Hi there. So my car has CEL on, is very lacking in power and will sputter at higher rpm. Almost like it is hitting a rev limiter.

Backstory:
I have had a growing hole in my exhaust for about 2 months now, wasn't real big or loud but I knew it was on it's time was running short. It was at the flange that bolts up to the exit side of the cat. I started searching local wrecking yard for a good piece of pipe an flange to splice in. Couldn't find anything and about 5 days ago the flange finally broke off of the pipe. I didn't have time to repair it so yes, I have been driving it with the exhaust coming out of the cat which I secured up off the ground. I splurged at the parts store and got a flange and pipe and welded them up at work yesterday. I was going to install them when I got home. On the way home the CEL lit up. I was close to home so I did not notice if I was having the sputtering issue at that time. I fixed the exhaust but am now faced with the current issue.

Please help! I appreciate any ideas you have for me
Chris

 

what code is showing on the ECU?

 

I don't have a scanner. I'll hopefully be able to borrow a friends tomorrow

 

You just pull back the carpet and look at the LED blinking on the ECU. You may need to jump a small clip to see it blink. It's in the FAQs. May be a sticky at the top of the page actually. No scanner needed.

 

Your ECU will blink X amount of times then pause and blink "Y" amount of times then pause, then "Z" for the next code, and so fourth. The number is your code.
.

 

I couldn't see the faq's yet! The 2 post 5 day thing. Thanks for that info. I counted the blinks. When I turned the key on there was 1 blink with a long pause and then 8 fast blinks. So my code is 1 and 8? Or just 8?

 

TDC is in your distributor, you might need a new igniter, coil or whole dizzy.

 

Thank you! Couldnt find anything about the TDC sensor. I'll get to working on it in a few mins here and see what I can find

 

Take out your coil and igniter and have autozone test them. I've had both them test bad and I bought a coil and igniter it still didn't work I needed the whole dizzy. I had a cyp sensor out I think on mine( code 9 )

 

Thanks a bunch. Couldn't find anything about the TDC sensor.
Took the cap off and found the rotor in 2 pieces. 5 bucks and a half hour later she's back on the road.

Chris

 

haha. Easy mode. It's a plastic piece, they do go bad on occassions.

When you get your posts, definitely check the FAQs. And the long blink should be a 10, which is intake air temp. Is it plugged it? They don't really fault very often.

 

Well I thought all was well but it only lasted for about an hour total drive time. Now I have code 8 again and it idles very rough and whenever I give it throttle it seems like it has a very bad miss and will not build any rpm. Almost sounds like it is going to stall out but doesn't.
I took the cap back off, there was a fair amount of powdery material in there. I was thinking maybe my points were worn out?




I'm not to sure what they look like when they are new.
If they look alright I'll get my igniter and coil tested.

Thanks for your patience guys, I am big into the diesel scene, I understand how gas ignition systems work but the parts that make it all work are somewhat foreign to me.

 

I haven't had much time to look at it but noticed the exhaust the exhaust smells very strongly like raw fuel, could that be a sign of not getting spark? I'll have to look further into it tomorrow.