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Hey guys, so I figured my car shuttin off on me was probably my ignition coil... runs good, warms up, shuts off, cools off, starts up, warms up, shuts off. So I replaced the coil and my fuel filter while I was at it, and when i started my car it idles just a little rough but when i rev it up a little it "lopes" and the tach goes all funky on me.. any ideas? I"m thinking maybe the timing is off, but I'm not totally sure?

Nice guess on the coil but its less likely to fail than your ignition module

Dude before you invest more money into it. Check your vaccim lines you had to disconnect lines to get to the filter so make sure they are all back the way they should be. Don't get me wrong hei mod = the shiznit but it sounds like a leak to me from personal experience
Check distribuitor timing if you took it off

ahem, you mean dudette yea, haha, i posted before i went to the gym and on the way i was like, oh sh!t yea, probly should check vac lines so i'll do that tomorrow, and yea... i thought about the hei mod... but i just didnt feel like doing all that wiring for now, haha. Then if that doesnt work I'll check the disty timing.. hope that's easy.. this is all firsts for me, but so far everything i've done has held up

I didn't know you were a lady.

mx3"biotch" , thats okay dude

okay so now it wont even start!! not even a boost starts it!!! what the hell, im so frustrated wtih my car right now!

I kind of want to see this car.

So what's happening? It crank but won't start? Did you ever figure out if you could pull engine codes? This sounds like a continuance of the issue you were having before.

Yes, this engine is very sensitive to vacuum leaks, but if you're sure those are taken care of, we need to look at other things.

Can't pull codes? Heres a couple things to check until you figure out how.

Forgive me if this is below your skill level. The three main things that your engine needs to run are fuel, air, and spark, right? Of course, beyond that, you need compression, but lets not go that far.

So do you have air? Most likely. You might have too much if you have certain vacuum leaks.

Do you have fuel? Can you hear your fuel pump turning on? When was the fuel filter last changed. Don't just go ahead and change these components. Its just a checklist. Post back your results.

Do you have spark? This one's tricky to check, but there are ways to check. Ideally you'd have the tool that plugs in between the plug and the wire and flashes a light when it sees spark. (Forget the name offhand). Often this isn't available though, so there is a method of grounding the plug to the engine somewhere visible, standing back and letting someone crank it over. You should see a blue spark . Yes? No? Again, let us know.


Still, I'm leaning towards ignition module. You're describing the type of failure my car had.

Hey man, I really appreciate the interest you're showing in this as its my only car and im havin a hard time gettin to work!

So I know about the fuel, air and spark deal, and I've gone through this, my buddy has a boost leak checker that fits on my intake so I'm gonna do that again, we did it last time and it was fine, but i'll check again.

there's a timing light sittin in my car now to check for spark on the plugs, and as for fuel, i changed the fuel filter the same day i changed the coil.

As for codes, my friend has a scanner that we plugged into the diagnostic box and we labeled it as a 94 mx6/626 2.5L v6 cuz of course the KLZE isnt in the programming. We tried inducing codes and they wouldnt show, do we still have to jump the GND and TEN even though we have the correct 'asian vehicle' plug that fit over the diagnostic plug?

Again on the fuel note, i checked the plug going into the fuel pump for voltage and it showed that i am getting power to it(i just used a test light) but I didnt check to see if its constant (i.e while im actually trying to crank the engine over) so if i can get to a test light today i'll check that as well.

And I was talkin to the owner of the gym I go to last night and he said that maybe its not starting because after i changed the coil i didnt adjust the timing on the distributor, because I didnt mark where everything was when i changed the coill, i just popped everything out and changed it and put it back together, maybe that was why it was running like s--- after i changed it?

p.s .... is the ignition module the whole disty?

Maybe I should try the HEI mod?

the ignition module is built into the distributor. so if you changed the ignition coil, but didnt do the HEI mod, then presumably you changed out your entire distributor.

since you're saying you didnt check the position of the distributor, then that seems like most likely source of the problem. you say you've got a timing light, which is good, since that's what you'll need to get it properly positioned. a thing like that can definitely cause idle jumping too

Okay so I'm not getting any spark at all, lol, so i checked all the relays and fuses for power and they're all getting power... so we're checkin around and notice that I have an External Ignition Module! It's on some models according to my book and it is mounted near the battery right next to the front driver's side strut! Tested the power going to that and it is getting voltage so I leave the key on a bit longer, before long, the ICM gets so hot I can't even touch it, so I"m thinking that is most likely the problem? Going to order a new one today and hopefully it is it, but sadly its a 270 dollar part and is not listed under a 1.8L v6 mx3 so the one i'm getting is from a probe. Thankfully I get a good discount cuz of my job so it'll probly only be around 200 dollars after that. I know the HEI mod is way better and probably cheaper but this is the only day off I'm going to have likely for the next month and my job has me up anywhere from 1 to 5 in the morning and goes pretty late and by then i'm too tired and pissed off at my car to bother with a project for now! And i dont have time today because I just got called to work .