i have several friends with these and they have all needed to be repaired for this problem. other techs said cats, O2 sensors, ect....

once i checked out the first one the rest were easy..

#1, the caps, rotors and both plastic covers need cleaning... the black plastic cover where the tips of the cap stick through are conducive and any leakage of high voltage from under the boots goes directly to ground instead of the spark plugs./ after cleaning, grey ultra or clear silicone around the inside of the boots will seal them. if you have a leak up front..now is the time to run a fresh bead of silicone around the corners of the timing cover that are visable with the cap off.

i soak them in fantastic /409 or heavy duty cleaner drgreaser from smart and final. and i use cheep brake cleaner to clean the crevases. do not spray it on oil seals it makes them hard and shrinks them. makes more leaks later.

#2 the ignition coil .. the boxy one.. with the exposed frame.. take it off and look at it... (before you clean it) if it has chalky areas around the core close to the frame it probably needs replacing... i fix gms and fords all day long with misfires because of leaking high voltage out the side of the e core coils.

#3 the engine control module.. the soldier joints fail do to thermal cycling. this causes intermitant opens... almost all electronic devices have this problem.


it takes some practice and a few tools.. but then you can fix many electronic items..

where the wires of the printed circut board componants pass through the circut board the soldier get hot and expands. this is great except the circut board had a lot of thermal mass so the soldier at the base does not expand. thermal cycling casues the upper 1/3 of the joint to move away from the base. then cooling it contracts back. eventually pulling away from the lower 2/3rds


tool needed... a good soldiering pencil or station. with a pointed tip. some rosin core soldier, a magnifier or arm lamp with a magnifier with a circular floresent lamp. look through and get light also.


looking at the circut board, look at the individual soldier points.. if they have a ring they are more than likely in need of soldiering.

i have spent hours doing some circut boards... this is easy once you gain some experiance.. two hours practice should be done on something other than an expencive module first.. dead vcr, old computer, .... no dont try a dead tv. they can keep 25,000 volts for months after being unplugged.. it only takes a few seconds to discharge them properly.. they can kill if done improperly...people have died even touching them.

more later... post if you are intersted in more.