Hey guys, I have a 2000 camaro v6 with 49k miles.
I had the spark plugs and cables done about 2 months ago. Apparently 2 of the wires were crossed took about 3 weeks for my car to turn on the chek engine light and read misfire cylinder one, put the wires back in place, cleared the code and it was fine for like 2 months till today. I went to the store when I came back out i turned on my car and my check engine light turned on and started to flash and idle really rough. Got home and checked the wires and stuff and one of them was really messed up like melted and ripped up. Replaced that wire..the rough idle went away and I figured that was it. Disconnected the battery so code would clear and it was fine. Drove it on the freeway and it came back flashing again exited right away and went back home. On the way home it stoped flashing for a bit then it started again. Pulled over and turned it off checked wires again they were fine. Turned it back on and no check engine light not till i got home but I never went over 40mph on the way back. Any ideas, or possible solutions? I really hope it is not the converter as I've read other people say might be a possibility. Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated. (by the way one of my coils is like extremely rusty, the coil for 1&4 - I had misfire on Cylinder 1 before and Cable that went bad was cable for cylinder 4. Cables 1&4 were the ones that got crossed before as well, safe to say it is the coil for 1&4? or worse).

 

What code is it setting? A dead short, like a melted cable, can overheat a coil. Flashing light means whateven is wrong with your car could damage the Cat. That can be caused by the dead short. If I remember right 1 & 4 are on the same coil so reversing the wires should have no effect on how the engine runs.

 

I didn't check the code (I checked it when it did it like 4 months ago for the misfire cuz of the crossed cables), I will today. However, the code is not there anymore and I'm afraid to drive it because I don't want to damage the cat (no check engine light means that the reader won't show a code right? meaning I will have to drive it until code comes back, while damaging my cat?). I'll probably buy a code reader. I will replace that coil and see how that goes. Should I replace that Spark Plug as well? I heard having crossed wires can cause damage to the piston (really hope that's not it). Anyway, I don't know how long you can run like that till you destroy the cat, but I rather not find out. Thanks for the help I'll update as soon as I get more info.

 

The blinking CEL means that what ever is causing the code can damage the engine or the Emissions systems (like the CAT). high quality readers can usually pull the last code from memory and top of the line readers can pull history from the last 1000 starts or so, including how many revolutions the engine took to start each time. If you cross the wires on 1&4, 2&5 or 3&6 your car will not know. Those wires are grouped on the same coil and they are fired at the same time. This is known as a waste spark system since one wire will fire on the exhaust stroke and it wasted since there is no fuel to burn. Like Gorn said the wire getting a dead short will cause it to get hot which could kill the coil or the module. The spark plug should at least be checked to make sure it has not been fouled. Try to route the wires away from the exhaust to prevent them from getting burnt up again. You should have some little metal shields that go on the ends of the wires to help prevent melting, I had 3 or 4 of them on my engine. If you dont see them check out the wrecking yards for some they will prolly just give the things to you.

Massey

 

Thanks for the response Massey,
If my car will not know of the cross between 1&4 why did it eventually give me a misfire and that's how I came to check the wires and found they were crossed and put em back and it was fine for 2 months? could I have damaged the cylinder? (i hope not). Also, will a spark tester help me figure out if the coil went bad? And yeah, i also just heard about the CAT thing today...that would be bad...I didn't drive it more than like 2 miles like that though (thank god I didn't get stranded in like San Francisco or something.) Anyway, thanks for the advice, I will try to find a place to get my code pulled for free, but I don't really wanna drive I might just buy a code reader, hopefully something good enough to read when there is no engine light on...those things are expensive. Thanks!

 

Even tho the car fires 1&4 at the same time it knows which one misfires by knowing what one is supposed to be at TDC so it calls out the dead hole not the both of them. A missfire is detected by the discharge pattern of the coil (the ICU reads it) and the knock sensor feels the thud in the engine just as you do. If this happens enough times durring a test cycle then the CEL comes on and if the ECU determines that this could cause damage to the engine then you get the blink blink. Hope this helps clear up what I said earlier.

Massey

 

Okay yeah that helps man thanks! So based on what happened to me before
Crossed wires->CEL(stayed on not blinking) code read Cyl. 1 Misfire->put wires correctly, cleared code->no more problem for two months till the ripped cable. You think I could have caused engine damage?

 

So guys, thanks for all the help my car seems to be fine.
I used my friends spark tester than we found they were fine. (we never did look at the spark plugs probably will later to be safe). So when I found someone to code read it for free for me, we found that it was Cylinder 3 that was messed up and then we go and look around sure enough the cable to cylinder 3 was also broken burnt up. We replaced it, turned it on no code and it seems fine, haven't drove it past 40mph yet but looks like it's out of dangerous waters.
Thanks for all the help and advice Gorn and Massey!

 

Glad you got it all taken care of.

Massey