The other day i did plugs/wires and removed my AIR pump. In the process i accidentally ripped the wire out of my temp sensor connection(dont know if this matters). Well the car ran fine for a couple days but then started missing very badly to the point where i couldnt accelerate and it was blowing black smoke. I turned the car off and back on and the miss went away. Drove the car for about 5-10 more mins and the same thing. I turned it on and off and it went away... The miss is at idle accelerating cruising at all times but if i turn it off it goes away for a few miles then comes back. What could this be?

 

Ttt

 

Check your wires and make sure they're all on the plugs and opti ends good. Make sure none of them are burnt. Run your car in the dark and peek at them to see if they're arcing anywhere. Fix your temp. sensor wire.

Here's a TTT for you and post back.

 

Yeah do what j bird said and im hopping you checked the gap on all the plugs. Makes sure the plugs are in tight, inspect every single wire to see if they are burnt which is very possible if you didnt get them routed perfect. You may want to try some dielectric grease in the plug boots.

I dont think the car would run that bad even if one or two plug wires are burnt... Make sure you hooked the air pump back up right because that could cause some vacuum leaks and make your car run terrible.

 

There are two temp sensors. If you broke the one in the water pump, you need to fix it. It can cause driveability problems as it is used to feed temp info to the computer.

 

I checked all the plugs and wires and i ruled that out as a possibility because if it was plugs/wires it would be all the time and my problem is pretty much random, good for 10 mins then bad then good then bad....... I completely removed the air pump(well my friend did it for me) where are the vaccum lines for it so i can check them? Also the sensor that i broke is the one in the head that feeds the gauge, and it will be fixed today. I also replaced the coil. I was letting the car idle and if i revved it up past 5k it would break up (this is in neutral) i couldnt check this under load because of wet roads. I also decided to try and check my maf and i unpluged it at idle and the idle dropped for a split second and the car went back to running the same as if the maf were plugged in(i dont know if thats supposed to happen). Anywho what do you guys think this could be? What else should i check?

PS i am not getting a ses light at anytime so i dont know if scanning the comp will do anygood??

 

As Rob mentioned earlier, if you have a wiring issue with the ECT or any other sensor for that matter, it needs to be repaired correctly. Just twisting wires doesn't cut it. The first clue you gave is "black smoke". This is from too much fuel and that can come from a variety of things. Actually having too much fuel or incomplete combustion. One source of incomplete combustion is plugs that are not firing all the time from a variety of reasons.

I personally don't believe in coincidence and unless you did something to another system, your problem lies with the ignition system. Your thinking that it can't be ignition since it clears up sometimes is not correct. ANY wiring has the potential to be intermittent. The first question you have to ask is "did it exhibit the problem before it was touched"? If you did anything with the fuel system, it could be a problem but should not be an intermittent problem. In addition, a fuel problem will give you a starting issue and can be a different starting symptom depending on the length of time the car sits between starts.

If we make an assumption that it's not all the plugs/wires having the misfire, then hopefully we will see the majority of them "clean" if we pull them all out. That is to say, if only one or two are misfiring then we should, and I say that loosely, should see 6 or 7 that are not fouled. The fouled ones will be the ones that are misfiring. The wires for those questionable plugs should be checked very carefully for black dots indicating voltage leaks through the insulation to ground. You could possibly look at the wires with the engine running at night to see if any are arcing. Although the arcing could be in a spot that can't be viewed. If they are all fouled, a fuel problem is likely the culpret.

If you have aftermarket wiring, unless it is HI-Po, it should be suspect. Also be very weary of no.5 cylinder. Most came from the factory with a metal guard over the plug boot since clearance to the manifold is tight. Many people have purchased a used vehicle that had lost the metal boot long before they purchased the vehicle and they don't even know that it belonged there.

On my stocker, the wires to that and one other cylinder are routed in a loop behind the spark plug and then back. The wire is zip-tied to itself around the metal boot to keep the wires from touching the headers. I think one other is zip-tied to the metal wire loom at the base of the valve cover.

BTW, there are some codes that do not trigger a SES light. One that comes to mind is a 16 for ignition (low res) although it will disable the engine. Just an example.

Sorry long winded.

Dave

 

Any other ideas?

 

You guys think its possibly my fuel pump? Like after i drive for a while it get too hot and starts acting up? I donno im just reaching here....

 

No, a fuel pump would'nt be causing this type of situation.


I would check your gap on the plugs just to be sure, and get that temp sensor wire repaired, solder/heat shrink it if you know how to. Like dave said, there are codes that won't throw the SES light, get it scanned and let us know what you find.


Mike

 

The name of the post is misfire after plugs and wires. Says it's blowing black smoke indicating it's running rich. At least one person tells you it's the work you did and you think it's the fuel pump. Here's your sign.

Am I missing something here?

 

Well i found out the problem, i pulled all my plugs and all of them on the drivers side were completely black, but on the passengers side they were perfect. I fuigure it was caused by a faulty o2 sensor. So i put all new plugs in and a new 02 sensor and the miss has gone away. So it wasnt anything i did to the car, just coincidence.