Alright, first ill give you the specs then my symptoms.

01 camaro, v6 3800(3.8), auto, 73,000 miles.

Firstly, ive had the car for two years now and ive never so much as seen a light blink on the dash. Ive always kept it in good condition (you can eat off the engine i swear), and spare the occasional ricer, has spent most of its life at low/mid rpm's.

So today after a pretty brisk acceleration the check engine light came on, then went out soon after. Then the light came on again and started blinking. Soon after i felt a hesitation in the engine and vibration, especially at low speeds. The hesitation isnt constant though, it fades in and out.

From my knowledge it sounds like a misfire caused from some sort of problem with the fuel/mixture. Im curious what your thoughts are, i live in an apartment complex so doing my own work is somewhat limited, and i like to know more than my mechanic when i take it in the shop.

I know it could also be a handful of other stuff, cap and rotors, plugs, wires, but usually those problems are consistant with a continual misfire, not random.

So basically im asking for a checklist to start checking stuff off and the difficulty lv considering a parking lot for a garage and 100ish toolset as well as potential mechanic cost at a garage.

Thanks for any help guys

 

I just took my car (99 v6 3.8L) in to the shop today with very similar symptoms, the only difference I can tell is with mine the car would shake a little when stopped and the exhaust smelt like gas. For me it turned out the be the "coil" in the distributor for the 1 and 4 cylinder. But I have no idea how to check that so that's why I took it in. I don't know if anyone on here knows how, which chances are they do?

 

Mine has those symtoms as well, i just got the computer read and it said a misfire in cyclinder 5. Theres a handful of things that could be wrong, but none of them too serious, just have to have an ohm meter to test it out so your not buying parts blindly.

How much did the shop charge you? Im gonna check the easy stuff first, spark plugs, wires but if its not those, it might be cheaper to send it into the shop then just going down the list of possible stuff wrong and replacing each till its fixed.

Thanks again

 

if the SEL flashes it means the engine has detected a misfire. go to autozone, they can read your codes for free. there are different reasons for misfires.

 

The shop I went to charged me 131 out the door with parts and labor. I went to them almost a year ago to replace my clutch and do my plugs and wires. They charged me almost 400 less than all other shops I called for quotes. They specialize in performance cars and the owner and his brother are the only mechanics.

 

A misfire specific to one certain cylinder can be caused by:
1) a bad plug
2) a bad plug wire
3) a bad coil
4) a bad fuel injector
5) or a bad electrical/wire connection with any of the above
That's a lotta bad...pick one. I would start with your connections, since that's free!

 

Alright so i pulled the spark plug and its bone white, so she's not getting any fuel. Plus shes gettin good spark so that eliminates 99% of the list, all except for fuel injectors.

Now im unfimiliar with direct injections, ive only ever delt with carbs so, what are my possibilities for problems here, so far i have:

Bad fuel injector
Plugged fuel injector

Those are the only things i can think of considering its only acting up in cyclinder 5 so it cant be anything related to fuel filter or fuel lines due to the fact that it would be affecting all the cylinders.

How costly are fuel injectors to replace at a shop, and how hard are they to replace in a parking lot?

Thanks

 

It's a multi-step process. I would suggest you either get a repair manual, or do an online search for the r&r procedure. Auto Zone has a helpful repair section on their website too. And if you plan on replacing only one injector, do not get it from a parts store. A GM injector is the only way to go, to keep it compatible with the other 5. Otherwise you take the chance of still having a misfire issue in that cylinder because an aftermarket injector can flow at a slightly different rate than the GM one. Then the computer tries to compensate and messes everything up. Trust me, I've tried it already and learned. Do you have a test light? You should check the wiring at the injector first to see if it's firing. If it is, you should be able to hear the injector clicking nicely as the engine is running. If it isn't, then it's bad, or gummed up. What I ended up doing, after the aftermarket injector made it worse, was soaked the original injector in carb cleaner for a couple of hours. I put it back in, and it solved my problem. You could try injector cleaner in the gas tank, but after three tankfuls, mine didn't clear, so I went after it.

 

Well i went through and checked the resistance on the coil pack just to be sure it wasnt that before i go tearing into the injectors...turns out its half working. Got a new one for 25 bucks at autozone, problem fixed. Thanks for the input guys.