wantamustang

Okay, Tuesday was nice out so I decided to wash may engine bay. Hit her up with some degreaser and sprayed it off with the low pressure setting at the car wash. Fire her up, and head home, she seemed fine. Get home, and start detailing it. I finished up and take her for a rip and now she is running like a bag of shiat, CEL comes on and low coolant light (coolant is full. Unplugnegative battery cable to reset, CEL and coolant light are gone now.But she is stillidling really rough and jerking upon acceleration, and smells like fuel on startup, never did before. Also can hear sizling inside the exhaust, maybe the cats?? First thing I did was spray WD-40 on all the wires and let it sit over night. Next morning I get up, fire her up, and she runs like a top (In case it matters nights and mornings are still below freezing here and days are getting a little above) Cruise around town, still running great. Go back out in the afternoon and shes starting to act up again. I head home, and pull all the coil packs and check for moisture, nothing. All hoses are connected and cannot see any vacuum leaks. Pulled the air filter and hose out, there was a little water inside the filter cover but no signs of water getting into the air filter hose. I am a noob when it comes to cars so I know I must have missed something. I'm guessing one of the coils has gone bad, what do you guys think.

baino

thats weird man. It doesnt really sound like one of the coils to me. If i were you, i would probably take her to the shop and have the computer plugged in to check everything. Might just be that something got wet that shouldnt have, although i've never really ran into that problem.

wantamustang

Well, I took it to the shop and it wasnt throwing any codes, but the mechanic could clearly tell it has a miss. He checked over my trouble shooting and turns outI didnt look hard enough for water, he found water in 4 of the spark plug hole. Car idles like shes new again but I still get that lag to it, and it still jerks a bit, not as bad though. Most noticable thing is that I cant even spin the tires in 1st gear. I'm gonna replace the coils and plugs in the next little while, hopefully this clears it up.

bjh061487

wow... good luck and glad it didn't do anything really bad to the engine

wantamustang

Yah I'm glad too man, considering the financial situation I'm in right now, if bad things happen to the engine she gets parked lol. Anyone know a good way to figure out ifa coil is bad? And if it idles good, but seems to miss a bit upon heavy acceleration do you think it could be plugs?

1999 GT

did you cover up the fuse box, battery and pcv with towels or anything?...if you didnt that could be your problem

wantamustang

Well, I changed all the plugs today and cleaned up the coil packs real good, and shes runnin like a champ again, no more miss. Hopefully the problem won't return.

WhiteFoxGT

And this is why I dont hose down underneath the hood of my car.. I hand wipe and clean everything

wantamustang

Trust me, I've learned my lesson, I'll be doing the same thing from now on, just wasn't worht the headaches.

lizzyfan

Just a FYI on the coolant light, if the plug under the coolant fill cap gets wet it'll come on