5ltr missing on idle and load

[levymetal]

Hey guys, long time no visit..

I've got a problem with my VP 5ltr. It's missing at idle, and when I first take off it stutters pretty badly, and under load it stutters too, but cruising is fine. This problem has progressively been getting worse, at first it was an occasional miss, then missing all the time at idle, then stuttering when taking off, and now sometimes stuttering under load. Note that this happens on petrol and gas, so at least I know it's not a fuel problem. Plugs are new, I thought it might have been leads at first so I replaced them, but now the problems getting worse I'm guessing it's something else.

Symptoms remind me of a failing coil. My coil is only about 1 and a half years old though, so I'm hesitant to buy a new one because mine should be fine. Any ideas of whether it could be anything else? Or has anyone else had coils fail so quickly? Considering the progression of this problem, if I keep driving the car whatever it is will probably die and in that case I'll have a better chance of figuring it out

Thanks,

Christian

[MasterOfReality]

Ignition module?

Failing that, you can replace your VP with mine for a special happy price

[levymetal]

haha i think having 2 of the same car is the only cost-effective way to debug problems like this. alas, i don't want another 304. thinking of buying something like a polo gti

[Circlotron]

Could well be distributor cap or rotor button arcing over. The more often it arcs the greater the trail of carbon so the easier it subsequently arcs.

Probably easier to switch cars than change cap and rotor :-P

[levymetal]

haha yeah, what a pain, but i might just have to start changing stuff over until it's fixed . makes sense though considering the progression of the problem getting worse. cheers! also, do you think it could have anything to do with vacuum leaks and/or the map sensor?

[Circlotron]

Probably not anything vacuum-related because as you say the problem gets worse the more you put your foot down. Putting foot down makes LESS vacuum so any leaks would then not leak as much as before.

[mr calais 5.0]

might be the throttle position sensor.. Mine was sluggish and when you went to stop at the lights it would run ruff and cut out.. had to have 1 foot on bothe peddels to keep it running..

[Warranty Void]

Dude I changed about 3 standard coils due to exactly those symptoms....got sick of it and bought MSD Blaster SS for 20 bucks more than standard, that was a few years ago now, best move ever. Have a look at my profile for pics of engine bay and coil placement, coil lead fit fine, wiring extended by about 30cm, half hour job.

[levymetal]

Dude I changed about 3 standard coils due to exactly those symptoms....got sick of it and bought MSD Blaster SS for 20 bucks more than standard, that was a few years ago now, best move ever. Have a look at my profile for pics of engine bay and coil placement, coil lead fit fine, wiring extended by about 30cm, half hour job.

haha, i had this weird feeling it was the coil but i just ended up second guessing myself too much . i gave up and took it to the mechanics today, they changed the spark plugs over from the ones i had in it (NGK BPR6EF, 3 weeks old) to genuine holden plugs and they reckon it's ok now... but i highly doubt it, i had the NGKs in it before, and it's unlikely that there was more than 1 bad new plug (and with the way the car stuttered, it couldn't have just been 1 cylinder playing up). i pick the car up tomorrow, if it's still shit i'm going to get an MSD Blaster SS and go from there

[brodster]

AIR flow meter

[kniever]

AIR flow meter

there is no air flow meter in these

[levymetal]

bit of an update - got the car back from the mechanics, runs beautifully with the genuine holden plugs. pretty strange, and i don't really understand why the ngks were so bad (and why the problem was progressively getting worse), but meh i'll see how it goes and update if anything else happens.

[kniever]

how old were the ngk plugs? cos maybe there was a bad batch or something as i just had a set stuff up on me too, replaced with a new set of ngk's and runs perfect

[levymetal]

i think i bought them about 6 months ago or so, had them sitting in the garage for a while until i changed them over . i've always used NGKs so i agree, maybe just a bad batch. perhaps the gaps were off as well, probably worth investing in a gapping tool for next time