After replacing most of the ignition parts, 328 smoother, but...

I think it's missing on a cylinder.

I had a problem with the car intermittently missing and skipping under acceleration that would come and go. I'm not much of a diagnostician, and figured the car is 21 years old and parts are wearing anyway, so what the heck! I replaced all the plug wires, extenders, both caps, both coils, both flywheel sensors and the rear rotor. I know; Why not the front when I replaced the back rotor? Well, one of the little nuts started to strip, and rather than risk damaging it, I left the old one on.

Now that it's all back together, the car runs MUCH smoother, and I haven't had any skipping yet, but I've only let it warm up, and ran it up the street and back.

The car accelerates without any hiccupping whatsoever, but it just sounds like I'm missing on one cylinder. It's a slightly more rough idle that what it was. There's nothing irregular about the idle or acceleration like it used to. It's a very regular idle, just sounds like the washing machine spinning when it gets off balance. I know I'm making no sense here!

I'm also hearing the front distributor clicking when I'm in the car, right behind my left ear. The clicking speeds up with acceleration, so I'm assuming that it's the dizzy. Is this because I used the old rotor? Should I be hearing that dizzy hit?

I was thinking of pulling the wires one at a time and starting the car to see if I can isolate the one. If it runs worse with each of the eight wires pulled, (I’m assuming that will mean I’m firing on all cylinders) then what?


Any tips on finding the rough idle would be much appreciated. As you can tell, I'm not much of a mechanic, just good at replacing things, not fixing them.

 

The clicking noise could be a short. Have a look round the engine bay when the car is running in the dark & see if you can see anything sparking (DON'T shut yourself in the garage with the engine running or you'll poison yourself with CO!). Do it at night. If you do have a short then the cylinder in question probably isn't firing so that might explain your rough idle. Other way to find this is with an inductive timing light - just put the clip on each plug lead in turn to see that they are all sparking.

How old are your spark plugs?

Assuming you are happy that you have good connections everywhere then I'd suggest you run a bottle of fuel injection cleaner through it with a fresh tank of gas & take the car for a good long run & then see where you are at. Might be you have a slightly blocked injector.

Also get someone to stick a CO meter on the exhaust & just check that the idle mixture is correct. CO should be at around 0.8 -1.0

I.

 

The clicking noise could be a short. Have a look round the engine bay when the car is running in the dark & see if you can see anything sparking (DON'T shut yourself in the garage with the engine running or you'll poison yourself with CO!). Do it at night. If you do have a short then the cylinder in question probably isn't firing so that might explain your rough idle. Other way to find this is with an inductive timing light - just put the clip on each plug lead in turn to see that they are all sparking.

How old are your spark plugs?

Assuming you are happy that you have good connections everywhere then I'd suggest you run a bottle of fuel injection cleaner through it with a fresh tank of gas & take the car for a good long run & then see where you are at. Might be you have a slightly blocked injector.

Also get someone to stick a CO meter on the exhaust & just check that the idle mixture is correct. CO should be at around 0.8 -1.0

I.

 

Thanks Iain, will try those tonight.

Oh, and the plugs are all new.

 

And come to think of it, it does sound more like a short. Sounds like when you're using the started on a gas burner or barbeque grill.

 

That ticking noise can be quite common & can come from (I think) the AC belt. check that out too. If it is that it goes away fairly quickly as the car warms up & isn't anything to worry about.

I.

 

Yes, but it was never there until I did all this work. I'm inclined to go with your first instinct.

 

Goofball checking back in to update THIS problem solved as well. When I replaced the front dizzy cap, when I pulled the cover over the cap, I had pulled a wire out of the cap! LOL!

 

Just wanted to mention that this method (timing light) may not tell all. If you have a dead short to ground the timing light will not fire (and there will be no clicking sound). However if the spark is jumping to the head from a bad plug extender, for example, the timing light will still fire and you may wrongly assume there is no problem.

 

I know you solved the clicking problem, since you are in the throws of maint. you ought to consider replacing the injectors after 21 yrs. It is a very simple process. Do a search here and you will find all the info you need. The price of them has gone up but you will be starting with a clean slate with everything else you have done. Just a thought.