stale

Alright, so my wife drives a 1996 TA. Lately, after the car has warmed up, it starts with a nasty misfire at idle and wants to hesistate hard when I hit the throttle. After a second of *******, and making a choked engine sound (like the timing is bad), it'll wake back up and take off. Also, when the misfire occurs, you can hear a good snap coming from under the hood, kind of like snapping your fingers. It's inconsistent though, so I don't think it's a spark grounding out.

I thought the miss might've been related to a small vacuum hose that melted on the passenger side of the intake manifold, but I repaired that and the problem is still there.

Anybody have any ideas? This car is waaaaaaay more complicated than my two cars.

akathom

Have it scanned. Sounds like you need a new Opti-spark distributor. My T/A was doing the same thing.

stale

There are no SES codes. I have an OBD-II scantool and an OBD-II diag suite on my roommate's laptop, but I have no idea what to look at. Think the Opti would cause that snapping sound?

93zted

before you throw parts at it try looking at it running with the hood open in a very dark place. if there are electrical snapping noises you will see them. Opti's are very expensive! They also get a lot of bad press,some warranted!

stale

Oh, I know, I've done an Opti. I'll check the car tonight after dinner to see if I can see it shooting sparks. The snap is so loud that I have no doubt I'll be able to see a stun gun size spark if there's one.

1995greenTA

The snapping noise may be an exhaust leak. Just the first thing that came to mind.

Tsar

Yea i was thinking that too... snapping - does it sounds like a pop corn machine? like pop pop pop well u get the idea.