I never met a cat that smelt like gasoline.

Be sure to wear rubber gloves and a condom just in case

First off, I would run the car in a dark garage at night. Spray a fine mist of water around and see if the plug wires are leaking.

If not, turn on the lights and pull out one wire at a time and plug it into a spark plug tester to see if the flame is steady and blue.

All of this is with the engine running.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

If you're the ground, you'll know right away

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

I learned the same lesson in the same manner.
That is why I passed it along. Must keep traditions alive.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

| Repair Guides | Distributorless Ignition System (dis) | Ignition Coil Pack | AutoZone.com

The DIS coils are all the same I am pretty sure. Something to start with.

Read the 2.2L stuff, the 2.3/2.4 is the Quad4 which did use a different coil.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

What did the old plugs look like? Were they all the same?

Do you have the book?

MAP sensor, fuel pressure, injector resistance are all easy tests too.

If you haven't done so, take a close look at the distributor and rotor and use an Ohm meter to check continuity.

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Toyota is a leader only because their drivers block everyone behind them. Oh what a feeling.

3.1 is distributorless.


You might check for leaking injectors, I did my fair share of 60* injectors when I messed with Fieros in high school.

I used to just pull the complete rail up and out but still connected to the feed and return with the upper intake manifold off. Key the car on and let it prime, if the tips get wet just sitting there, they are bad. 6 rebuilt injectors online are like $120.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

That's all good stuff. I didn't even know such a thing as a spark plug tester existed, but Autozone has one for $8... I'm buying it. Thanks!
That should be a usergroup here on PP. "I got zapped when trying to pull a plug wire off of a running motor."
Oh cool, thanks... that looks exactly like what I need to test the coils.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Interesting question about the old plugs -- they did all look about the same, maybe like they'd been running a little rich but nothing horribly unusual.

What is this book you speak of? Does it hold the secrets to eternal life? Or at least to WVO?

Map sensor -- I don't have one, my car doesn't have satellite navigation. I'll check the rest, though.

(Just kidding about the map sensor. I'll check that too.)
I'll try that too.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Touching and feeling is great for working with women. For injectors, the only complete test is on an injection bench. It will tell you if they are spraying at the correct volume and pattern. Anything else is a SWAG.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

MAP sensor was one of the first things I had to change on my 89 grand prix, oh so many years ago. Injectors were first. Eventually changed the fuel pressure regulator, crank position sensor and a bunch of other stuff. Don't think I changed any coils but I wouldn't swear to it. It was a good car but I changed a lot of parts. Alternators are fragile too. Charge it, don't jump it and let it charge itself.

If you had a bad coil pack I would expect that the plugs would show a difference. Check it anyway.

Joe is explaining how he tests for spark....

That's a "surefire" way of determining spark.

I can just visualize it.... Ouch! Hot. Ouch! Hot. Nothing. Dead......



One attribute of a failing coil is that they will tend to fail more when hot, and tend to fail more when at higher RPMs. At speed, you get a feeling like the the engine was not getting enough gas, back down on the speed, and the engine would begin running well. Drive long enough, and the degradation would begin at lower and lower speeds. But it would get better as you slowed down, I didn't drive the car far enough to have a rough idle, though.

These were my symptoms that were fixed by a new coil.

With three coils on your engine, if one has hard failed, you'd surely notice the extremely rough idle... Right? Vice an intermittent miss?

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

Hey Jooseppi Luna, just replace those worn out old plug wire and your problem will be solved. You undoubtedly aggravated the problem putting in the new plugs. Just touching with those 20 year old wires, (and there is no wire in them) will easily mess them up. Replace them and be happy!

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!