[socom58]

I've been having some problems with my '96 Vulcan recently. Yesterday, I started the car (it hadn't been running since the night before) and the idle was really weird - like it was missing. The entire car would sort of shake from the rythmic miss. After a few seconds, the "service engine soon" light would start blinking. After a few minutes of driving (acceleration was very sluggish) , it stopped blinking and went solid. After that, the car seemed to drive normally.

The same thing happened to me today. If the car has run recently, there seems to be no problem, but the light is still on. It only blinks and misses with cold starts. Anyone know what's wrong?

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[mass97G]

if you an AUTO ZONE near you .. go there.. they will diagnose the CHECK ENGINE LIGHT for free...

they will hook up the scanner and tell you what is firing it

thats a start

 

[Capital Punishment]

We have to know what that code says before we can help you.

 

[socom58]

Alright. Took the car to Autozone and it says P0301 - Cylinder 1 Misfire. Could this be the plugs? I was planning on replacing them soon anyways. If so, are the Autolite double plats any good? Thanks.

 

[diesel600]

It is likely just be a bad plug or plug wires. However, I will add this, but it is a worst case scenario:

Sometimes a misfire that occurs only on cold starts can be caused by a bad head gasket. When the car sits, coolant seeps into the combustion chamber and fouls the plug. When the car starts, it will misfire for awhile until the coolant is expelled and the plug burns clean. This happened to my 4-cylinder turbo dodge a couple years ago. Only reason I mentioned this is because we have been seeing Vulcans with head gasket problems lately due to uneven cooling of the cylinder heads. I can't remember what cylinder it usually happens to though.

 

[Capital Punishment]

Youre talking about the brown coolant recall on some GEN3 vulcans, and that is where the rear cylinders aint cooled properly, especially cylinder #3.

 

[socom58]

Put new plugs in the car yesterday and reset the code. Car runs perfectly and seems to have a bit more power. It looked like the plugs in the car were original or quite old, as all had a gap upwards of .075"! Anyways, thanks for the help guys.

 

[00Taurus]

How do you reset the code??

 

[Tman]

use a dignostic tool or just unhook the battery for about 30 mins but you will have to reset your radio setting and your clock. Also if you pull the battery drive the car for about 10 mins afterwards so the car can relearn everything like shift points and such.

 

[JasonBVHS]

so any autozone will run a code scanner, and find out what the service engine light is on for, and thats free?

 

[silvapain]

Yeah, all AutoZones are required to have an OBD II scanner (company policy). Someone on here told me that, but Iv'e forgotten who. They will scan for free.

I just replaced my wires and plugs @~85K, the gaps were in excess of .070

 

[projectSHO89]

Originally posted by JasonBVHS@Mar 20 2004, 06:04 PM
so any autozone will run a code scanner, and find out what the service engine light is on for, and thats free?

Except in California, reportedly.

Just make sure you WRITE DOWN THE EXACT CODES!

The ability to prescribe a repair based on the code is NOT something the AZ personnel are trained to do. They can give you a list of possibilies, but your best course of action is to SEARCH here first, then ask questions.

Steve