Just wanted to post some feedback to a recent issue I had with our 1998 DI w/130k on the odometer. 'Coyote' as she's commonly referred to started running a bit rough and staggering a bit at speeds above 55mph. Idle vibration was also fairly bad and there was the smell of gasoline as though she was running rather rich. CEL eventually popped and the codes in the title were what was listed (P0300, P1316, P0305, etc). Thus began the troubleshooting and liberal use of 'search'
Eventually the problem was traced to the coil pack and things seem back to normal (actually better than before now) but I wanted to post some lesson's learned and the feedback on the issue itself since many people seem to post questions, receive good troubleshooting feedback-but never close the loop regarding how the issue was solved.
-Purchasing of the Actron OBDII code reader was invaluable, buying the mid-range one cost a little $ up front but it's ability to troubleshoot and give feedback made it worth the cost in just this problem. I think having a 94 before made me spoiled, that and all the other cars I tinker with have laptop<->ECU interface so I admit to having never realized these things potential.
-Starting small and working out worked well; using search (before even thinking of posting) and common sense told me to go with wires/plugs no matter what. Given that the boots on the plugs ripped off in several cases-clearly the previous owner hadn't changed them in awhille, it was certainly time to change them regardless of whether they were the problem.
-As many often state on here, Will Tillery is phenomenal. Deciding to troubleshoot MAF & coil pack, we hit him up on Tues-the items purchased arrived Thurs. Cost was beyond reasonable.
-Getting lucky helped too, I had been looking for a GEMs coil pack on ebay and managed to pick one up for a decent $ (esp compared to new/stealership prices) that somehow also managed to arrive in a timely fashion.
-I have to say that Carquest turned out to be the best local resource for me compared to Advance, Autozone, etc. While I would have preferred genuine items what I did was order the stuff from Nathan @ Discount British Parts and use the carquest stuff as interims; these will now go in the spares bin for use later.
Overall while it was less-than-entertaining transiting from NC to Arlington on a ragged engine, taking the time to troubleshoot it worked out well. The 'new' coil pack solved the problems and the truck is back to normal. Thankfully that worked before we started down the road of injector replacement!
Thought it might be worthwhile to post the experience/lesson's learned so that if someone is searching by codes they'll have one more experience to glean from.
r-
Ray
Eventually the problem was traced to the coil pack and things seem back to normal (actually better than before now) but I wanted to post some lesson's learned and the feedback on the issue itself since many people seem to post questions, receive good troubleshooting feedback-but never close the loop regarding how the issue was solved.
-Purchasing of the Actron OBDII code reader was invaluable, buying the mid-range one cost a little $ up front but it's ability to troubleshoot and give feedback made it worth the cost in just this problem. I think having a 94 before made me spoiled, that and all the other cars I tinker with have laptop<->ECU interface so I admit to having never realized these things potential.
-Starting small and working out worked well; using search (before even thinking of posting) and common sense told me to go with wires/plugs no matter what. Given that the boots on the plugs ripped off in several cases-clearly the previous owner hadn't changed them in awhille, it was certainly time to change them regardless of whether they were the problem.
-As many often state on here, Will Tillery is phenomenal. Deciding to troubleshoot MAF & coil pack, we hit him up on Tues-the items purchased arrived Thurs. Cost was beyond reasonable.
-Getting lucky helped too, I had been looking for a GEMs coil pack on ebay and managed to pick one up for a decent $ (esp compared to new/stealership prices) that somehow also managed to arrive in a timely fashion.
-I have to say that Carquest turned out to be the best local resource for me compared to Advance, Autozone, etc. While I would have preferred genuine items what I did was order the stuff from Nathan @ Discount British Parts and use the carquest stuff as interims; these will now go in the spares bin for use later.
Overall while it was less-than-entertaining transiting from NC to Arlington on a ragged engine, taking the time to troubleshoot it worked out well. The 'new' coil pack solved the problems and the truck is back to normal. Thankfully that worked before we started down the road of injector replacement!
Thought it might be worthwhile to post the experience/lesson's learned so that if someone is searching by codes they'll have one more experience to glean from.
r-
Ray