Weird electrical/ misfire issue
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Weird electrical/ misfire issue
Sorry for the long post but I want to be thorough. I'm new to these cars. Bought my 05 HX a few months ago for the fuel mileage and now I'm running into a problem I cannot find.
It all started when i screwed up and forgot to put the radiator cap back on. I made it to work without issue but on the way home it started blowing steam out of the hood and overheated. I shut it down ASAP and cruised to the shoulder. I poured in a few half empty bottles of water I had laying in the car and tried to start it and it would not. Kept looking for issues and couldnt find anything so finally I closed the hood and called for a ride. Just for kicks I thought id try to start it and it fired right up. As I limped it the 2 miles to the next town for more coolant it was missing like crazy. Got to the store and added about a half gallon of coolant and went to start it to try to work any air bubbles out and it would not. Remembering the hood issue I closed it and it fired right up but when I popped the hood the idle went up and was uneven. I finished topping it up and closed the hood and it went to normal. As I drove home it still had the bad misfire but about 20 min in it cleaned up. I figured something was just wet and causing an issue and dried up.
This morning I left for work and it was missing again so i turned back to try to fix it. I cant find anything. Later in the day i went for a ride and it ran fine. then a couple hours later i left again and it ran terribly and several lights on the cluster flash when it is missing. So does anyone have any clue what i could be looking at.
It all started when i screwed up and forgot to put the radiator cap back on. I made it to work without issue but on the way home it started blowing steam out of the hood and overheated. I shut it down ASAP and cruised to the shoulder. I poured in a few half empty bottles of water I had laying in the car and tried to start it and it would not. Kept looking for issues and couldnt find anything so finally I closed the hood and called for a ride. Just for kicks I thought id try to start it and it fired right up. As I limped it the 2 miles to the next town for more coolant it was missing like crazy. Got to the store and added about a half gallon of coolant and went to start it to try to work any air bubbles out and it would not. Remembering the hood issue I closed it and it fired right up but when I popped the hood the idle went up and was uneven. I finished topping it up and closed the hood and it went to normal. As I drove home it still had the bad misfire but about 20 min in it cleaned up. I figured something was just wet and causing an issue and dried up.
This morning I left for work and it was missing again so i turned back to try to fix it. I cant find anything. Later in the day i went for a ride and it ran fine. then a couple hours later i left again and it ran terribly and several lights on the cluster flash when it is missing. So does anyone have any clue what i could be looking at.
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Re: Weird electrical/ misfire issue
As you noted you had steaming hot glycol under pressure hose down your entire engine.
Time to get 3 cans of electrical contact cleaner ($3 can at Walmart) and disconnect and clean every connector in the engine bay.
Be sure to unbolt the grounds and clean them too.
Time to get 3 cans of electrical contact cleaner ($3 can at Walmart) and disconnect and clean every connector in the engine bay.
Be sure to unbolt the grounds and clean them too.
Last edited by Slumpertcivic; Mar 20, 2018 at 11:43 PM.
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I will give that a shot tomorrow after work. I was thinking about it today and is it possible its a distributor issue, alternator, or ecu shorting out. This car has been great for me but now it seems a stupid mistake is giving me a lot of fits.
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Again clean all the contacts and especially clean the harness and body grounds at the thermostat housing.
Re: Weird electrical/ misfire issue
Not good. I hope you didn’t damage your engine when it overheated. I’d pull the coil packs out and dry them off. Make sure the spark plug tubes are dry too. Coolant might have gotten in the spark plug tubes and might be causing a short, killing the spark.
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I went through everything with a can of contact cleaner and took apart, cleaned up and reattached the grounds and it seems to be back to normal. thanks for the help yall
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