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      03-14-2017, 09:41 PM   #1
Nate4641
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Service engine light, strange sound, vibrations... help

Driving home earlier tonight and on some back roads I got on it hard into 2nd. About a mile later the service engine light came on, the engine sounded like it was cammed and it was vibrating. I was only about a half mile from home so I was able to get it back without issues. My best guess is at least one cylinder isn't firing properly, but I'm not a mechanic so I don't know for sure. I just had the car serviced a few months ago, and drove the car from D.C. to the the southern most part of mainland Florida when my girlfriend and I moved here 2 months ago (awesome drive BTW) and the car did perfectly fine on the that trip.

The closest mechanic I would trust is about 20 miles away so I'm a bit hesitant to just try and limp it there and not sure how much a tow truck will cost. Is there anything I can look for myself without completely taking the engine apart to give me a clue as to what happened? Ignition coils, spark plugs, anything like that? And what would I be looking for? And with the issues I've said, how bad would it be to drive the car either 20 miles to a garage or even a couple miles to an auto zone to have the code scanned?

Thanks in advance for any help. It's been forever since I had the time to post on here, hate to come back with issues.
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      03-14-2017, 09:48 PM   #2
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An easy way to see if it is a coil is to start the engine and while running pull a coil and see if you notice a difference. Once you find the one where no difference is heard and felt you have the bad one. I have coils go out a lot on my trucks.
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      03-15-2017, 04:39 PM   #3
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ok so I started it up today to try to do the above diagnosis and nothing is wrong now.... I let it idle to running temp and still nothing. Even took it out for a drive and nothing is wrong.... I ordered an OBD reader and a couple coils last night though.
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      03-15-2017, 07:35 PM   #4
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Good call on the OBD reader and a couple coils.
A few months back I had a coil start arcing through the housing to the wall of the spark plug tube.
It would be fine until I gave it some beans, and then misfire once or twice.
It went on like that for a couple of weeks, with just the occasional 1 or 2 misfires when I floored it, until on the way home one night I floored it while going up a hill.
It misfired 5 or 6 times and then, by my guess, the DME said enough is enough and shut that cylinder off.
SES light came on, and I had to shlep up the rest of the hill on 5 cylinders. Sounded like a Cesna.
A few minutes later, while going down hill, the SES light went out, the dead cylinder came back to life, and it was fine the rest of the way home.
Put the scanner on it and it said "Misfire, cylinder #5." That's when I puled the coil and found the arc mark.
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      03-16-2017, 12:42 PM   #5
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sounds like usual ignition coil
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      03-16-2017, 01:09 PM   #6
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I got the OBD reader in today and...nothing. No codes stored, can't find anything wrong.... I at least now have 2 coils on hand should something happen again, but it appears nothing is wrong now....
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      03-18-2017, 02:42 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate4641 View Post
I got the OBD reader in today and...nothing. No codes stored, can't find anything wrong.... I at least now have 2 coils on hand should something happen again, but it appears nothing is wrong now....
How new is the battery? Any corrosion on the terminals?
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      03-18-2017, 07:53 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Finnegan View Post
How new is the battery? Any corrosion on the terminals?
Battery is fairly new, within a few months. I used to have issues with the battery dying because I would leave my dash cam plugged in 24/7 in my old apartment's parking garage. Don't have that issue now that I have a garage to myself.
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      03-19-2017, 03:16 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate4641 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Finnegan View Post
How new is the battery? Any corrosion on the terminals?
Battery is fairly new, within a few months. I used to have issues with the battery dying because I would leave my dash cam plugged in 24/7 in my old apartment's parking garage. Don't have that issue now that I have a garage to myself.
Nuts. That's would have been too easy I guess!
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