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 Vs Commodore Running Problems - Help needed  

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zacy-g
  • zacy-g
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  • Joined: 15-July 08
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  • From: Northern Brisbane, QLD
Post #1 post 18th March 2010 - 10:40 PM
Hey guys,

Having a bit of trouble with my mates VS at the moment (not running all cylinders) and looking for some help/advice. SO, the story goes that, last Saturday we did an oil change on his VS, and when he was refilling the motor with oil, it got messy. So to my disbelief he sprayed a shitload of degreaser on the motor and got the garden hose out. He sprayed like everywhere - wet the coilpacks, had no lid on the fuse box. The car started after we finished the oil change and we went and got petrol. We put 40 bucks on Vortex 98 into and went for a drive up to Maleny (from Redcliffe), as we began to go up the big hill after Landsborough the car started to spit and splutter and was making no power (not that commodores do anyway mamoru.gif) at all.

I thought it wasn't good but there wasn't alot we could do out there. So we headed home and let the car sit for the night. Woke up Sunday morning and it started and drove like a champ for an hour as we drove round. Then it started to play up again (spluttering, lack of power, backfiring etc) so he took it home. On Tuesday night he checked the leads for any wet areas, dried out fuse box etc.

He brought it round tonight and I drove it out to North Lakes. On our way we stopped and put in 30 bucks of Vortex 98. Now the car was running on the fuel light when he brought it round and it was going well (no misfire, usual amount of grunt etc), then as soon as we put the fuel in it started being a @#$! again. We decided to get some injector cleaner just to see if it made any difference but it didn't really.

We have been told by a mechanic that it could be - throttle position sensor, coilpacks, leads (9mm leads on it), plugs. So next on the agenda tomorrow afternoon is a new set of NGK plugs. Has anyone had problems like this before or could point us in the right direction?

Thanks
Zac thumbsup.gif

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The old single spinner. A Commodore trademark.
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baconson
Post #2

could be anything he listed, umm if you have access to a multimeter, and basic knowledge, you can test the tps to make your your getting a good constant signal from it, its just a potentiometer

zacy-g
Post #3

Alright cool thanks for the advice. Heading round to his soon to fit some other coilpacks and spark plugs.

iamhappy46
Post #4

Remove existing spark plug leads, use an air gun(or rag) to DRY them completely then refit the old leads. Remove the plug to the coil pack, it has a 7/32" bolt from memory, remove the plug and dry out all the coil pack wiring.

Basically, the ignition system is shorting out to the block somewhere, causing misfires etc. The fact that oil was spilt, the degreaser added along with water means that there is likely to be oil/degreaser in the wiring and explains why it takes a while for the problem to happen as well which makes for a pain in the butt trying to find where the 'arc over' point is.

Another way would be to find a REALLY dark area with no street lights etc, pop the bonnet and turn off the headlights and 'find' the arc over point wink.gif A dark shed or out bush would be best smile.gif

Mongrel
Post #5

QUOTE (zacy-g @ Mar 18 2010, 10:40 PM) *
...as we began to go up the big hill after Landsborough the car started to spit and splutter and was making no power (not that commodores do anyway mamoru.gif) at all.

I thought it wasn't good but there wasn't alot we could do out there. So we headed home and let the car sit for the night. Woke up Sunday morning and it started and drove like a champ for an hour as we drove round. Then it started to play up again (spluttering, lack of power, backfiring etc) so he took it home. On Tuesday night he checked the leads for any wet areas, dried out fuse box etc.

He brought it round tonight and I drove it out to North Lakes. On our way we stopped and put in 30 bucks of Vortex 98. Now the car was running on the fuel light when he brought it round and it was going well (no misfire, usual amount of grunt etc), then as soon as we put the fuel in it started being a @#$! again....

check for arcing/cross firing first but I'd also be looking at the crank angle sensor, may have all been a bit of a coincidence. crank angle sensors on the commodores usually start playing up when they're warm. A quick simple way to check is if it starts playing up, pour some cold water over it and see if it runs better. I've gotten a few busted commodores home by doing this rolleyes.gif

zacy-g
Post #6

Alright thanks for the advice guys.
We found that coilpack #2 is rooted, so we are switching that out this morning and we'll see how it goes after that.

pipster11
Post #7

yeah i was gonna say coilpack

stepdad's vs wagon was running fine when cold but when warm it didn't like it and the moment you saw a hill it would cough and splutter

if you've got a multimeter, test across the coil terminals (where you put the leads on) and check the resistance

they should all be pretty much the same, on my stepdad's they were all the same when cold but one was different when hot

it also didn't have much of a spark if you pulled the lead off while the engine was running - you may get a zap if you try it tho

zacy-g
Post #8

Hmm so we switched out the coilpack and the car went fine (drove it up the road and back), then we started it to go out half an hour later and its still running like shit. We swapped out the plugs, still the same. Apparantly it could be the dfi module under the coilpacks?

iamhappy46
Post #9

For a VS, I doubt it is the DFI module. The early VN's were the DFI killers.

Remove all the coil packs and put some new di-electric grease on the DFI base plate under the coils. Try and dry out the DFI module a bit as well, it may have water in it and when it gets warm, the water is 'steaming' and causing arc over

zacy-g
Post #10

Thanks for the tip. Will try the above.

wazzatheone18190
Post #11

Did anyone work out what the real problem out. My vycommodore does the same thing. When driving its stop running.

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