- This topic has 8 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
To start off I want to say that I do have a code reader being shipped, however I won’t receive it for another 2 weeks. Figured I would pop in here and see what I could find out until then. For reference the car is a 2003 chrysler sebring convertible 2.7L V6.
This problem started when my girlfriend used water to cool off the engine because it was overheating due to a leaking thermostat housing. Replaced the housing a few weeks back and the car coolant system runs great now. I was hoping the check engine light would go off once replacing it but it has not and the symptoms that have arose from the water being poured onto the engine still exist. I can not say with 100% certainty that the water is what caused the problem though.
The issue: When the car starts cold it seems to run ok. The only issue is that from the very first initial take off and only the first take off the car bogs down for a few seconds when i give it gas then it picks up and accelerates like normal and does not do it again.
After the car warms up I start to get idle issues. The way it starts is I will be driving the car and it is most noticeable at idle, but it also does it while driving down the road as well. The car when idling will blink off. As if it died for a millisecond. Dashboard makes a ding as if I just started the car letting me know the engine light is on and the rpms shoot up to around 1500 and then come back down. If I am drving the car does not blink like it does while at idle. Instead it will jerk. feels as if the engine is having a giant hiccup. Sometimes it will do it only once and others 3 or 4 or as many as 10 times within a minute or two then not doing it again. The car will also just die on me too. Seems to do it randomly.
I tried to pay as close attention as i could the last time I drove the car and it almost seems as if once the car has its hiccup and dies but recovers while at idle that it might be misfiring. I walked to the back of the car and put my hand behind the exhaust and I could feel a hard burst of air every once in awhile. I plan on changing the plugs as soon as I get a day off and it is not raining.
As far as what I have done to try and fix this issue. I have replaced the air filter since it was black and oily. I have cleaned the throttle body and this car does not seem to have a mass airflow sensor. There is some sort of sensor however located between the air fliter and the throttle body. It is located right before the throttle body and resembles a blue diode. I did have a broken electrical connector clamp on one my of my spark plug housings that is holding the boot in place. I used some zip ties to make sure it is connected well, but nothing changed. I have not 100% ruled out a vaccum leak. I have searched for broken or cracked hoses and found none and I do not hear a high pitched whistle. I am unsure though what all hoses could actually cause a vacuum leak. Apart from all of that the only thing that I notice when i look at the engine that looks suspicious is some weird condensation on the engine head by spark plugs 4 and 6 I think(front two right ones). Looks like some really thin oil not like engine oil. There are a lot of connectors in the way so it is hard to get a clear look to see where it might be coming from if anywhere.
Any advice would be great and thanks for reading all of this!
-
Replies
-
You could honestly go in so many directions with this. Do you have an Autozone or Advance Auto in your area? You could go ahead and have them pull the diagnostic trouble codes rather than waiting two weeks. That way, folks here on the forum could give some good input too. To be clear, aside from the overheating, none of these symptoms existed until she poured water on the engine?
Correct. The engine started over heating. I pulled over, let the car cool a bit and added some water. On the way home it started to overheat again so I pulled into a gas station so I could fully top off it off and she use the small water hose at one of those little air/water stations and poured water on the engine. After continuing home we were greeted with the check engine light.
As far as going to a autozone or any other car part retailer. I live in California where they have banned retail stores from being able to check your engine code. You have to be a licensed technician here which is just outrageous.
That is ridiculous… It’s amazing what politicians/ law makers sit around and come up with…
Do they “rent” them? Sometimes they will let you leave a deposit and then fully refund you when the part is returned.Sadly they do not lend them out either. All they did was show me there small selection of scanners they had in stock the cheapest being just under $100.
I got the right extension I need to start pulling out the plugs. Will be able to check them tomorrow and see if I see any issues with them.
On another note. Is there a homemade spray I can make to substitute carb cleaner to help look for vacuum leaks?
A spray bottle with water that shoots a small stream works just as well for hunting vacuum leaks… Keep us posted…
So I did the spray bottle trick. Didn’t find any vacuum leaks. The spark plugs did look really old but for the most part did not look to bad. No major gunk or anything on them. One of the boots did have some white stuff in it. Got out what I could. Another thing that I forgot to include in the first post was that after the car has fully heated up when in park or neutral the rpms sit at 1500. Put the car in drive or any gear and it comes back down. Is that the IAC messing up? Could that cause my other issues as well?
Finally was able to replace the spark plugs. Back three were complete suck to get to and i’m covered in fiberglass now but the job is done.
I can safely say with almost 100% certainty the issue that is causing my problems is a misfire. Even after replacing the plugs it’s almost as if it is worse now that I have plugs that are actually in good shape. The old plugs looked like they had never been replaced. What seems to be happening is while at idle (700ish rpm) the car will misfire. Sometimes the car recovers and sometimes I guess it might misfire multiple times in a row and that is when the car stalls. While driving it seems to misfire a lot less.
I ended up running some seafoam through a vacuum line to see it would help my idle issue while in park. It was getting up to 1500 rpms for some reason. They seemed to help a bit. Idle around 1100 now so I might give it another go and see if it improves even more. Pretty sure that is my IAC which I can not seem to get off since it has a striped t20 screw. I can get it out half way then it refuses to budge at all. I can’t seem to find the exact measurements on the screw to get a replacement for it.
So I wanted to ask what else can i change to try and get rid of this misfire issue? I did not change out the boots when i did the plugs so that is next on my list. I still have about a week before i get my code reader in. Thanks in advance!
So I finally got my code reader in and want some advice from someone who has some experience. I cleared the codes first off because I had unplugged multiple sensor to see if any of them made a difference in how the engine idled. Car would not even start. Had to go unplug the tps sensor to get it to start. Codes I got were PO123 and PO108. Going to take of the tps sensor and clean it and see if that resolves my problem with that code. However for the MAP sensor code I was wondering if it is possible to clean one of those? Pretty sure the sensor is shorted out of something since it is located right next to where my first issue is that i mentioned in my first post. Unintentionally spraying a sensor with a bunch of water will do that I guess.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.