Cliffs notes: Bad opti plug was corroded and car died. Bought new one. Car runs for 10 minutes. Dies. Pull on plug while starting, car runs again. Dies after another drive of running fine. What the hell?

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So I've replaced the opti in my car about 4 times in the last 2 years or so. Everytime found something else causing it to go out. Heater core lines leaking, WP leaking, the opti actually broke up. It's always something new.

I bought a new plug on my last change from casper's electronics. The old one had been corroded bad. I put it on then drive it for a while. Then it begins to just die. Run some, then die. Take the newer plug out (been on about 6 months) and it's corroded to hell. I clean the contacts off, try to clean the opti contacts as well as possible and put it back on. Runs for a month or so. Dies again. Take plug out and find out one of the contacts is actually broken in the plug, corrosion I guess. So this time I just buy the plug. Put it on last weekend. Starts up great. Let it run about 5 min. Great. Get in and drive, running great.

Get about 4 miles into it and the thing just dies again while cruising, nothing special. Pull over and it wants to start, but won't stay running for more than a sec or two. Get my dad over to help and while he cranks it I pull on the opti plug wire. Starts up, runs for about 10 seconds. Dies. I figure out that literally bending the plug back towards the timing cover gets it to run, the last time it stays running, and I drive it back to my dad's shop, the original 4 miles without a hiccup.

WHAT THE HELL!?!?!? Could there be a bad connection somewhere in the opti? I'm frickin tired of buying optis!

 

I have the same problem and it's driving me nuts! Car starts and then just dies 1-30 miles later. Engine cranks fast but won't start. I pull connectors trying to check coil voltages, etc and then plug everything back in. It starts! Car will sit and idle for 1-2 hours in place (I've done it) no problem. Sometimes it will stutter a little when it starts because the idle is so low (300 rpm) and needs a little gas briefly to get idle up.

Are you throwing any codes when this happens? I've gotten the following:

Code 41-Ignition Control (IC) circuit (open circuit), I cleared it and it hasn't been thrown again, yet.

Code 36- Distributor ignition system. Faulty high resolution (360X) pulse or multiple low resolution pulses detected. Check pigtail connector from distributor to main harness for any opens or shorts. Verify wiring is okay before replacing distributor. This could be a likely candidate based on what you've described above.

I am intrigued by the post above talking about his stalling problem being the ignition and relay in the glove box... Anyone have additional info on this?


Here's a more detailed (long) description of my problem I posted on another board a few months ago that has gone unresolved:

Subject: SES Code 41, Open Ignition Circuit, Car stalls

My '93 T/A has recently developed a starting/running problem that I'm having difficulty diagnosing. Twice over the past 3 weeks the car didn't start on the first crank--it has always started on the first crank for the past 9 years. The temperature at the time was very cold (around 5-10 degrees) and I thought it may have just been the cold coupled with the fact that I hadn't driven the car hardly at all over the prior 2 weeks of freezing temps. Then about two days later I was on the freeway the and let off the gas to slow down to about 45 mph due to traffic when all of the sudden the engine light came on and the engine cut out. I tried to start the engine again but it would just sit there and crank pretty quickly. I figured the battery was okay and eventually a tow truck stopped by in passing and he squirted some kind of spray into the intake while I turned it over and after a few attempts it started--running very rough, but running none the less as long as I kept the RPMs up around 1000.

He mentioned that I should check for a clogged fuel filter when I got it home; however, I'm somewhat skeptical because I changed the filter about 6 months prior when I rebuilt the top half of the LT1 while replacing a head gasket/sheared exhaust manifold bolt at 106,000 miles. I also suspected it might have been water in the gas tank, as the car sat in those freezing temps for about 2 weeks nearly empty. The car started fine the next day and I filled up with a fresh tank of gas and all was good for about 2 days. Then the car didn't want to start again. It looked like the battery may be weak, even though it also was only 6 months old. The voltage meter dropped down to about 8 volts when starting, although the car did crank over relatively quick. I jumped the battery with my odyssey after charging for about 10 minutes and the car started... The car turned over slightly faster, but didn't seem to be much different. Perhaps it was just coincidence that it started....

So then, a few days later I'm leaving for work in the morning in the snow with a temp of about 27 degrees. I come up to a stop sign about a mile from my home, start accelerating and once I hit about 30 mph the engine kills again just like on the freeway and throws the check engine light--it was just as if I had turned the key to off...

Trying to restart resulted in the engine just cranking over repeatedly, but no start. Later that afternoon I returned and tried to troubleshoot it a bit more. All of the wires I could see from up top appeared to be in place. A guy helped me out by loosening the fuel bleeder screw on the intake and verified that I'm getting fuel (I thought it might be the fuel pump going out) as I'd crank it over. So it seems like I'm getting air and fuel, but perhaps no spark.

I tow it home that night and waited a few days for the temp to warm up. Yesterday, I figure I'll give diagnostics a try again. I start by disconnecting the negative battery terminal, pulling off the coil, thinking it may be the coil or the ignition control module. I realize that in order to check the coil, I need to have juice going to it, so I put it back on and try and try to get a reading off the coil terminals. I can't get anything on the meter, so I hook power connectors back on and crank it--it turns out that I forgot to put the coil wire back on and I actually here a spark, spark, spark, as the engine is turning over. Ooops... I put the coil wire back on and crank it again and it starts immediately. Great... It's running and I have no idea what happened...

I decide to let it idle for 20 minutes and see if it will die. It doesn't. I kill the motor, start it again and it fires right up. I wait 15 minutes and crank it again and it turns over about two cycles and then starts. I kill it, and restart again with no delay or problems. I resign my attempts for the afternoon and come back out about 6 hours later and guess what.... it turns over but it will not start!

Okay, so I'm now quite confused and could use the expertise of you fellow f-buds. I haven't checked for codes yet, so I will do that tomorrow and see if I'm getting a code thrown on something like the optical sensor in the optispark. The car does have the original optispark on it, so I know it could be a likely candidate, but given that the car went from running great to not starting overnight I'm not sure if that's it (even though I realize I've been luck putting 100k on it without opti issues). I think I read that if the optical pickup sensor goes out, the PCM won't send a signal for a spark.

So what I need help with is isolating whether the problem is the something electrical I'm not considering, the coil, ignition control module, wires (1 year old), battery (no-just replaced), the PCM, or heaven forbid the opti that I could have replaced when I had everything apart 6 months earlier. Could it be water in the gas still (I ran a bottle of HEET through it, so probably not)? How about the fuel filter or pump? The car has passed emissions the past two years, but required two tries both times (even after the rebuild with new wires, plugs, filters, o-rings on fuel rail, etc).

Any thoughts?

 

I have seen a lot of people have the opti screws back out causing dying problems. I am not sure how to be sure short of removing thing to get to the screws but it happens a lot.

 

That was def not my problem, but could very well solve others woes!


Well, I can say that I'm not totally sure what was causing my problem, but it's too late to find out now. I got so pissed at the thing I just started on a clean slate. I replaced the following: opti, opti wiring harness (OEM GM made, the Casper's, although great!!! quality, has terminal connectors that are really small and seem to not make the greatest connection), the opti venting harness (both hoses), and a few other small things. It's running now so I'm not complaining yet.

The only issue I found that I also had and I'm not sure yet whether it had anything to do with the original problem was: my radiator cap was an o'reillys brand and it was an 18 psi cap, whereas our stock one is 15 psi. So I'm wondering if the over-pressurizing of the system was causing some leaks. Only time will tell.

Good luck man, I hope you're able to find what you're looking for!