Car guys ... quick question
 

Engine fan cuts through plug wire.. car runs like shit.. replace plug wire.. car runs better but still acts like it has a miss it didn't have before that happened

Does that mean that the coil pack it was on arced to itself some how and burned itself up, or what? I made sure that that wire didn't pull other ones loose when it got caught up in the fan... And this is all I can really think of

But half of the wire was still on there.. and it should have hurt anything if that wire found a ground, should it? The spark goes through the plugs to ground, anyway, right?

Cut through your PLUG wires? Why were they so far forward?

It sounds like you may need to look deeper into the problem being the cables. You said wire to the plug which I assume are your spark plug cables. Not seeing the car, you may want to check all of the connections and make sure they are solid. You may also need to replace them as they rarely are off by themselves and one of them could have been damaged along with the one that was hitting your fan.

If they are not in the right order, it will definitely miss fire and you may need to look up the firing order to make sure. What confused me was the loose wire still being there. What is that wire? is it a Spark Plug Cable?

Make sure the plug is not fouled. Change the plug that was on the cut wire.

One popped out of the little holder thing that keeps them together .. on the front of the engine there

You mean it could have just gotten a bunch of fuel all over it when it wasn't firing?? Maybe it'll just dry off... then :thumbsup

Yeah.. a spark plug wire came out of that holder they all pop into.. you know, the one that holds them all onto the side of the engine so they're not just all over the place

I checked all of the connections anywhere near it (like I said - I thought that maybe that wire got caught and pulled another one loose) but it doesn't seem to be a problem

Also it looked like it just got cut and it didn't seem like it actually got "caught" on anything

That "holder" is your rotor cap or the cap for your electronic ignition. If its a rotor cap, you may want to remove it and check your rotor as well. If the wire cut, it more than likely pulled before it cut and could have damaged that cap as well. I would also check it for damage.

If the car does not have an electronic transmission, there is a small piece inside that rotor called your points and that requires a very fine tuned gap between the two conductor points. If they get out of adjustment, your car will fire improperly.

This would be nice because I don't have any tools right now.. but I guess I could go get a ratchet and deep well socket for $3 at some pawn shop though

Thanks, but I'm not talking about that.. It's just a plastic piece attached to the side of the engine that holds all of the wires .. like this


It's a 6cyl auto with three coil packs (that is why I was asking if maybe this could have caused the coil pack the cut wire was on to short itself out)

I would start by replacing the spark plug that the cut cable attaches to. It may have been damaged when the cable was cut.

I changed the wire, bought a new one and put it on... will change the plug tomorrow
It did get a lot better when I put the new wire on, just not as good as it was before the wire got cut

The plug getting soaked in fuel / fouled out when the plug wasn't firing sounds very plausible so I'll definitely change it out tomorrow!!

If it would have gotten caught it could have maybe even broken the insulator on the plug itself... but I don't see any evidence of the wire being caught - just cut ...

Basics, what year and model. the comp on your car was trying to compensate for the misfire. Try to take off the negative cable and reset the computer. Or just drive with the repair and see if it will adjust.

Oh wow I didn't even think about that.. the computers in these cars are a real whore
It's a 90-?92? chevy 3.1 "T" engine (The engine isn't original to the car but came out of a 1990 lumina)

The battery is a whore to get to so hopefully it'll just adjust back!!

mods, please update the op's username to Miss Maxwell.

Also, the coil packs are notorious for failing (I just replaced one two weeks ago) because they are too close to the engine and they burn up... and it's over 100 here for the past three days, outside..

I was sure I needed to replace a coil pack when it did this, but then I saw a freshly cut wire..

As you can see it looks pretty cleanly cut




I just went out and tried to dry the plug off ... I held the throttle wide open and cranked it (that shuts the injectors off) seeing if I could get that plug to dry off .. didn't work

I'll change the plug tomorrow and in the mean time maybe it's just the computer and it can relearn

What for? I am no expert, but at least I know most things.. like where the coil packs are, and that kind of shit... I even tried wot to dry the plug..

Or you're cracking wise about an engine miss?

What?

I'm not a purse carrier - I get my hands in and get them dirty and get shit fixed

It needs a tune up

Thread solved :thumbsup :1orglaugh

i found this description to be rather girly is all :winkwink:

No no girls say thingY ... get it right !!!

Ha ha ha

HA!! :winkwink::1orglaugh:)

A plug will still run fouled, how long did you run it with the wire cut? You do not need to get to the battery, find a ground and disconnect the bitch. That is an early year.....may not be the box, you may need to make manual adjustments to air fuel. Fuck at that year it could be the moons alignment with saturn and you will never know.
Kudos for the self repair thou! It is mechanical and can be fixed.

:) he did find a pick of the thingy thou! A blond would have gave up Hahaha:thumbsup

I drove it about 15 miles with the miss before I found the wire ... Finding all of the grounds coming from the battery would be difficult because I think that there are five :Oh crap

I know about the moons alignment thing on these cars .. sometimes christ knows what goes wrong and hell who knows

I forgot to pull the codes, think I will go out and do that now

It's times like this I wish I was a spoiled hopeless little bitch who had someone to pay for everything.. lol!!!

Maybe I should just go and live with some wealthy woman...


NAH!!

Any check engine light or codes? I'm guessing it's not an OBD2 car though...

Definitely OBDI ... I can get the codes out of it by jumping a couple of terminals under the dash (It will flash them at me)

Have your woman go back to school for a degree in auto maintenance.

I have one in Colorado who would probably drive here to see me... AND fix my car. . But then that would sure upset the one I've been staying with a lot :1orglaugh

Seriously, though, I would feel like shit taking advantage of someone that way ... and you shouldn't let anyone do it to you

It flashes good old 012 ... which some people say is meaningless or that it just means diag mode ..... and someone told me it did mean something once .. but it's always flashed 012 for years now so I don't think it's important

You mean electronic IGNITION right? The transmission has nothing to do with engine timing.

Since it has a coil pack I think it's pretty safe to say there's no points or distributor. :thumbsup

Yeah no distributor at all

If you're in the LA area, I got a good mechanic for you, hook your cars computer up and it will tell you what's the problem

I hate cars so much.

most parts stores do that for free. Autozone, Oreilly, etc.

Pull the spark plug wire off of the bad plug, stick your finger in the end and have someone crank the engine over so you can see if its firing.

Did you only replace 1 plug-lead out of the set?

Do I need to also be sure that I'm not wearing shoes and that my feet are wet??
Would it help to finger someone before I do this?

:1orglaugh

Yeah, the one that was cut
Before it did started doing this it was running perfectly - perfectly! And then it does that, I get back and find the cut wire....

I did my "floor the pedal and crank the engine" routine trying to dry the plug off without removing it a couple more times and it got better - so I am pretty sure I definitely need to change the plug out

Should replace the leads as a full set. You'll probably find the resistance of the remaining old ones is quite a bit higher than the new one.

yeah, I would say that's likely the cause. :thumbsup

Well, that settles it. When my car is screwed, I'm taking it to GFY for a tune-up!

i cant afford a car...

I just now changed the plug and it's a lot better ... still does it but very occasionally now .. Not every time I take off or accelerate, now

The plug that was in there looked like it had been fuel soaked .. the electrode was still a little wet looking at the top of it (but the plug doesn't have any fuel or oil smell to it) and there is a white coating over a lot of it


Plus - some idiot put AUTO LITES in there - soon as I have extra cash I'm going to put delcos in and fresh wires on all six

It was a coil pack, again.. I don't know why it gave up right when the wire got cut, it must have shorted out or some kind of a thing (I believe that the end of the wire must have gotten into the wrong place and zapped something)...

He changed the coil pack and it runs great and the total charge was $10 parts+labor

He also did the brakes on her car, front pads $25 labor $20 carbon metallic pads

Definitely going to have to buy three new coil packs or not drive when it's so hot out, any more. Drove it all over when it was over 100F outside before this happened. Like I said, the coil packs are right on the front of the engine and they're notorious for not making it (same with the ign module which is under them)