I am over at my friends house, I tried to leave and the car would just die. I tried jumpering the DME relay and that will allow the car to start and run, but when I try to give it any gas it will just bog down. I also runs pretty rough while it is running. Any ideas on what to check?

Thanks

 

Did you fool with anything while you were at your friends house?

Christian

 

Nope, Parked the car before I went in for the night and spent the night there. In the morning it just started acting funny like this.

One thing that I think may not be helping is that it rained pretty hard, and maybe something just got wet.

 

Same exact thing happened to me while it was raining. I hit a large amount of puddles, but my undertray was being cleaned, so all the water splashed into the engine compartment. Than I shut my car off at the blockbuster, and tried to turn it back on, and it didn't work. Took me a full hour until I got it to work. I just kept cranking on the car until it got going, but I say give it time to dry.

 

I am thinking that it may have something to do with the fuel. When I have been starting the car it will idle pretty well, (I just cant give it any gas or it will bog down) but when I just let it sit there and idle it will just slowly get worse and worse and the idle will drop really low, then back again. Maybe it is just loosing the fuel pressure.

 

YES, I can allmost guarantee that if the car idles well, dies when given it gas just before rain storms, 9 times out of ten the spark plug wires, and or distributor are shot. I had the same problem about a year or two ago.

I never thought that the plug wires being bad could have such an adverse effect, however I took a friends advice, replaced the wires and distributor cap and the car ran fine.

Christian

 

Also could be a loose vacumn line. UNlikely though as you weren't unde the hood.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by DerSchlechtSpecht:
<strong>YES, I can allmost guarantee that if the car idles well, dies when given it gas just before rain storms, 9 times out of ten the spark plug wires, and or distributor are shot. I had the same problem about a year or two ago.
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Is there any way that I can check this out while I am over at my friends? Or would I just need to buy a new one.

I have just let it sit for about 2 hours. When I started it, it ran fine for about 2 minutes. I was able to drive it and everything, then it just started getting slowly worse over those 2 minutes, and I was unable to give it gas anymore.

 

Replace the coil then. Sounds like that's shot.

Along with the plugs and wires.

 

Is there any way to test the coil out? It seems weird that it would work fine for a little bit then slowy die, then work again after a while... do they just slowly go bad? Also, unless I jump the DME relay that car wont start either, so do you think both the coil and the relay went bad?

What would a coil for on of these cost?

 

If you have a spray can of 10W40 (no not the oil the spray stuff) Take the plug leads off the plugs off the distributor, and coil. Also take the distributor off the cam housing. Spray the connections on both ends liberally with 10W40 (Including the inside of the distributor)put it back together (Make sure the plugs are in the right order!!!!!!!)and try it. If it drives fine then you know it is the wires and distributor Cap.

Christian

 

Well you didn't mention anything about that. Could be just that then. Replace it (buy two, one to throw in the glove box).

As to the coil, they're not exspensive and can be worth it. But yes your symptoms do sound like a bad coil (as well as sounding like a bad DME relay) The wires on the other hand are very very exspensive.

 

Your coil is probably fine. It is not harmed by ambient humidity when it rains. Spark plug wires ARE when they go bad.

Christian

 

Christian.

Moisture doesn't bother the coil. But the excessive drain by bad wires does, and the problem of it idling fine, then dying after it warms up is a classic coil symptom. Coils hate heat.

That's the VW/audi problem of the on plug coil packs.

 

I just replaced the wires recently, so I dont think that that is the problem. I will try out a new coil and hope that that helps.

Thanks for the ideas