spiceflow

After last month's alternator failure, I figured I was good to go, right? Wrong. I was driving to a friend's place tonight when my check engine light started flashing, and my car lost power. It also idles really rough now. I figure it's probably the ignition coil, but I can't check until tomorrow because it's dark out and I don't have a flashlight. Ugh. This is the 2nd time my car has broken down in the past 3 weeks. At least I still have 2,500 miles left on my warranty.

KayJai

Flashing CEL usually means Coils or plug or wires.
Go from there

supercow

ever replaced the wires?? mine went out ~ 50k

do this:
1. take off the cover and start up the car.
2. pull out one wire at a time.
3. if is runs rougher then that one works, if it stays the same then you know thats where your problem is. laugh.gif

spiceflow

I have a Haynes manual which says how to test the coil and plug wires with a multimeter. I'm gonna do that tomorrow and see if that is the problem before I do anything else.

supercow

eh, well my ways the quick and dirty way of doing it. personally my multimeter is boken 02.gif , so I'd be doing it the other way.

spiceflow

Turns out it was the sparkplug wires. I pulled each wire like supercow suggested, and it died every time except for the #4 cylinder, for that one it ran the same. It was still sparking if I held the wire against a ground, however. Anyway, I took my car to the dealer and they replaced the wires. It was all covered under warranty, which was nice.

supercow

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spiceflow)</div><div class='quotemain'>Turns out it was the sparkplug wires. I pulled each wire like supercow suggested, and it died every time except for the #4 cylinder, for that one it ran the same. It was still sparking if I held the wire against a ground, however. Anyway, I took my car to the dealer and they replaced the wires. It was all covered under warranty, which was nice.</div>

ah well I didn't think about the warranty, mine isn't under warranty at all so I have to pay for all the repairs myself. smile.gif

2bits

My car is at 47k KM so that worries me abit, i might have to look into getting mine done, anyone else have this problem???

KayJai

OEM Wires are good to about 50-60K's (KM)
Go take a look at them, look for white "lighting streaks" (I like to call them) down the plugwire, where the Plug goes. If it's there you should be changing soon.
But If it's not acting up, it's fine.
If so, change it

spiceflow

I thought my car was fixed, but as I was driving home from work tonight the CEL came on again. It drives ok, but now I have to take it back to the dealer to find out what's wrong. Ugh. (again)

update: looks like the raw fuel coming out of the misfiring cylinder fried my cat. They replaced the exhaust manifold and cat under warranty. Hopefully that will fix everything.