I have a strange problem that I can't seem to figure out for the life of me.

When my car is cold, (and sometimes warm) and I turn it on, my 4th ignition wire will pop up just a bit, and my check engine light will come on, and the idle gets quieter. When i'm traveling with this, and go above 2000RPM, my car will backfire, which smells like burning pure gasoline, no big black smoke.

Sometimes if I stop, turn the car off, and turn it back on, the light will go away and I can drive fine for awhile, then it will magically come back - sometimes.

If I stop the car, pop the hood, take the ignition wire out of the 3rd and 4th, plug them back in, and fire the car up - the problem will go away. Sometimes it doesn't fix the problem for about 3-4 tries.

Some things have been done to the car recently are, new fuel filter, fuel pump, distributer, thermostat, a head job (compression tests were good), timing belt, new ignition wires, and muffler. In that order.

To attempt and remedy this problem, I got new spark plugs, which I gapped, and ignition wires. This problem happened just before my muffler broke off. I thought maybe it had something to do with that, but when I got my muffler fixed (included all pipes), it did not fix it.

I'm at a loss.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Tomorrow i'll take a video of it.


Modified by neoh at 11:29 PM 5/14/2008

 

If your plug wires are popping off, that means compression is getting by the spark plugs. Check the compression again. Also when your wires pop off, are they covered in oil? And is the inside of the spark tube covered in oil?

 

No, no oil in any of them.

 

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What type did you get? I've had issues similar with bad store-brand spark plug wires, the electricity would make it jump off the plug because it wouldn't seal/pop correctly.

 

They are bosch pro wires. Paid $100 for them. It's actually pretty hard to pull the wires out, they are in there pretty good, so it's surprising how much air comes up and pushes that plug off.

I tried to take a video of the problem today, but it didn't happen. (surprise, surprise)

 

If you are talking about the boot that goes into the overhead Cam... mine did it once... i pushed them back in while spining them a bit and they finally popped right in. A friend of mine also had the same problem... just seat them correctlly. Thats what I get for ordering from autozone.

 

They are bosch pro wires. Paid $100 for them. It's actually pretty hard to pull the wires out, they are in there pretty good, so it's surprising how much air comes up and pushes that plug off.

I tried to take a video of the problem today, but it didn't happen. (surprise, surprise)

 

bump!