Now that winter is officially over I went for a flogging down some back roads today. As I was driving (rather briskly) the CEL started flashing. It happened when it kicked down a gear and revved up to about 6000. As soon as it happened I backed off. It flashed for about 15 seconds and stopped. CEL stayed off. It still was running fine. I pulled over, popped the hood to check things out, nothing looked out of place. I have the D16Y8, btw. Anybody got some knowledege on this? Misfire possibly?

 

Flashing check engine light is catalyst damaging misfire events. Pull your codes to see if there any stored.

 

So should I just replace ignition related parts? Plugs are new (been in for about a week) NGKs, the plug cables are fairly new (around 30k on them) Densos, the distributor rotor I'm unsure of.

 

No, you should take your car to Autozone and have them pull the code. Even if the CEL is off, the code should still be stored. One of the beauties of an OBD2 system.

 

You may want to avoid driving your car with severe misfires. You can pull the codes at home without running the engine. Click the Codes link in my signature.

 

He said the CEL went off. Will the jumper method still show stored codes if the light is off?

 

Yes, if the ECU was not reset -- same for a code reader.

 

The car runs fine though, that's why I'm a bit confused. I'll get it to somewhere to check the codes though.

 

Hmm, I was under the impression that the ECU would store the codes, but they could only be pulled with a reader at that point. Carry on then.

OP, check the FAQs sticky for a how-to for pulling your CEL. You don't need to drive anywhere.