Misfire

Tiny
BRADLACH
  • MEMBER
  • 2004 PONTIAC MONTANA
  • 120,000 MILES
Had a misfire problem about a year ago that went away when I replaced the plugs and wires. Now it is misfireing again but worse. I was told that it was probably a coil but there are 3 seperate coils and im not geting a code telling me whitch cylender is missing. How can I tell what coil to replace?
Friday, August 26th, 2011 AT 6:47 AM

2 Replies

Tiny
JDL
  • MECHANIC
  • 16,098 POSTS
Do some testing, don't replace anything, yet. Use a digital multimeter. One lead just touches the spark plug wire, you don't take the plug wire loose or penetrate the insulation, just touch. The other lead goes to engine metal/ground.
The meter reads an inductive voltage, sometimes it's around 1/2 volt. As an example, if four plug wire read around 1/2 volt and two read zero, I know where to start looking. You have to be careful suspecting a coil, I've seen faulty ignition modules, that would fire two coils and not the third one.
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Friday, September 2nd, 2011 AT 8:22 PM
Tiny
JDL
  • MECHANIC
  • 16,098 POSTS
Just to add, what if the problem isn't spark? Check spark--fuel, use a fuel pressure gage. Then, check compression.
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Friday, September 2nd, 2011 AT 8:25 PM

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