Opti, Wire, or Plugs??
 

I drove my car about 5 mins after it sat for 2 days in front of a heated pool at a hotel in Myrtle Beach. All of a sudden I hear a rattling noise underneath and before I could turn off into a lot my car stalled and I coasted into the lot. I cranked it back up and although it didnt want to start back up, it did. And the rattling was still there. I began to drive it back to the hotel and it sputtered and coughed almost like the catalytic converters were bad and wanted to stall but didn't. I took it to the Chevy dealer and on the way to the dealer the engine light came and they had it for 2 days and couldn't figure out what the problem was. The code was just a misfire code. The said they were leaning toward the opti, but weren't sure. Finally, after 3 days I just told them to replace the opti, plugs, and wires. I was so frustrated I just wanted my car back. Does anybody have an idea of what it could've been. I replaced the plugs at 40K but not the wires and the car now has 84K on it.

So did they replace the opti?

if not, I'd check the opti/ICM/COIL, plugs/plug wires..

Yes I said they replaced all three.. opti, plugs, and wires..but what was the original problem?? one of the three? or combination of them?

sounds like moisture from that heated pool u had ur car in front of, seeped into the opti. = tons of missfires

i would let the car run for a long while and let the engine warm up and try to dry it out first.

i had a leaky water pump once and it would drip onto the opti and would throw the opti out of control. i fixed the water pump and drove the car around and the misses went away after bout a day or so.

Im guessin your problem is in the optispark.

I am having the same problem, I have changed out my Opti, had the Coil checked and it was good, and changed out the ICM and it is still doing the same thing. My Plugs and Wires are only alittle over 2 months old. So I don't know what it is, if you find out what it is please let me know.

Would i be wrong in assuming the problem is gone? i think some of these people are trying to diagnose your problem and tell you what to fix, not realizing that its already fixed.

Yeah the problem is fixed.. it cost me $1300. Which makes me angry because that was my Z06 wheel money I was about to spend this week...but..cars break and need to be fixed and she isn't a spring chicken anymore!! So at least she is running good now. The rattling noise was my exhaust vibrating from the car running so rough just before it was trying to cut off.

They really didn't know.. they couldn't get the car to duplicate the problem... they were leaning toward the opti.. and after 3 days of not having my car... I just told them to replace all three.. the opti, plugs, and wires... so I'm guessing it was the opti. The plugs and wires probably needed to be replaced anyway soon.. so I just went ahead and got all 3 done. Hopefully she'll be content for a while and I can save my Z06 wheel money all over again.

how much of that price was labor???

I dunno... the opti was $460 and the wires and plugs probably about another $200. ... so the labor really killed me. That opti is pretty involved.. you have to take the water pump off to get to it.

1300$:eek:

I've done all that to my car myself for bout 350$

plugs and wires are about 50-60 bucks and you can find optis all the time on ebay for 150+

Did they check the vaccuum harness for the Opti... mine killed 2 Opti's before I knew what it was. Just a thought.


Daniel