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this morning i was supposed to get my windshield replaced, but i started my wagon and it was shaking like crazy . . . chug, chug, chug, shake, shake, shake. i gave it some gas while in neutral and the engine sped up, stopped shaking but was still chuggy. when i tried to pull out of the parking spot, in reverse, stepped on the gas pedal and there was no power and the ghugging slowed and then engine stalled.
the exhaust has been smelling really rich for the past 2 weeks and the check engine light came on on sunday. i got a 2-3-2 code from the OBD and was told to look for vacume leaks (haven't found any yet) or maybe the oxygen sensor was bad. the car was running though.
that sunday i took off one of the wires from the distributor cap to check the connection, and took off the cap to look at the rotor. put it all back. was running ok the rest of that day, it was sunny out. today was the first time i tried to drive it since (and it's rainy - i was having a problem on another car when it rained, had to do with the dist. cap)
anyone have any ideas on how to get her to move?
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Quite often problems that crop up after a sudden change of "warm and sunny" to "cool and damp" are electrical in nature. As grunge builds up on wiring, inside of dist cap, on spark plug wires, etc., it provides a perfect path for electricity to wander when this grunge becomes moistened. Think of it as connecting a bunch uf resistors between electrical paths and a ground or hot wire.
When the grunge is dry it's effective resistance is rather low but when it starts absorbing moisture the effective resistance decreases dramatically. Often this will cause spark plug wires to begin arcing to the nearest ground (or between each other), and could also affect the readings gathered from resistive based engine sensors.
Other things that can happen is moisture will invade the inside of devices like the dist, coil, ECU, and other reletively sealed devices that might have a hairline crack. A coil. for instance, could have a hairline crack in the plastic tower (or top) which would cause no problems when dry but damp might cause the coil to arc either externally or internally.
In my 20 years of working on electronic devices (computers mainly) I have had service calls on devices that would not work properly when the humidity was way up and quite often the culprit was an extremely dusty/grungy circuit board. When all the crud soaked up humidity it's resistance lowered. In these cases cleaning the board was all that was required to restore proper function.
Just something to think about.
Justin B.
83 Turbo
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It wasn't any of the sensors, but the connection to my third FI had come off.....maybe due to vibration (which the clips on those connections should prevent), but that was it!! That problem led to another....the cap and rotors had to be replaced, including the plugs as they were all black. I even tried a new FPR. I now have an extra one in case that goes....
I was troubleshooting this bloody problem for three days straight!! while I was at it, I cleaned the TB, the ICV, tested most of the sensors against the Bentley manual. Car runs fine, but has this slight jerk every now and then during idling after the engine is at operational temperature....could be that I might have a slight vaccum leak somewhere....another weekend project :-) gotta love cars!!!
Cheers,
SM
--
90 BMW 325is, 98 BMW 528i, 90 Volvo 240DL
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also do an oil change, as mine smelled awfully funny. I think it was contaminated with gasoline.
Cheers,
SM
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90 BMW 325is, 98 BMW 528i, 90 Volvo 240DL
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Check the coil wire closely- they wear through against things like the PS pump and master cylinder. If it's got a big worn spot, try to relocate it so as not to make contact with anything. See if there's any improvement.
Replace the plugs. It sounds like they're fouled now. Get two sets, they're cheap and you don't want to foul the first set and then be stuck getting more parts.
Take the vacuum hose off the fuel pressure regulator and look for signs of gas in the vacuum line. If so, replace the fuel pressure regulator. You may want to replace it anyway as it could be the whole problem.
Likewise, the engine temp sensor, under the intake manifold, could be failed and indicating the engine is 100° below zero all the time- that would cause excessive rich running. An ohmmeter would indicate whether it's good or not. The 700FAQ has more details on this guy.
Good luck!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '86 244DL- 215K, 87 244DL- 230K, 88 744GLE- 198K, 91 244 180K
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i replaced the plugs and she runs better than before.
i noticed a lot of black on the plugs i removed and there was a strong gasoline smell when the plugs were out. i was thinking that there was oil on the plugs, but then after thinking about the smell could it be wet carbon build up - wet from gasoline?
i'm figuring i still have some problem and will probably take the car to the mechanic. but i'll check out the other issues you mentioned.
thanks
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ive had so many cars that would start and shake and not go turns out broken/hair line cracks in spark plug isolaters was the problem some times the way to fix a engine is to look at not just swap parts. considering my car at full throtel stays running
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thanks for the info. i'll check it out later today.
by the way, i fixed my brake light prob. (http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/index.htm?id=620737) it was a bad "bulb failure sensor". i followed the extremely detailed step by step instructions by "Tony H" :
http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/?id=325830
i love this site. you all give such helpful info.
thanks
adam
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Hello,
One of two things I would look at. Try unplugging the Air Mass Meter. If there is no change, then we have our culprit. If there is a big change, then I would suspect the Idle Control Air Valve and/or it's surrounding plumbing. Try unplugging it and see what effect there is there. Leaky lines around it would confirm your vac leak trouble code. 240's are not sensitive to cold/rain so long as I have had them. But it really does sound like something is in the 'limp home' mode.
Happy Bricking!!!
Richard
87 245 DL 351,000 km
82 242 GLT 121,000 km
http://members.cardomin.com/richink
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