Flashing check engine light?
 

Today I fired up my 96 Miata and as I drive down the road something seems odd right away. I hear what sounds like a faint clicking noise and on acceleration, it seems like it would stumble/bog down. Then as soon as I know it, I see a flashing check engine light. Obviously this worries me and I turn around and park her right back in the garage.

The same thing happened the other day, but with no CEL. But then it went away until now again. Hopefully this doesn't have to do with my cutting out the old alarm system that didn't work anyway.

Can someone help me out here?

I dont no what it is but when the light flashes its not good.

Lol, I already assumed that.

Yes, nearly any auto parts store can. Tell them you want them to plug in the scanner and give you a list of the stored codes. Most shops will do this for free.

I planned on doing that, but I'm worried about driving ~3 miles to the closest one when the car runs like crap and has a flashing CEL. After doing a little browsing, I've seen things such as plugs/wires/coilpack. And if I drive the car as it it can burn up my cat. Ahh, this isn't looking good, especially since I'm a poor college kid.

Harbor Freight sells scanners for 30 bux. Get one

Flashing CEL is usually a "misfire" code. It does so to indicate that it is a severe problem and you need to stop before you destroy your cat converter.

Misfire, I'm going to use my ouija board and guess bad coilpack.

Anytime you get a flashing CEL you have BAD mis fire Dont drive long with it mis firing if you have a cat or you will need a new one.

My car just likes to fail on me all at once. Everything just needs fixing. Anyone know where I can get a new coilpack for a 96? Hell, anyone in the area that wants to help out, please feel free. I'm stuck right now and I'm just getting sick of alla this.

And if my cat dies, I'll probably replace it with a 2.5" test pipe for ~$70.

These guys are guessing.

Walk to your nearest autoparts store (3mi?).
Rent (buy) the scanner.
Walk home, scan car.
Report back with findings.
Fix issue.
Drive to Autoparts store.
Return scanner for full refund.

No guessing here. A flashing CEL is a misfire.

Yeah, Martinez et al. are correct. I just checked the FSM, and the only five DTC that are listed as flashing the MIL are Random Misfire plus the four specific misfire codes.

Might be as simple as a fouled spark plug or an old plug wire.

Has this happened before? a 3 mile trip isnt going to wreck your cat.
Scan it. the flashing is usually multi misfire. Its an easy fix.Get codes and come back here.

When I was younger and more foolish, I drove my randomly misfiring NB for about 10k miles. Replaced the coil pack at the end of that stupidity, car has been running well for the past five years.

96 model car could possibly be OBD I? Didn't they change over around 96 to OBD II? If you have an OBD I car, scanner may be different/not so cheap.

:lies::youwish::asshole:

Yes it has I have had to do cats in car before mostly audi as the coils would go bad people would drive with the mis fire and blow there car apart from driving with the mis fire. SO YES IT CAN HAPPEN. GOOGLE IT!!! here is what you get.
http://www.villa-automotive.com/Reas...terFailure.htm
Federal law mandates that all car made from 1996 and up must be ODBII compliant. So yes a 96 miata is OBDII also some old cars have a OBDII connector.

Yeah, I'm pretty much positive that it's a misfire. I hope it's a bad spark plug or wire, but I'm not really sure how to test all that stuff. I can take a peek at the plugs myself, and look for anything suspicious on the wires. But if that stuff doesn't fix it, I'll probably look into replacing the coil pack(s?).

So, anyone know where to get a coil pack for a 96 with the best pricing?

It happened a few days ago, and then went away after I unhooked the battery. Now it's back again even tho the car worked just fine for a few days. I sure hope that it's an easy fix tho.

Like I said, I'll look at the plugs/wires, then look into getting a new coilpack.

But it's an OBDII, so I'm good there.

If the cat goes bad, chances are I'll replace it with a 2.5" test pipe anyways for ~$70. But you're right, it is an OBDII.

If you have a bad coil pack you wont have spark for 1&4 or 2&3 as one coil works two cylinders.

Since he doesn't know the code, that's still a possibility. Could be "random misfire" or a combination of two cylinder-specific codes.

_spyder, if you're looking for a new coils, they're $125 at Rosenthal: http://finishlineperformance.com/sto...8&cat=0&page=1

RockAuto is only $4 cheaper, so I expect this is as low as it's going to get for a new part.



I'd also advise at least inspecting the plugs and wires.

Well if I had to guess right now, I'd say just one cylinder isn't sparking. If it were two, I think the car would be running a lot worse. If your information is correct, this would leave me to believe that it's a plug or wire. I've heard you can go through wires on these cars pretty quick.

I might buy a new set of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NGK-S...Q5fAccessories

But I also want to put some new plugs in as well. What do you guys recommend on a turbo 1.8 @ ~10psi? And what gap?

Thanks for link, if I end up needing to buy a new coilpack that's where I'll get it from. I'll be inspecting/replacing the plugs and wires before I bite the bullet on a new coilpack though. I just don't know what kind of plugs to get and what to gap them at. Maybe some NGK V-Power's or NGK Platinum's with a .041-.044 inch gap?

NGK BKR5E stock heat range BKR6E 1 step colder and BKR7E 2 steps colder.

I would do a BKR6E gaped at 28.

Ok, I can pick up some BKR6E's. Like these?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-x-N...Q5fAccessories

And you'd gap them at 0.028"? That's smaller than I expected, but what do I know anyways...

any of the spark plug wells have a good amount of oil in them?

Do they not have an auto parts store up in Wisconsin? :rolleyes:

:giggle:

They do but since I live in the dorms while I'm at college, I'd rather save some money and come home on the weekend to new parts, then I actually have time to install them too ;)

how you getting home? bicycle?

Gotta love the parents :)

So, I took a look at things again today, I apologize in advance for this long rant.

First of all, I had the battery disconnected for the past 4 days. I decided to come back and take a look, so I hooked the battery back up and then started the car. Stupid me forgot that this would erase the CEL. And now it won't come back on!

Anyway, I proceed to pop the hood and was going to test the spark plug wires. To do this I planned on pulling each one off the coilpack and find which wire could be pulled and not make a difference in the way the car ran. I started with the first one. As I pulled it off the coilpack it still was sparking but once completely off, the car still ran the same (misfiring). This made me think it was the first cylinder. Then I pushed it back on (sparking again, close to the contact), and proceeded onto the second wire. As soon as I pulled it, it sparked and the car shut down real fast. Now I was sure it was the first cylinder.

I was going to do the same test again, but this time try pulling off the wire from the spark plug end. I did this (and it sparked again), but once pulled, still ran the same (misfiring). So if the wire is sparking on both ends when removed, doesn't this mean the wire is still good? And if the wires were good, I planned on pulling all the spark plugs. I did that and all the plugs were pretty black from the car running rich (it's turbo, and was tuned this way), but other than that they looked good.

Either way, I wanted to replace the first spark plug because that was the cylinder giving me trouble. So I ran to the auto parts store and bought one of the same plugs, gaped it correctly and threw it in. Fired her up and still no change.

Now I was told that I could clean off the Crankshaft Angle Sensor and it might help the situation. So I did that, pictured below:
Attachment 190051

Fired her up again, still misfiring. Is this sensor placed too far away? I heard it's only supposed to be a credit card's thickness away. Where else should I clean off... this is really starting to aggravate me.

Here is a video of me pulling the 1st plug from the spark plug, you can hear it sparking and then not make a change in the way the car is running.
Attachment 190052

And here is a video of the car running (still misfiring), and me revving it. Don't mind the bogging down it did at the end of the video, that's from my BOV not being recirculated.
Attachment 190053

The videos are cell phone quality, so I apologize for that. It's not very easy to hear that the engine is misfiring, but it's definitely not running right. I don't know where to go from here...

Miata is working now, just running a bit more lean in boost than before. But it was running way rich before. I'm glad it's up and running again but I'm thinking of selling it. School is first priority and I need the money for it. I would love to pick up on later down the line when it's more practical after college.