So I'm on my way home and as I'm cruising along at 2500rpms in 4th gear, all of a sudden my car drops on rotor for a few seconds and then it comes back online. Then a few seconds after that it drops a rotor again and this time i can't get it to come back.

Fast forward to checking it out the next day.
I first check the oil and spark plugs and wires before trying it again, but nothing except one rotor.
Well i figure out it's the rear rotor that is down so i pull the leading plug and throw on the compression tester. With the car at around 30-35 degrees Celsius and the throttle closed, i pulled just over 100psi on all faces.
So i figure maybe i lost the rear primary injector so i trying spraying a little starter fluid in the throttle body, just enough to make the cylinder come alive for a second but still nothing.
Next i think maybe i got a bad batch of spark plugs. After much swaping, and checking plugs and wires, i finally break down and just put the plugs in the wires so i can see the actual spark itself. I checked both trailings and both leadings with 4 different plugs and each showed a thin, yellow spark.

What would be the cause of the sudden loss of spark? I've had no ignition break-up before and have not messed with any ignition in a while except when i changed my plugs and wires around 250 miles ago. After much searching for a similar symptom, all i could find was possibly the ignitor (my thought) or the ignition wiring harness. Any thoughts???



BTW, while searching I started doubting that i put my ignition wiring harness on correctly when i rebuilt my motor 20k miles ago. Can anyone tell me which plug goes where?


-David

 

have you checked your coils?

 

For what? I visually inspected them and the ground but i don't see 3 coils going bad with the same exact symptoms. That would be my luck though....

 

I would start with the ignition harness. I've seen those things cause some strange problems on friend's cars. Is there someone local who you could borrow theirs for a quick test?

 

Alright, i'll have to give that a try tonight. He actually might not even be using his anymore but we'll see. I'll probably try his ignitor too just incase the harness doesn't work.

 

try cleaning your ground connections as well. start simple.

 

I actually was going to check that before i did anything else. I remembered that i did remove that ground wire on the leading coil so i'll play with that when i get off work. Thanks...

 

could also be a bad wire to the ignitor, bad ignitor, possibly your plug wires are arcing to the block. can't say i've ever heard this problem before. try unplugging your leading plug on the working rotor. see if the car runs any different. if it runs the same then your leading coil isn't firing either aka igniter/wiring problem or quite possibly 2 burnt out coils (no probable)

 

bump...I have the same problem. I'm going to check my compression today just in case. Any other suggestions guys. On a side note...when this problem happened my entire guage cluster went out as well(I checked the fuse and replaced it, and it blew again)...I hate electrical problems.

 

bump