Hoping you guys can give me some advice. My car has been having a random misfire for the last couple of weeks. Random rpms, mostly when cruising at random speeds. Sometimes it doesn't do it at all. Today it finally threw a check engine light when I was driving it home. I shut it off when I got home and the light went away but the code 9 was still stored. I read that the code 9 is for the cylinder 1 position sensor which is part of the distributor? Would this cause an intermittent misfire? Or is there something else going on as well? I haven't had much of a chance to check the wiring or anything because it's freezing rain now.

 

What engine?

 

It's the D16

 

Probably is the distributor. If you put a new one in and still get the same code, could be the wires harness for the distributor.

 

Well if the dizzy is going bad it will misfire.

I say check the timing first before you start replacing parts.

And check your Timing belt as well. Could be stretched and ready to snap!

Worse case scenario imo is the ignitor is bad.They're expensive new and I think it's better to just get a new dizzy, but if you can pocket one from the junk yard, try that first.

 

Alright, I got a new distributor put in. Now it's throwing codes 4 and 9 so both sensors on the distributor. I'm going to start tracking down the wiring now. I didn't do the swap to the D16 so it could be fun. There's a blue wire and a blue wire with a yellow stripe on the old distributor that were not in the connector and were hanging. Looks like they were soldered at one time.