Getting Blinking CEL at about 70mph

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:34 pm

They were some new ones I got from 360 Dynamics before they closed down.

I'm not sure what would be wrong with them as they don't appear to have any noticeable defects.

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sat May 13, 2006 5:35 pm

Well... aparently it's not 100% fixed... I'm gonna go buy some new spark plugs and try those.

Lexie told me it blinked once on the way to her work and once on the way back...

Crap... and I thought I had it fixed.

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:19 pm

Can someone tell me the correct order to have the ignition wires plugged in?

When standing in front of the engine, from left to right on the spark plugs
and from firewall to front of the car on the ignition coil:

Cylinders ---- 1 2 3 4
Ignition Coil- 1
4
2
3

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:20 pm

Okay... I assume that's correct from the pictures I've looked at of other people's engines... That being said... here's the things I've tried to solve the problem and the results:

Attempt: Replaced battery with a better one.

Result: No change at all... Blinking CEL at high speed. Blinking stops if I let the engine drop back down to idle... starts up again when I hit the gas. If you shut the car down and start it back up at this point, it won't blink until you reach higher speeds and then it's more of the same.

Attempt: Checked and re-torqued all spark plugs. Re-seated newer ignition wires.

Result: Got the blinking CEL at 35mph. Continued to blink everytime I touched the gas.

Attempt: Removed newer ignition wires and replaced them with my old ignition wires.

Result: No blinking for the same distance test and I was going previously. Took it home, the wife took it out to go to work, got a blinking light near the turn around where I was getting the blinking light in my tests. Blinking stopped on the way there. On the way home it blinked once she was on the highway and then stopped blinking. Didn't blink but stayed lit until she got home.

Attempt: Removed NGK spark plugs and replaced them with Bosch Plaintum +2's. Continued using old ignition cables.

Result: Blinking CEL on the highway at about 70-75mph.. Blinking stops at idle... check engine light stays on. Light blinks whenever the gas is pressed. Stop and restart of the car resulted in just a check engine light with no blinking, but I also stayed on the lower speed roads on the way home.

Attempt: Remembering that most of my problems with mis-fires or blinking CEL started after I installed the Cold Air Intake, I decided to do an experiment and return the air intake system to stock.

Result: Yet again, drives fine, then blinking CEL while on the highway at about 70ish MPH.

Some things to consider. I notice ABSOLUTELY no change in performance when the light starts blinking or after. The car seems to drive, idle, and accelerate at the same rate regardless of if it's got the blinking CEL or not. Or if it just has the check engine light.

I'm really running out of ideas to try... and I'm getting extremely frustraited with trying to figure out what is wrong with my woo...

I'm thinking I may have to take it into a diagnostic place or something.

Oh... and the Blinking CEL stuff... it increased in frequency and became easy to reproduce after I took it in to get the Cam Position Sensor fixed.

Please help with any ideas about what could be causing this kind of behavior.

Oh... and the blinking CEL's i've read out after getting it checked out reported a P0301 and P0303 (which is misfire on cylinder 1 and cylinder 3).

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sun May 14, 2006 12:57 am

I think I'm going to have to say that it's my ignition coil is going bad...

I've been reading about some other people having similar problems with misfires until they replaced the coil pack.

Opinions?

Found one on ebay for cheap (with a 1 month warranty)... Ordered it... should be here soon.

Brian5475E · Post by **Brian5475E** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:46 am

If it's tripping the CEl when you hit the gas most likely a TPS (Thottle postion sensor)

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sun May 14, 2006 5:51 am

Brian5475E wrote:If it's tripping the CEl when you hit the gas most likely a TPS (Thottle postion sensor)

Doubtful... Everytime I've gotten it scanned it's says, "Misfire Cylinder 1" or "Misfire Cylinder 3"

Or are you saying the throttle position sensor isn't giving the proper info to the engine so it can't do the mixture right?

But wouldn't it report itself as being broken? Instead of just saying Misfires?

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:06 am

JohnnyC wrote:Can someone tell me the correct order to have the ignition wires plugged in?

When standing in front of the engine, from left to right on the spark plugs
and from firewall to front of the car on the ignition coil:

Cylinders ---- 1 2 3 4
Ignition Coil- 1
4
2
3

that is the correct assignment... their is also a diagram showing the correct assignment in the how to section.

MMamdouh

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:08 am

Brian5475E wrote:If it's tripping the CEl when you hit the gas most likely a TPS (Thottle postion sensor)

TPS faults results in jumping idle speed between 1000 and 2000 or something like that... if someone got bad TPS he can know very easly form the strange engine behaiviour at idle... don't think this is JohnnyC's problem.

MMamdouh

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:16 am

JohnnyC wrote:I think I'm going to have to say that it's my ignition coil is going bad...

I've been reading about some other people having similar problems with misfires until they replaced the coil pack.

Opinions?

Found one on ebay for cheap (with a 1 month warranty)... Ordered it... should be here soon.

IDK man... if the ignition coil was bad then you should have noticed bad performance or irratic idle or so, also misfire at cyl. 1 and 3 means both coil halfs are bad and i am not sure if you can screw both halfs at the same time... anyways it is good that you got a new coil to end your ignition doubts once and for all.

how does the ECU detect misfire? i think it is by detecting fluctuations in the speed of the cam shaft... right?? and you said this didn't happen till you got the CMP sensor replaced... i say go back to the shop that did the job to recheck what they did and the sensor they installed.

if i got the misfire detection consept correctly then the sensor you got is giving miss leading data to the ECU.

MMamdouh

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:35 am

No... the problem first appeared before I got the Cam Position Sensor fixed. It might have even been my fault.

I was at the tail end of doing the valve cover gasket and I accidently mis-labeled my ignition wires and connected them up wrong. When I started it up I realized something was wrong. I then shut it down and re-did the ignition cables. After I fixed the problem I was worried I might have done some harm to something, but wasn't sure. I didn't get any blinking lights until a few days later and I didn't connect the two things in my mind until I began considering the ignition coil.

In either case, I've got a new ignition coil on the way, so I'll be trying that.

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:38 am

do you remeber the "wrong assignment" that you accidently end up with?
you know if you switched the wires on the same half of the coil you will not have any issues but if cables from different halfs were switched you won't be able to start your engine.

MMamdouh

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:45 am

MMamdouh wrote:do you remeber the "wrong assignment" that you accidently end up with?
you know if you switched the wires on the same half of the coil you will not have any issues but if cables from different halfs were switched you won't be able to start your engine.

MMamdouh

Yeah... I remember.. (it was ultra dumb)

Cylinders: 1 2 3 4
1
2
3
4

So... 2 should have been in 3's place and 4 in 2's place and 3 in 4's place haha... The only one that was right was 1.

It did start though... just didn't run right at all during the moment when I did start it up.

Ran fine after I moved them to their correct positions. Which made me think I was in the clear.

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun May 14, 2006 7:57 am

i did something similar once:

Cylinders: 1 2 3 4
1
2
4
3

the car didn't start but i didn't have any misfire issues due to that.

MMamdouh

JohnnyC · Post by **JohnnyC** » Tue May 16, 2006 10:13 pm

Well.

It's still messing up, but a new Ignition Coil is on the way, so hopefully I'll have it soon.