car will start and idle and travel about 5 miles then shut off completely, will crank but will not even attempt to fire. It has done this 3 times in the last 2 days. the second adn third times we had swapped the ICM and coil, checked to see how far fire was getting, everything checked out and the car will run for a limited ammount of time then die. It threw a code about a week ago, but it went away and i never had it scanned because i figured it was a fluke. no stutter or backfire, it will just die while cruising. plugs, wires, coil, icm, and battery are brand new and all conecctions have been double checked and are moisture and corrosion free.

Anyone that has experienced an opti failure, please let me know if tis is what happend to you or if it was similar to your situation.

 

when it urns does it run fine? sounds like something might be getting heated and failing. someone else will chime in i am sure

 

You might want to have it scanned anyway. An overheating optical module might be causing the PCM to lose the low res pulse - that shuts the fuel system down. But if that happened, it would set DTC 16, but not necessarily turn on the SES light. Might also want to check for corroded connector/terminals on the Opti harness connector.

 

That is exactly what it feels like is happening when it dies. As far as over heating the coil and icm they are both less than a month old and are spaced with new studs a full inch from the head, so i dont think that they are overheating.

 

I didn't say anything about the ICM or coil overheating, specifically because you said they were new. I'm suggesting the optical module in the Opti case may be failing on high temperature.

 

I was addressing what snakethis69's post.


on a sad note, i pulled the plug on top of the opti where the harness from the ecu connects, looks like there was quite a bit of condensation on it at one point, the terminals are crusted over with green corrosion that looks like dried coolant Guess ill start tearing it down when i get the time to do it.

 

The blue/green growth is a common problem.... not sure if it is due to gassing from the battery (copper sulfate), or maybe ozone venting out of the connector tower on the Opti. Try cleaning off the connector (easier said than done).

 

well ill be darned after crawling under the car to do routine matinence about every two weeks if i diddnt go under there today and spy a coolant return line spitting coolant all over the passenger side of the water pump an opti. looks like im another victim. sad thing is that its not a failing water pump, just a coolant line that got to old and cracked clean down the side. Injuneer, snakethis69 thanks for the input. I'm gonna crack the opti case and post some pictures when i get to it this weekend.

 

Just in case anyone searches this thread looking for optispark failure symptoms, mine had none. It flat out died on the way to sunday dinner. It was crusing at about 60mph and died, no backfire, stutter or anything total loss of power. Threw absolutely no codes. Also, upon breaking into the case I found that most of the componets on the optical sensor side were covered in oil film, and there was actually oil sitting in the bottom of the case because the seal had been totally comprimised. Rotor and points were also fragged. Replaced with a new AC Delco unit, now runs like a top.