Ongoing issue with my 2000 - Any ideas please

This keep happening to me. The car starts and it runs really rough and
runs really rich from the exhaust smell. I think a cylinder is not
firing. Engine check light goes on. After a minute or so the car
levels out and runs fine. The other night I could not get it to run
smooth. Left it over night and the next moring it started up
fine. There is no pattern and every time I bring it to the garage they
can never get it to fail. The engine check code only indicates a miss
fire but not the cause. Anyone have anything like this happen?? The
plug wires and plugs are only a few months old. It's getting to be a
real drag wondering if my car will run right or not everyday

--
Scott Streeter

http://www.wpi.edu/~ss/

Scott,

Just because the wires and plugs are new doesn't mean they couldn't be
defective. If a plug is indeed not firing, close inspection should reveal
one that is fouled or looks different than the other 3. If so, that's the
path you need to follow - plug, wire, connections, etc. Possibly even an
injector could be leaking or dirty.
--
Boreal
2001 LS 6 speed Silver/tan, Sport Suspension w/hard rear sway bar


"Scott Streeter" > wrote in message
...
>
> This keep happening to me. The car starts and it runs really rough and
> runs really rich from the exhaust smell. I think a cylinder is not
> firing. Engine check light goes on. After a minute or so the car
> levels out and runs fine. The other night I could not get it to run
> smooth. Left it over night and the next moring it started up
> fine. There is no pattern and every time I bring it to the garage they
> can never get it to fail. The engine check code only indicates a miss
> fire but not the cause. Anyone have anything like this happen?? The
> plug wires and plugs are only a few months old. It's getting to be a
> real drag wondering if my car will run right or not everyday
>
> --
> Scott Streeter
>
> http://www.wpi.edu/~ss/

this should be an interesting read...
http://www.miata.net/garage/ignition.html
if you had fouled plugs and put in new cables without changing the plugs you
may have damaged the new cables... but assuming that you put in new cables
and plugs at the same time then your problem is likely is something else.
one suspect part of the ignition system is the coil pack. i don't know if
the problematic ones were restricted to 99 but it seems to be the next thing
to investigate... when bad they are known to work fine sometimes and
miserably others which sounds like what you are experiencing. if the
problem was something like a timing belt that jumped a tooth then the
performance would be awful all of the time. some reading in the garage
section of miata.net might help give you more insight on the coil pack
issue. good luck and please let us know how it turns out.

"Scott Streeter" > wrote in message
...
>
> This keep happening to me. The car starts and it runs really rough and
> runs really rich from the exhaust smell. I think a cylinder is not
> firing. Engine check light goes on. After a minute or so the car
> levels out and runs fine. The other night I could not get it to run
> smooth. Left it over night and the next moring it started up
> fine. There is no pattern and every time I bring it to the garage they
> can never get it to fail. The engine check code only indicates a miss
> fire but not the cause. Anyone have anything like this happen?? The
> plug wires and plugs are only a few months old. It's getting to be a
> real drag wondering if my car will run right or not everyday
>
> --
> Scott Streeter
>
> http://www.wpi.edu/~ss/

Had the same symptoms-- No start, crank ok--nostart, backfire, start, run
rough for short time. And all was intermittent!
Cause on my 99 was flakey cam positon sensor.

There is another cause for crank ok, no start that I also ran across on the
same 99. A weak battery may put out enough current to crank just a bit
slower than normal, and not have enough voltage under the starter load to
operate the ECU properly. The ECU protests by not providing ignition pulses.

"Christopher Muto" > wrote in message
news:cruTg.11363$gF3.5795@trnddc02...
> this should be an interesting read...
> http://www.miata.net/garage/ignition.html
> if you had fouled plugs and put in new cables without changing the plugs
you
> may have damaged the new cables... but assuming that you put in new cables
> and plugs at the same time then your problem is likely is something else.
> one suspect part of the ignition system is the coil pack. i don't know if
> the problematic ones were restricted to 99 but it seems to be the next
thing
> to investigate... when bad they are known to work fine sometimes and
> miserably others which sounds like what you are experiencing. if the
> problem was something like a timing belt that jumped a tooth then the
> performance would be awful all of the time. some reading in the garage
> section of miata.net might help give you more insight on the coil pack
> issue. good luck and please let us know how it turns out.
>
> "Scott Streeter" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > This keep happening to me. The car starts and it runs really rough and
> > runs really rich from the exhaust smell. I think a cylinder is not
> > firing. Engine check light goes on. After a minute or so the car
> > levels out and runs fine. The other night I could not get it to run
> > smooth. Left it over night and the next moring it started up
> > fine. There is no pattern and every time I bring it to the garage they
> > can never get it to fail. The engine check code only indicates a miss
> > fire but not the cause. Anyone have anything like this happen?? The
> > plug wires and plugs are only a few months old. It's getting to be a
> > real drag wondering if my car will run right or not everyday
> >
> > --
> > Scott Streeter
> >
> > http://www.wpi.edu/~ss/
>
>

Well I got the coil packs replaced ($305 installed) and it's been fine
so far. Hopefully that was it....

"Christopher Muto" > writes:

> this should be an interesting read...
> http://www.miata.net/garage/ignition.html
> if you had fouled plugs and put in new cables without changing the plugs you
> may have damaged the new cables... but assuming that you put in new cables
> and plugs at the same time then your problem is likely is something else.
> one suspect part of the ignition system is the coil pack. i don't know if
> the problematic ones were restricted to 99 but it seems to be the next thing
> to investigate... when bad they are known to work fine sometimes and
> miserably others which sounds like what you are experiencing. if the
> problem was something like a timing belt that jumped a tooth then the
> performance would be awful all of the time. some reading in the garage
> section of miata.net might help give you more insight on the coil pack
> issue. good luck and please let us know how it turns out.
>
> "Scott Streeter" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > This keep happening to me. The car starts and it runs really rough and
> > runs really rich from the exhaust smell. I think a cylinder is not
> > firing. Engine check light goes on. After a minute or so the car
> > levels out and runs fine. The other night I could not get it to run
> > smooth. Left it over night and the next moring it started up
> > fine. There is no pattern and every time I bring it to the garage they
> > can never get it to fail. The engine check code only indicates a miss
> > fire but not the cause. Anyone have anything like this happen?? The
> > plug wires and plugs are only a few months old. It's getting to be a
> > real drag wondering if my car will run right or not everyday
> >
> > --
> > Scott Streeter
> >
> > http://www.wpi.edu/~ss/
>
>

--
Scott Streeter

http://www.wpi.edu/~ss/