It's not everyday you get excited for a check engine light

[Plays_with_Toys]

Got a check engine light two days ago when I was out of town. Woo hoo! My car has had a rough idle here and there and it just keeps coming back. Well finally it started idling super rough and threw a CEL. First one I've gotten related to this problem.

Cylinder 3 misfire

So, because it only happs at idle, and is so intermittent, I'm thinking either injectors, plug wires, or coil pack. Not the plugs themselves because I've changed them with no effect. So happy to finally have the problem narrowed down and I can look at more particular solutions.

[Huffer]

Change wires.
I had a similar problem that went away, but got progressively worse. Eventually I got a CEL for misfire on #4. Replaced plugs AND wires. 15,000miles later we're still good.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Maybe I'll do the coil pack upgrade at the same time then. :twisted:

[dodik]

i had that because of bad WIRES check those an dreplace if needed.( my wires had over 250k on them)

[Plays_with_Toys]

my OEM wires are only a year and a half old or so.

[dodik]

the other thing you should check is that 3 cyl plug just in case.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Yeah, I can. But again, also new. See I didn't know what was going on, so I did the easy stuff, new fuel filter, higher grade fuel, new plugs. I'm still going to pull that plug to see if it shows anything compared to the other cylinders. I switched the 1 and 3 wires both at the engine and at the coil (no I'm not changing the firing order) to see if it changed anything. Again, I'll be probably doing some new wires and possibly a new coil pack.

[Reason]

Maybe I'll do the coil pack upgrade at the same time then. :twisted:

Go for it, that may smooth things out.

[warrior]

Maybe I'll do the coil pack upgrade at the same time then. :twisted:

Elaborate please?

[Plays_with_Toys]

Look in the DIY for the MSD Ignition coil pack article. It's 2 pages long. Ups the output voltage of the coil pack by like 5000 volts.

[boxerpower]

Look in the DIY for the MSD Ignition coil pack article. It's 2 pages long. Ups the output voltage of the coil pack by like 5000 volts. i too would like to go the msd upgrade. has any one seen any good gains from it. (like night and day difference)? :-?

[Jonathan]

Yeah, and while you are at it, why not do the "gounding modification" as well.

An intermittant bad ground can cause all sorts of weird symtoms.

[AJM]

Look in the DIY for the MSD Ignition coil pack article. It's 2 pages long. Ups the output voltage of the coil pack by like 5000 volts. i too would like to go the msd upgrade. has any one seen any good gains from it. (like night and day difference)? :-?


Alot of people here will tell you...you won't make gains.

That can be somewhat true, but no matter what you feel it will at least make you gain fuel mileage and make the power band better and smoother.

I always felt horsepower gains in the mid and top of the power band with it.