Yet another'check powertrain' - Misfiring thread for VZ commodore -

[Vzniko]

hope all worked out for you?????

Not exactly - Make sure you get new spark plugs as well - apparently damaged coil packs will damage the spark plugs with them.
I only changed the coil packs - and after 2-3 days of no problems, the shaking/rough idling has come back - I will take out spark plugs and clean them -It better be the spark plugs - ITS DRIVING ME NUTS.

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I tested (with a multimeter) my old and new coil packs and I came up with some interesting values

Anyone with a repair manual that can have the look on the values (in Ohms) for the VZ coils.??

Here is how i tested, however all of them are giving me different readings.
I just replaced all 6 of them. It has 4 metal pins I tested the 2 middle ones first and then the left (1st) and 3rd one. (The other combinations gave me no reading).

OLD COILS - in MEGA ohms

pin tested XxXx (1st and 3rd) Two middle pins xXXx

1 - 5.22 11.94
2 - 5.00 11.78
3 - 0.46 No reading (This one is finished)
4 - 5.02 11.87
5 - 5.05 11.92

BRAND NEW COILS
pin tested XxXx (1st and 3rd) Two middle pins xXXx

1 - 10.00 16.05
2 - 08.57 17.33
3 - 11.96 13.05
4 - 08.71 16.55
5 - 08.00 15.37
6 - 08.21 16.14

As you can see the values are ALL over the place, however I deducted that the two middle pins need to be 13+
and the 1st-3rd pin more than 10+

Anyone that can give me some values to work with??

 

[mia77]

same prob

Hi
I am a chick who dosnt want to be ripped off by a mechanic, I have a 2006 VZ and twice now with air con on and accelerating away from an intersection, I have lost power and the car started shuddering and "check power train" alarm has flashed at me, after turning car off and restarting it seemed fine? My car has nearly done 200,000 kms, just had a service. So from the above threads, Do you think my coils are going? if yes do I need to get it fixed ASAP and where do I take it to get fixed? Im in North East of Adelaide, can anyone help me with some advice? Also seems to be chewing petrol and aircon is using alot of power.....

 

[mia77]

Since posting the above, my VZ is now screwed, alarm constantly going off "check powertrain" and is chugging and shuddering and hasnt much power, got it home and not moving it now, merry xmas to me!!! Please give me som advice so Im not ripped off again at the mechanics..

 

[elshonno]

Mate I rember you posting in my thread, you never mentioned you had three cyl misfiring.

The first thing to check is for a vacuum leak specially if it is multi/random misfires, there are many videos on you tube on how to do this but it can be dangerous because you are spraying flammable liquid on a running engine, so you should take it to a mechanic
for this, theyll find it too as they have done this before.

Also check the wiring back to the ecm, I went through all the pain you did but without $$$ I did it all myself. I run out of options and took it to the mechanic who checked the wiring and traced the fault back to the ecm. $900 part plus labour 2hrs.



by the way I rang holden and asked the mechanic if he has seen this alot an he mentioned they go all the time on the vz's 2005 models not sure about the later vz's.

After the new one was installed there was still a rough idle so I cleaned the air intake pipe and maf sensor and now its silent at idle.

Good Luck

 

[Vzniko]

elshonno,
Thanks a lot man - Could not find my thread on the forums since it has been so long -

To this day Since I had posted this thread, I had not fixed the problem. (had the car unregistered sitting in the garage for like 3 months coz it got so bad it was un-driveable).

have replaced all coil packs and brand new spark plugs still no solution.

I did a compression check today - all pressures normal - so that eliminates faulty internals valves, valve seals, valve springs etc

I am starting to think it is an electronic issue too (Oh missed those days where cars had no electronics).

MIA - Sorry for such a late reply I couldnt find my thread I thought It got deleted.
I am not sure on what you can do yourself, but buying a new set of spark plugs would be good - when was the last time you changed them?

 

[cbar]

VZ commodore crewman S pack

HI

I bought my VZ commodore Saturday from a private sale, was driving it to work on Monday and the power train warning came on, I took it to the mechanics they changed the oxy sensor and now the car is completely miss firing on 3 cylinders is it possible to get a dud after market oxy sensor? and should i just put the old one back in?

 

[marco]

I had a similar sounding problem a few months ago in my VZ wagon: misfiring badly, check powertain message, low power and high fuel consumption (average city up to 19 litres per 100km!). One mechanic undid the coil connectors one by one until he identified one cylinder (no. 5) that wasn't firing at all (no change to the miss when the coil connector was removed). He told me to change that coil pack which I did the next weekend. Once the new coil pack was in, there was no difference to the miss.
I then went to another (trusted) mechanic that had worked on some of my previous vehicles and they diagnosed that the ECU module was faulty and shutting down No. 5 cylinder. Once that was changed the car ran fine and has for the last 4 months. Fuel economy while not brilliant is better than before (average city 14 litres per 100km).

Of course the ECU module was expensive and I probably got ripped off, but at least the horrible miss was gone!

 

[ardyrr]

i just bought a VZ for $1500 as it had the low fuel,check power train warning miss on verious cylinders,bad fuel economy etc after changing various parts and removing the head the Holden dealer told the owner the rings were gone and needed a new motor, after buying the car and replacing the head ,i sent the ECU BCM PIM and the key fob to petroject in Perth and they tested the ECU and found that was the thing causing all the problems

 

[Stevee]

This just happened to my VZ exec, only bought it last thursday. Have full mechanical protection plan on it though, so the dealer will be paying for all fixes.

Thanks for this thread, much appreciated.

 

[floody]

My Experience:

Stage One: Bought the car, on the way home I gave it a bit of stick up a hill and the powertrain warning light came on and the engine started misfiring. Pulled over, turned it off and an again, fault cleared, drove home.
I bought a ELM327 wireless adapter for my iPad ($30 generic brand off ebay) and downloaded DashCommand....this allowed me to read and clear the car's codes and confirmed my suspicions that it was a misfire (Codes: P0300 to P0306). Once the code had been cleared once with the iPad the car never misfired under load again.

Got the car serviced including a coolant leak repair.

Stage Two: after getting the car back from its service I could feel it 'buck' from time to time while idling. I took it back to the mechanics and they reset the computer to the allow the car to re-learn its fuel-air mixtures....this made it happy for about 30km but then it went back to its old ways.

Stage Three: About 150km after the service the car went into full time misfire, felt like I was driving a truck. Fault codes indicated misfire.

The Fix: While the car was running I removed each of the wiring harnesses from the coil packs and took note of the engine's behavior. One of the six coil packs produced no change in engine behavior when it was disconnected. I then replaced the spark plug in this cylinder and swapped the coil pack with the opposing cyclinder's and ran the same disconnection test again. Surprise Surprise the fault followed the coil pack. I then replaced the coil pack with an aftermarket part from AutoPro for $75 and the fault went away. I've only done 5km driving since but the car appears to run perfectly. I suspect the coolant leak previously mentioned had breached the faulty coil pack and corroded it to the point of failure.

Manifold Removal: I was lucky in that my faulty coil pack was on the rear cylinder, these coil packs are accessible. If your fault is one of the four forward cylinders you will have to raise the upper intake manifold (plenum). If this is the first time your car has had its upper intake manifold removed you will need to buy new gaskets as the factory ones are plastic and will tear. If you've already got a steal gasket set installed you need only to raise the plenum by undoing the 6 bolts on top and putting some wooden chocks under it....unplugging any hoses is unnecessary.

Putting it back together:
Spark Plugs: 16-20Nm
Coil Pack anchor: 7-11Nm
Upper Intake Manifold Bolts: 23Nm