Engine Troubles and far from home

[TheEdgeofSanity]

so, I'm away at college and my car is running like dog shit. The other day, I drove an hour to CMU and the SES light started blinking and car lost power and I could only manage around 55 mph. I pulled over, shut it off, restarted it and then the SES light was on solid. I took it to AutoZone and had the codes read and I had a #6 cylinder misfire in the history. The guy erased the history which shut the light off and I went on my way and it seemed to be running fine. Then, today (about 5 days later) I go to subway and the car loses power again but SES does not illuminate and eventually it calms down and goes back to normal. I get back to the parking lot and put it in park and the RPM's drop below 500 and engine seems to be bogging really bad. I got out and listened to the exhaust pipe and it's making a popping noise. Also, if I rev it in park, it runs really rough between 2 and 3K rpm's.

I don't know whats going on. I'm at 144,000 miles and the air filter is new, fuel filter was replaced over the summer, plugs and wires changed at 100,000, and I run fuel treatments through it at every oil change.

[[ion] C2]

SES light flashing is urgent, like stop just cruising around getting eats, pop the hood and at least attempt to determine some sort of obvious problem. It's been 44,000 miles. Change your plugs, look at your wires, should do them too if you were smart and got the lifetime warranty ones.

Otherwise, and seemingly equally likely: catalytic converter may be plugging up.

Where is "away at college"? Your FB is cryptic and only shows your high school. I could come by and use HPTuners to see if anything obvious pops out after a visible inspection.

[Ryan from Ohio]

Could be a bad fuel injector...

[clutch1]

Could be a lot of things. First course of action should be to pull plug six... and the plug before and after it in firing order as well.

Inspect for damage, large gap, etc. Sniff them.. smell like gas? Are they wet?

At least it's (supposedly) confined to one cylinder.

[comanche]

Was it raining?

[TheEdgeofSanity]

C2: I'm at Michigan State and the light is off now but its still running very rough. Also, I thought the platinum plugs were supposed to last 100K? and, how does one know if his cat is plugging?

Clutch: what one is cylinder 6? haha.

Commanche: no, it was not raining. it was clear and maybe 25 degrees out.

[clutch1]

Should be

*back*
1|3|5
2|4|6
*front*

firing order is 1,2,3,4,5,6.

So first check cyl 6... and if nothing looks goofy there check out 1 and 5... sometimes the comp gets confused and doesn't catch the misfiring cyl quite right.


You know if the cat's plugging doing a couple tests:

Hook a vac gauge up to a vac hose on the manifold (go to the HVAC vac hose nipple if you don't have a T splitter available) then tape the gauge to the winshield. Note idle vacuum... should be about 27inHg IIRC, but it'll probably bounce around with the garbage idle. Now drive up a hill keepin the accelerator in one position (don't push it further down).... look for vacuum to drop significantly, that indicates exhaust gases backing up.

Or else get an exhaust pressure gauge.. drill a little hole pre-cat, poke it in, and note the PSI.. should be like below 3psi IIRC.

Anywhooooo, it probably ISNT the cat, assuming the misfire is ONLY on one cyl. I'm going on the assumption that the scan equipment was giving a proper reading here.

If you had a p0300 code it'd be a whole different ballgame. I'm assuming right now your only code is the p0306, correct???

[TheEdgeofSanity]

ok, i'll have to check the plugs when I get it home. and I didnt think to get the code but the scanner definitely said cylinder 6 misfire.

hopefully its not a cat because I don't have that kind of money right now. as it is, I am saving for a wheel bearing.

[Lucalare]

Popping in the exhaust would be from the fuel from cylinder 6 going back out the exhaust. Check your injector and spark plug on cylinder number six, and if they look good, swap them with those from another cylinder, see if the one that's missing changes.

[xXManwhoreXx]

Anyways if cyl 6 is dead or dying your most likely dumping fuel through your cat which means if it isn't dead its on it's way there. Also try holding the spark plugs to the block instead of anything else. Just make sure not to get a finger in the way...


Trust me it sucks.

I am assuming michigan doesn't have emissions judging from Ions car it everything is fine in the ignition, cut that cat out and just run a test pipe. You can get good money off selling cat's no matter how shitty they are so that could cut your cat expense in half.

[Lucalare]

Except if you don't have a cat you'll get an SES light and your car won't run right.

[clutch1]

Lol it'll run fine, check engine light for no cat doesn't even matter if there's no emissions tests/ inspection.

[[ion] C2]

Originally Posted by Lucalare

if you don't have a cat you'll get an SES light and your car won't run right.

Share with us your deep knowledge on the subject.

[Lucalare]

You'll get a rich reading on the O2 sensor, so the ECM will cut back on fuel, and you'll be running lean in reality. Maybe that won't happen on the Alero due to the fact that there's 2 O2 sensors, but I still don't think it's good.

[[ion] C2]

Originally Posted by Lucalare

You'll get a rich reading on the O2 sensor, so the ECM will cut back on fuel, and you'll be running lean in reality. Maybe that won't happen on the Alero due to the fact that there's 2 O2 sensors, but I still don't think it's good.

It doesn't happen, because the rear O2 is solely used to monitor a change between that reading and the upstream O2(s) reading(s), and to trip the SES light to tell you your catalytic converter isn't converting the bad gases to less-bad gases like it should. It has absolutely nothing to do with fuel control nor does it affect anything in the way the vehicle operates.

Sidenote, I haven't had a catalytic converter in 2 years.

[Lucalare]

Fair enough, I'm still used to older style cars with only one O2 sensor.