1996 3.8L Miss

Hi crew,
My 96 camaro with 119,000 miles has begun 2 miss at random times during a drive. I replaced plugs and wires...twice. Any suggestions?

I'm going through the same thing myself. Same year Camaro, a few more miles (132k. started missing at 125k though) I've done alot of things with mine and I'm not quite sure what else. All I can say is check everything you can think of and a few things you don't think of. basically check everything. I'm about to give up and just drop a low mileage engine in there for the time being and since it won't be my DD for much longer (maybe 7 or 8 months tops) it should last longer. But check everything and listen to what some of the other guys on here say. They definitely know what they're talking about.

Are you getting an SES light? Do you have it narrowed down to specific cylinders?

I do have an Ses light but it's from an air mod that has been on since 90k. It's not throwing any codes, and as far as cylinder goes, it feels like the whole engine is about 2 die. It has a nasty violent shake when it misses.

What kind of air mod was done to it? If the car is misfiring bad enough, I'm sure if you put a scanner on it you would be able to record the activities.

It was a "performance chip" I bought of e-bay. It's just a little wire that plugs into a connector end that is supposed 2 be on the fan shroud. Probably doesn't help and my harm. What do you guys think?

That mod has been discussed in the past, it is more of a gimmick then anything. Do you know exactly what SES light you have, that shouldn't be the problem.

did it get fixed

The problem is still there, I took the "air chip" out, which I can't feel any difference, and I had a mechanic run a diagnostic test on it. It kick of an O2 sensor, and a Crank Position Sensor. I have since reset the SES light to see which one trips it first. I have never heard of Crank Position Sensor, so would that cause it to miss?

Do you know specifically what the 02 sensor code was? Depending on the code, it can give you some valuble information in regards to how the engine is running and if there is a specic problem on a certain bank or what not. Long story short, if there is an engine issue elsewhere, that can be leading to your misfiring problem. If you could give us the specific code, we could help you out a little more.

It was the left bank O2 sensor that is all the mechanic told me. I have cleaned all the connections on all sensors with the cleaner stuff available at Autozone, and reconnected them. Maybe this will work, because my waterpump went out a few weeks ago and slung antifreeze everywhere.

If you get the SES light again, get the exact code and post it up. Good luck and keep us posted.

Well I played it the easy way out with the O2 sensor, and replaced all four of them. I figured at 120,000 they were shot anyway. My mechanic is currently replacing the Crank Position Sensor, and he said that on the 3.8's this seems to be the only problem they have. I'll keep you guys updated if this fixes the problem or not.

With that amount of mileage, it was probably a safe bet to replace all of them. I agree with him, I have seen the CKP sensor being problematic on the 3.8s. :shrug:

Ignition coils are VERY common thing that causes miss on these cars. Sticking EGR valve can make it too (if your miss is worse on cold engine).

I've had an misfiring issues due to, wires, plugs, egr, coil packs, ICM, bad gas which led to clogged injectors, vacuum line on back side of intake plenum, and my personal favorite upper intake gasket. Does is mis while ideling or just driving? What RPM's?