has a real rough time turning over. When it has trouble, normally it just runs rough, just barely catching before starting properly and going to idle, (sending massive shakes through the car while it's trying), sometimes it will start rough then lose the battle and stall, starting next go. But today, it did a couple of revs very roughly, before stalling, then next time i held the key for about 4-5 secs, while just the starter was turning over, I can't tell if there was fuel flowing as the pump is silent, but in my opinion it sounded like everything was working there was just no fuel igniting, the only noise was the starter turning. After the 4-5 secs, I could hear fuel just starting to burn before it caught and started, ran rough for a few secs, while the engine was making a loud tapping sound about once every 1/2 second. After it started and was driven a bit the tapping noise stopped and the car ran fine for the rest of the day, full power, smooth idle, not a problem.
Any ideas, I'm thinking possibly the fuel pump (it is 10 years old), but wouldn't I have problems while driving as well if it was on the way out?