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The good news: I now have an excuse to order a Durametric.
Here's the scenario - washed the car and I may have spent a little too much time on the rear wheel wells. Ran into some slushy/muddy roads and needed to clean the grime away. As usual, I ran out of time and immediately had to dry surface of the car then head out with the family in the 996. Note - for the winter, it was actually quite humid on Saturday.
Car started fine, and drove great for ~2 miles. Then began idling very rough at a stop light...then the CEL starts to flash. I immediately pull over and shut the car down. Nothing out of the ordinary - no oil/coolant issues, no loss of oil pressure, no metallic sound from the engine...sounds like a simple misfire.
I think - hmm...I have 72,000 miles on the car (PO changed plugs in early 2013 with 58k on the ODO). I bet the coils are original...I have the full service history and no indicator of coils being swapped. I decide to let the car sit overnight (in a parking lot) then give it a whirl in the AM. Let the ignition system dry out.
After waiting 12 hours or so - the car starts right up. No misfires/smoke/oil/noises. The idle may be a bit rough - maybe. No more flashing CEL - just solid on the dash. Drive the 2 miles back home without incident.
Plan is to break out the Durametric when it arrives on Wednesday - read the code(s) and troubleshoot from there. The car is now almost 12 years old...I've never had an ignition system work for 15 years on any car without replacing bits of the electrical/ignition system.
Will update with what I find out - but my money is on moisture due to cracked original coils.
I can almost guarantee it's the coils. They have a tendency to crack. I replaced all of mine when I rebuilt the motor that had roughly 25K miles on it this past spring and 3 out of the 6 had cracks. Might as well do the plugs again while you are in there.
First update - finally got around to hooking up my new Durametric and pulling the codes.
Sure enough - no surprises. 2 codes - misfire and misfire cylinder 1. Right where I was soaking the car with water.
I've dropped the mufflers and have plugs and coils ready to install (tonight if possible). The coils on the car look horrible - cracked, split, they look original and old/worn. I'll post some pictures for those who may have a similar problem down the road.
More to come as I attempt the plug/coil swap. Hoping following the factory service manuals and using a 4" wobble extension works wonders for those tough to reach plugs behind the "muffler brackets".
First update - finally got around to hooking up my new Durametric and pulling the codes.
Sure enough - no surprises. 2 codes - misfire and misfire cylinder 1. Right where I was soaking the car with water.
I've dropped the mufflers and have plugs and coils ready to install (tonight if possible). The coils on the car look horrible - cracked, split, they look original and old/worn. I'll post some pictures for those who may have a similar problem down the road.
More to come as I attempt the plug/coil swap. Hoping following the factory service manuals and using a 4" wobble extension works wonders for those tough to reach plugs behind the "muffler brackets".
Be sure you securely connect each coil to the plug and to the wiring harness. Ain't nothing more depressing than to replace plugs and coils to address misfires only to have the misfires reappear afterwards because one connector was left loose.
A couple of plugs are tough to get to but that is the hardest part. Make sure when you snap the wire onto the coli pack you hear a "click"...that is what Macster is alluding too. Had I known I would have offered up my warm garage. Call me if you need.
Last edited by Sneaky Pete; Feb 17, 2015 at 03:47 PM.
Reason: punciation and spilling
A couple of plugs are tough to get to but that is the hardest part. Make sure when you snap the wire onto the coli pack you hear a "click"...that is what Macster is alluding too. Had I known I would have offered up my warm garage. Call me if you need.
10-4 Pete - it's going to be cold as Wisconsin in my garage tonight! At least I have plenty of beer.
This isn't that bad of a job - actually one of the easier late model plug/wire jobs I've done. The only tricky part was getting the wiring harness back on the cylinder 4 coil properly. There isn't much space for hands/fingers.
Ran into one minor issue - when removing the top hex bolt from cylinder 2's coil, the bolt snapped in two. Was worried that I'd have some minor surgery to remove the remnants - but was lucky that the bolt head sheared where I could grab it with my finger tips and work it out. Found a replacement bolt at Ace for $1.93.
Now for photos:
Cracked and tired coil before removal.
I wonder where the misfire came from? Check out that crack:
Cracked and nasty - ready for the trash can.
Now to the broken bolt - check the broken one on left, OEM in the middle, and "ACE hardware to the rescue bolt" on the right:
broken hex bolt - ACE to the rescue.
6 used plugs looked great - nothing out of the ordinary or troubling:
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My First CEL
