Hopefully Small engine issue ... Help??

[thereason21]

OK OK so I havent been on in quite awhile, busy busy busy, anyway directly before winter set in real good here in NW OhiO my Expy starting running very rough, I was forced to deal with it for about a week, but then the CEL came on and was flashing and I parked her. Didnt run the codes but by the way it was running I was thinking coil packs or plugs. Took it to a buddys shop and did plugs, checked the coil packs, new fuel filter, oil change, cleaned the K&N and viola it was ok again ... or so I thought, 3 days later running rough again, only the problem is inconsistent. Sometimes its good and sometimes it runs real rough, most noticeably on acceleration (duh) alot of times it dont start till 40-45 MPH. But then again sometimes have trouble around 20. So before I could check the codes my battery died, stayed dead for a week until i could cycle it thru the charger and bring it back to life. And it cleared the codes, and the CEL has not come back on. So here i sit still having the running issues. I dunno if i can actually do a video as it does not have the issue while in park, or neutral. Only while driving. All fluid levels are normal and the Tach is not affected by the stumbling. The only solution me and my other buddy have come up with is an O2 sensor. Now right now I am pretty broke and can probably only afford to fix one at a time, and I have to do it myself. I found the downstream on the exhaust and was thinking I should start there, but figured I would get some ever valuable input from the beloved forum before I totally proceeded. THANKS IN ADVANCE AND THANKX FOR READING THE BOOK LOL

 

[Stoned06]

How did you check the coil packs to make sure they were OK? Because that is what it sounds like to me.

 

[KWT2000]

im thinking its the coils as well at least one or two of them

 

[tonydiv]

I'm also on the coil pack bandwagon. Although there's always that vacuum elbow that leaks at the back of the throttle body, which is also a possibility.

Spray some starting fluid on the vacuum lines and see if the engine surges. That's the way I find those leaks.

 

[sparkone]

coil packs buddy

 

[bnvus]

Do a search for testing the coil packs. I believe you have to "ohm" them out. Also make sure you didn't "over oil" the K&N as well. Several documented issues of over oiling the filter causing CEL to go off and run like crap. Try cleaning up the throttle body (MAF) as well. Last but not least...Seafoam it.

Good luck.

 

[KWT2000]

the resistance on the coils is .3-1.0 for the primary and 7K-10K on the secondary... open circuit or infinate resistance means bad coil...

 

[htdbajr]

+1 on the coil packs. I had the same symptoms when one of my coil packs went bad. Turns out a heater hose had a slow leak and caused the pack to go bad.

 

[thereason21]

The CEL finally came back on ... yup ... PL304 cylinder 4 misfire ... FML ... since I am broke I am going to have to go against most advice and replace the coil packs one at a time ... Hopefully I can manage to do this myself ... It just has to be #4 too dont it ...

 

[htdbajr]

The CEL finally came back on ... yup ... PL304 cylinder 4 misfire ... FML ... since I am broke I am going to have to go against most advice and replace the coil packs one at a time ... Hopefully I can manage to do this myself ... It just has to be #4 too dont it ...

That one is a BEEEYOTCH! I ended taking mine in to have the sparkplugs replaced by the dealer - too much yelling and screaming on my part to try to get at that darned thing. The coil pack isn't too bad but it is definitely the hardest one of the bunch.