FrankW

ordered magnecor today. should come around next week. we'll see what happens.

kirax2

finally found this pics.. sorry frank,

sightless

Saw this thing at YesPlaza the other day nice car man! It still had the BBS on it.

FrankW

i was probably buying Lee's Sandwich lol

Mu9enx

I like the Carlssons on your car dude.

Glyn M Ruck

Looks fantastic!

FrankW

lol...the look with the 1/16 BE was soo long ago. lol I think the car only had 55k or 60k miles on it back then.

FrankW

recap on previous diagnosis: after changing out the cylinder #4 plugs and reset the misfire code on #4 the code never came back. However misfire had continued. There was the pending code on #6. I changed swap the coil pack on #4 with the CLK320's coil pack and found out it wasn't the issue with the coil pack. which is good news for #4. for #6 I did not check the coil pack however. the pending code continues.


today: installed the magnecor wire at my local shop. also tested the old wires for resistance. crap load of them are ...well...crap. magnecor wires installed and instantly felt lots of power came back. BUT...yes...there's a BUT....idle is still a little rough (way better than before, but still). so I am going to check the plugs on #6 and then the coil on #6 as well today.

Glyn M Ruck

Looks like progress - She's being stubborn though!!

drexappeal

Well, that's good and okay news. Keep us updated on the status.

FrankW

btw, dropped the W204 for service today for front suspension popping noise when backing up. should be a TSB item.

got a loaner PT Cruiser today. It's sooooo retro that it doesn't have power mirrors and how the hell do American engineers figure that you only need "one touch auto" for lowering the window and not up?? and four window switch right in the middle of the center console in front of you.

kirax2

coz GM is going bankrupt, they are trying to cut money and budget, so maybe when you wanna brake, you have to open your door and stick ur feet out

BigBodyBenzC240

Fred Flinstones style!!!!

FrankW

ok, so I pulled the plugs out of the #6, cleaned and checked. plugs look great and doesn't seem to be damaged. put everything back and made sure 100% everything is tight and in order.

started the car and bad idle continues. it feels worse in Drive than in Park, so this is still a misfire somewhere.

I'm not convinced that the coil pack is bad yet. going to run to the store and pick up 4 more NGK iridium IX plugs and replace 5 and 6 tomorrow. since the 4-5-6 side was the side that showed pending misfire codes.

now, the question: when the coil goes bad because of our twin plug design. do they go bad for both a and b on a single coil? OR there's a chance only a or b on a single coil goes bad?

I gotta get the pending code read again tho...changing the wires and I lost track of which coil pack is which...

Glyn M Ruck

Oh God! we've all done it. Mark the coils. The coilpacks can fail on one plug line just to confuse the issue.

FrankW

btw, can the STAR diagnostic pin point which coil pack is bad?

so I swap the #6 coilpack with the 320's. same rough idle. now I have no f-ing clue what is going on. taking it to a mechanic friend who has a odbii reader that can see if there's any pending code and go from there. If the STAR is the only way to figure out which coil pack is dead quickly without me swapping every coil then I'm gonna visit another local guy who has the STAR on hand.

never throwing in the white towel, but this one is not going down without a fight.


lastly...RANTING: F! ALL COIL PACKS!!!!!!

MJ50

let's try it after i install program on my laptop...

FrankW

do it!

gonna go get the iridium ix plugs later.

mleskovar

How about the signal to the coil? There are three wires going to each coil pack so I'm assuming one is ground and the other two are hot for respective coils. If you don't have an oscilloscope or frequency counter you can improvise with an analog DVM. Use AC reading and work your way down the voltage range until it shows on the needle. Check it against another coil pack. You can also check the power delivery to the plugs with an old fashion/cheap timing light and see how consistent the light is. Many newer digital volt meters have frequency reading capabilities.

drexappeal

Damn, sorry to hear that, Frank. I was hoping for the best.

If you really get desparate for answers, you can drive out to my guy by my pad to have them check it out. Just hit me up on my cell and I'll give you the contact info.

FrankW

not that desperate yet. just annoyed that I don't have some cool gadget to easily test this out.

Glyn M Ruck

Frank old chap - for a seasoned campaigner - It's time you had an OBDII/CAN scanner - the 32 now has some miles on her - go buy one, a nice one. The STAR can within reason diagnose a bad coilpack. You can try as mleskovar suggests - to my knowledge the 3 IN wires are 2 X power wires to the coil primaries & one return (earth). I think she fires the 2 plugs a degree or two apart for clean burn.

The problem is that compression suppresses spark - a plug will fire properly in free air but under compression can fail to fire properly through bad plug or coil or excessive wire resistance or breakdown. This on a blown engine should show up at maximum volumetric efficiency - i.e. when the supercharger is at maximum blow pressure.

You say it's bad from idle - does it get worse when you load the engine & get the revs up on the SC? Can you feel the misfire pop with hand over the exhaust? I know on a twinspark 6 this can be difficult to detect.

I don't want to add other variables to the equation & I must say the problem sounds electrical after earlier scares. When last did that engine have a CPS? The day is going to come where we must take a plug out of each cylinder & do a compression test to check for a leaking valve. If for no other reason than to eliminate the possibility. Are all the vacuum lines in good order? They can't be too bad or you would get a fuel trim warning.

Can you please backtrack - What did you do to the engine prior to this trouble starting? Did you do or change anything prior to the trouble? You were talking about O2 sensors at one time - did you change them? A bad O2 sensor can cause stumble - that's however not what you are explaining.

Have you looked at the engine compartment in the dark at night with the airbox/es off. Can you see any sparks jumping around through the wire or coil insulation anywhere?

Good luck

tommy

That would make sense if the PT Cruiser weren't a Chrysler product, of course.
I had a PT Cruiser convertible going from Vegas to the Grand Canyon, and have to admit that it was fairly fun.
Sorry to threadjack! Good luck with the fix, Frank.

XsuperbeeX

unlucky i guess? friend rented one with power window... tried it out and find out you CANT push the baby... freaking making loud noise from the engine... but who cares when you got the retro look...

Midnight Koop

im not a fan of PT Losers