Hey I'm having some troubles with an intermittent misfire on my AU-I Fairmont Ghia with the VCT I6 and an auto trans.

Cold start is fine, and generally the first trip it runs fine. After shutting the engine down, and restarting a few moments later (say at the petrol station, milk bar etc) it commonly develops a misfire, which occurs at idle, at revs and under load. It seems to be ok under no load at revs (rolling down a hill). This doesn't always happen but very often. It will occasionally do it on the first trip too, and sometimes just sitting in traffic it will happen to. It commonly goes away when I get onto the highway and sit at 100-110 for 5-10 mins or so.

It occurs with traction control on or off, economy mode on or off, with any octane fuel, and apart from mostly occurring when I restart the engine, it doesn't seem to have a common denominator....not sure where to start in diagnosing this problem!

Any help would be great!

Could be anything......

Perhaps the leads are starting to crossfire? How long has it been since you changed these?

Well I've had the car about a year and a half and haven't changed them, probably looking at 20 000k's I've had it. If it were the leads wouldn't it be more regular though? Like a permanent misfire?

Yes I tend to agree with you but never can be sure. Open the bonnet at night when it starts missing and check for any sparking between any of the leads.

If you can't see any sparking I would advise looking at your coil packs (I think AU1 6cyl run packs & not dizzy??). Wouldn't have any idea how to test these without replacing them. SOmeone else here would be able to help.

OK ill give that a go.

Anybody else able to contribute?

No-one else has anything?

Did you test for the leads arcing out like was suggested before ?

check your leads during the night with no lights for sparks causing misfire or and maybe your spark plugs need to be replaced maybe playing up when one of them has warmed up but probably better just to replace the leads and plugs if you havent for awhile
cheers Alan

Well how rude of me to never reply after the help I got.

A new set of leads fixed this problem for me 4 years ago lol.

Thanks for the advice guys