So, my 98 3.8V6 is missing. Mainly hessitating fairly bad. It seems to idle OK. I am now picking it up from pep boys because they want to replace everything instead of really diagnosing the problem ($1000.00) so, I want to do it my self. When my last 2 coils went bad it was imidiate. Felt like car was runing on 4 cylinders. This is like a bad miss.

Could it be a coil going bad like this? I know how to check them , and will when I get my car. Where is a good place to start? Also, they said I had a knock sensor wiring bad...what is that? Thanks for an info.

 

My car was hesitating really bad about a month ago, I thought it was a tranny problem, so I flushed the whole system and put in high mileage synthetic tranny fluid and high mileage syn motor oil, and I havent had a problem since. Most it would cost you is around $45 if you do it yourself. Give it a shot it helped me, and it beats paying out $1000.

 

Knowing how many miles on the car would be helpful. If your spark checks out ok, I would start with the obvious things such as the air filter, and fuel filter if you have a lot of miles. It could be an air starvation, or fuel starvation problem if one of these are badly clogged. Could also be a clogged fuel injector, and an injector cleaner added to the gas tank probably wouldn't hurt either. If you're getting an intermittent spark or have a fuel/air supply issue, you're computer should be reading a misfire and the check engine light should be on. If so, have it scanned, Auto Zone does it for free.

 

The car has 139,000 miles - and it is giving a P300 code and a P327 code. All the coils are fine. I had the tranny replaced last week. First I thought I was having more tranny problems, but Im sure that is OK.

My mechanic is almost sure it is the plugs or wires...so he will be replacing those tomorrow. I hope like heck this is it.

***By the way Pep Boys sucks...took it there 1st and they wanted to replace one thing at a time - $1000.00. I told them you can check most of that stuff first...I mean what is the 79.99$ diagnostic crap they do for? Idiots.

 

do it yourself if it's not too late

not sure what those codes mean but aren't they just X cyl. misfire?

If so check those cyl plugs & plug wires, and if those two cyls happen to be on the same coil pack....that would be likely.

Just make sure the garage doesn't rape up the.... like most do

 

i had the same problem not too long ago dude..

i thought it was the spark plugs so i went and replaced them.. plugs and wires not the coils tho.. then a couple days later the car started backfiring and missing a lot again

i mean it was really really bad.. my check engine light started flashing.. lucky me my sisters friends dad has a shop. they did the scann and all for free and it turned out to be i had a bad EGR valve..

so check into that also. good luck

 

P0300 = Engine misfire detected
P0327 = Knock sensor circuit low voltage

Or at least that's what my HPTuners says they are. If that's correct knock sensor may be bad which in turn retards timing too far possibly causing misfire. Your car idles ok, as there is no load on it.