Hey guys
Please help me with this!
I have an EF I6 and after i flushed the radiator I have had a real lumpy idle and its running really rich! I cant drive the car its running so rough.

I have checked all my leads and the resistance is in range ( about 8.5 ohms )

All plugs are good. ( just full of dirty carbon from too much fuel )

I have checked and cleaned my crank angle sensor and have checked the plug on the other half that sits where the dizzy would have been

changed the O2 sensor

checked for cracks in the MAP sensor vacume line , checked connection on map sensor

Cleaned the coil pack connection and made sure leads were on nice and tight!

checked the intake manifold bolts are tight

I have reset the computer by unplugging it over night!

I have tried to read the diagnostic codes but at this point in time i am finding it to difficult to read on my digital multimeter and need to get an anilog one! I cant seem to ge anthing from the LED i made up.

I'm all out of ideas people , so any light you can shed on this matter would be great!!!
Thanks

are you sure it running rich?? what makes you say that?? plugs wet???

you might want to give the car a wet and dry compression test to rule out a gone head gasket or bent rod or vlave.

if you honeestly beleave it fuel try crimpping the fuel feed from the rail and it should begin to run good after a few seconds and lean out and stall.
or you got a leaking injector or jammed open injector.

get a timming light and slip it over all the leads and make sure for spark and even trip the base idle option on the ecu and check the timming goes back to 0 deg or what ever it drops back 2.

let us know how u go

Is it possible that my coil pack can pack up and drop a cylinder??!
It seems to have done this. I have taken the leads off and tested each for spark. number six does not spark. i checked its resistance and its within range. 8.4 ohms!
I would have thought the whole coil pack would have died.
Any idea's!

check the vac line on the fuel reg

Hey nugget,

You mentioned you flushed your radiator... have you checked your thermostat? It could be one cause of the problem. If the thermostat remains closed, the sensors are telling the ECU that the car still needs to warm up, therefore running it rich. See how you go and let us know.

Kos

DUDE ---

I had EXACTLY the same problem in my EF - namely that the sixth cylinder was not firing. I did not have a spark issue tho - my one was caused by a crap injector and a computer that could no longer put up with the crap injector. I changed computers and it worked fine straight away. Have since replaced the injector as it was starting to miss occasionally again with the new computer.

The coil packs are a b**ch to get to - I may as well sell you a phenolic spacer for between your head and intake manifold and during the course of fitting it you will see the coil packs. Bugger of things aren't they?

Anyhow, you may have noticed that there are two coils - each doing three cylinders. Am entirely unsure as to why number six has apparently up'd and died on you, but if you say there's no spark, then there's no spark. Have you tried leaving the spark plug out and turning the motor over to find out if fuel is being supplied to the faulty cylinder?

Other things are the fuel regulator (mentioned above) and also a slightly odd one...

HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT CHANGING YOUR RADIATOR FLUID?

You didn't by any chance go anywhere near the fuel return line did you? I ask purely as the last time my car ran super rich it was a mechanic who had crimped the fuel line between fuel regulator and fuel tank (return to tank, not from tank to engine..) which results in fuel pressure buildup and too much fuel being supplied to cylinders.

Other things that have caused real richness in the past include
Vacuum hose to MAP sensor splitting
Vacuum hose coming off
Map sensor dying.


Bugger - I am late for the therapist. Gotta dash

You have probably found the issue with the coil pack. It has 3 coils each driving a pair of cylinders. If you ever have the opportunity to examine the crankshaft you will see the pistons are paired also.
The pairs are 1+6, 2+5, 3+4
Each cylinder gets a spark on it's compression and exhaust stroke. If you swap the leads between say 1 and 6 it will make no difference to the running of the motor.
A normal resitance check of the leads is not adequate to be sure they are good as the leads run at much higher voltages than a multimeter. As you have noted there is no spark on 6 I suggest you double check 1 is ok.
If 1 is ok then swap the 1 and 6 leads at the coil end.
Now if there is a spark on 1 and not 6 it is the 6 lead.
If there is a spark on 6 and not on 1 it is the coil pack.

 

 

Attachments:

WD02 Fuel and Engine Management Systems - Coil Pack.jpg [ 190.65 KiB | Viewed 1197 times ]

Wow - Good man Commando, good man.... I was under the impression that the coil packs were not driven by the engine computer as such because the old engine computer would have trouble keeping up with doing that and everything else it has to do... Am not sure where I read that but, according to your scanned electric wiring diagram, it is total s**t as it appears the coils do pick up information directly from the engine management unit.

Hmmph.

And I'd like to claim a brain explosion or typing error (or combination thereof) for my stating TWO COIL PACKS each doing THREE CYLINDERS. Is should have been obvious that I got that back to front.

If anyone was harmed due to this error, I ask you to forward all expenses to my laywer and insurer.

Thanks heaps guys!!
I am n ow totally confused!!
But i have fixed the problem! but i don't know what was the cause! I replaced the coil pack and the leads at the same time! I would have said it was the coil because the leads resistance wasn't high but the fact that number six and number one cylinders run off the same coil , it all has me totally confused. I may have wasted $120 on my brand new bosch coil and all i needed to do was spend $55 on the new set of bosch leads!. instead I spent the whole $175 on the lot.
After all that i broke the pcv valve vacuum line connection to the manifold while trying to get to the coil pack through the top of the manifold! Made a new connection with a 10mmx10mmx6mm barb fitting.
Thanks xflow for suggesting checking all leads for spark. this helped pinpoint the problem
and thanks Fiend and commando for such detailed suggestions.
it took me a week but the monty is back on the road!!

Primo, sorted. Good on ya dude. I hadn't even changed a brake pad on a car until I bought a bloody EF (a year or two back now) and hate it when things go wrong, but am learning all the time. Good effort on getting to the damn coil packs and replacing one. Is not easy huh?

You could possibly sort out some sort of test for the coil pack and lead outside of the car to confirm your theories, but hey - it's fixed...

Remember if you're on a tight budget like me that plenty of wreckers have these cars and you could save heap$ by pulling coils out yourself.

A EF will always run s**t after a ECU restart. Just give it a week or two of driving.
Probably clean out your ISC - Usually a bit of carbon built up in there. Clean your TB also.
Fail that, change fuel pump?