328 Lost Cylinder Bank...help!

Hello All,

I have a 1987 328 GTS. 16,000 miles. Begin minor misfire...then would correct itself. The misfiring would stop when I gave the car gas. Finally the rear bank of cylinders went down. I looked at the cap/rotor...ok. Checked wire connections and cleaned the contacts. I tried switching the coil paks and that did not work. This leads me to believe that both coils and modules are good. How do I check the flywheel sensors? Microplex? Any other suggestions? I tried several searches and was unable to find an answer.

Best Regards,
Christopher

 

Did you check to be sure there is spark at the plugs??? If you have a timing light, just go through to verify spark. If there is spark, then the next thing to check would be fuel. Not sure about that, seeing the 328 has a mechanical fuel injection system to all cylinders, it's not Bank dependent to the best of my knowledge...

Also, be sure spark is comming out of that coil(use the timing light here), just swaping the HV wire may mess up the fireing sequence???

Just my 2 cents here...

Good luck,
Tod

 

Chris:
I set-up this reply for everybody, but it looks like you need to check-out the low voltage circuit or the coil wire (did you try another coil wire?).

What I would do is (in order of ease-- not necessarily in the best diagnositc order) :

1) Grounds as a rule "tend" to be the biggest culpret for electrical problems--you may want to check these. Note, however, that neither on the wiring diagram nor on my 328 are the coils grounded except thru the harness.

2) Check the coil transistors by switching the rectangular plugs on top of the coils. The transistors are located on top of the coils, but their only link to the coil is thru the plug. If the active bank switches then a transistor is at fault (cheap fix). The plugs can be a PIA to get off--you might need to use a small scredriver to un-hook the spring clip. The transistors generate a lot of heat and I've heard they fail. You feel the heat if you run them while they are not connected to the heat sink; they heat-up in a matter of minutes.

3) Next you may want to swap the coils or go to step 4.

4) The next test would be checking the low voltage circuit to the coils on the primary side. I think some of this information may accessable thru the round test plug in the sail panel. The 328 wiring manual is not very good on the plug/coil hook-ups, but if you get to this stage email me and I'll send you a wiring diagram file.

Good Luck,
Mark

 

I had exactly the same problem on my GT4, an earlier car so maybe the ignition setup differs somewhat but just in case it's of any help it turned out to be the white shielded pick up cable that runs to the distributor from the ignition amplifier, I changed both to make sure.

Gareth

 

I experienced the same thing with my '85 308 2 yrs ago. It was a flywheel sensor and old coil wire. I also found that the ground wire to the digiplex was somewhat loose.

 

Just be sure to keep your fire extinguisher handy. See related thread:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8603&highlight=328+fire

 

Your coil is bad. Very common problem. If you drove for more than a couple of minutes, your cat is gone as well. I am speaking from recent expierience.
Maranello has a great price on the coil. The cats get expensive.
Theo