My wife called me saying the car was running badly, vibrating and nearly stalling out. The MIL was flashing on and off too. She did manage to make it home but said the car smelled like something was burning. When I got home I checked it out and it surely did run poorly. It sounded like it was missing a cylinder.

The car ran fine yesterday and got us to church and back with no problems at all.

I removed the plugs and checked them. All looked fine. I had recently replaced them witn Bosch Platinums with two ground prongs.

I went to a local store and bought an OBD-II code reader. The reading came back as P0304, cyl 4 misfire.

I think I'll switch a few coil packs around and see what happens. One of them could be bad or I might need new plugs.

I figure the burning smell was from the converter working overtime.

I'll keep you all posted.
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Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 70K mi, '96 965 >110Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

It was indeed a bad coil pack. I stopped in and spoke to the Master and he confirmed my diagnosis. I bought a new one, installed it and the car runs perfectly. I also erased the code and the MIL went out.
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Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 70K mi, '96 965 >110Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

Thanks for the details!

I got this setup a couple years ago and it has served me and a couple of my friends well. http://www.ghg.net/dharrison/

Sounds like a spare coil may be a good item to start carrying around in the car! (Any chance you "provoked" the failure while changing the plugs from over tightening or ??????)
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'96 965 with 16' wheels at 101K. Had '85 745 Turbo Diesel for 200K.

No overtightening on my part. I'm deathly afraid of stripping the threads out of the head. If anything, they are a bit too loose.

Thw wife.gov drove the car to work and it was fine. After work it was bad. How that happened is beyond me. A spare coil pack would be a good idea. Get a code reader too since you really can't drive it back and forth to get the code read unless it's a pre 1996 with OBD-I.

Regards
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Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 70K mi, '96 965 >110Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

Congrats! Token Ring Man

Doesn't it feel good to figure out a problem, determine a course of action, and actually have a successful repair? Have a beer on me!

It's great to hear how things turned out. So many of us here provide our 2 cents but then never hear back from the person with the problem to see if it was actually resolved and what the resolution was. Thanks

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1998 S90 062,925 1995 964 145,750

My pleasure Sir. I always want to hear back from people who follow my advice, good or bad. Sometimes, I will look for older posts with no replies and pose simple questions to get the person to think. Try this, try that, etc etc. My Diff. Eq. proff said that no problem was ever solved just by looking at it, you had to start solving the problem. Then the creative juices can flow.

I spent 150 bux on the reader and 50 on the coil pack. I'm sure it would have cost me abouy 250 bux at the dealer so I figure I saved some money, besides, I have a code reader out of it.
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Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 70K mi, '96 965 >110Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

Well guess what, I switched coil packs 1 and 4 and now I get P0301. So the coil pack must be bad and so far I can't find one locally especially at 6:00 pm.

Wich me luck.

BTW, get a code reader. Well worth the money.
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Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 70K mi, '96 965 >110Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

Warren:
Did you ever find a list of 960 codes? Do you figure that this means that the coil pack that is now over the #1 cylinder is bad?

Where did you get the code reader and how much was it? Does it reset your mil light?

I do wish you good luck on this! Let us know how it turns out.

Mike Brown
Greenville, NC
1996 965 93K
1986 244 132K

The codes listed are the generic codes. There is a book which comes with the reader detailing all the codes. The message is also displayed on the screen.

The code reader is this one and cost 150 bux. Lots I know, but I couldn't really drive the car anywhere to get it read. It will also work on the V70.

It looks like I need a new coil pack and a search of the Manassas area didn't turn up any. They were available by special order, but I can stop by the dealer and get one tomorrow, so that's what I'll do.

I'll keep you posted.
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Warren Bain - '99 V70GLT G-Valve > 70K mi, '96 965 >110Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. Check the 700/900 FAQ via the 'features' pull down menu.

That is the same reader that they use at AutoZone.
I have considered buying it but decided to hold off and look for some good OBD2 software and cable to run on a notebook. I understand there are some excellent products for about the same price as a scanner but will do much more such as show graphs of the sensors in real time. In the meantime should the need arise I will run to Autozone.
Yes that scanner will clear codes and reset the light.

Anyone using good software they can recommend?
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David Hunter