Engine light/code P0305

[mtd]

Hey Gurus,

Other day thought I felt a slight engine shudder turning into driveway - then stability control turned off, then quiet, no further problem for a few days until tonight...

Again, turning into a driveway, stability control went off, engine light on. Engine shuddering. Engine light now staying on.
Hooked up the scanner and got a PO305 (cyl 5 misfire). Makes sense (shuddering). Took it on another short drive and of course, it was fine. So, coil? plugs, injectors? No idea.

Got it booked in (no, I don't touch engines anything after 1980...) but can't get it looked at until 20th.

Naive Question: In your experience/opinion can I still drive this vehicle (short trips) without doing any major damage? Understand this might be akin to asking how long your piece of string is - just figuring out whether I should plan to lose access to the car next 1.5 weeks.

Cheers

 

[BlackVXGTS]

The attached from the Holden VE Service/Repair manual may help you:

 

[mtd]

Thanks Black, yeah I knew the question was 'loaded'... more just in case someone started screaming not to go near the vehicle.
That info is good (I have that doc tucked away somewhere but forgot all about it ). I'm just going to have to limit use of the car until we find the culprit. I'll keep all posted.

 

[mtd]

Just a quick update to this...

Engine startup cold -> Misfire until end trip, long or short.
Engine startup warm -> No problem, and often no warnings.
Seems to align with BlackVXGTS (ta) supplied doc on startup cold. Still could be any number of issues...

TBC

 

[krusing]

Quick fix,
and will possibly fix the fault permanently,
Replace the coil
&
Replace the spark plug.

Some time back,
I had a urgent quick fix I had to do on my LY7
(As I had the P0306 fault)
Replace the Spark Plug and Coil on Cyl 6,
And that fixed the fault,
I recon the plug was breaking down under load, and/or the aftermarket Coil was breaking down under load,
Either way, I didn’t have much spare time to work out which one was the cause, so changed both.

The rest is history.

 

[krusing]

If your local to me,

Get a plug and coil (new or s/h) and I will replace then for you.
Takes no more than 15min,
and take it from there.
Possibly cancel your appointment that may extract BIG $'s from your hip pocket,

 

[mtd]

If your local to me,

Get a plug and coil (new or s/h) and I will replace then for you.
Takes no more than 15min,
and take it from there.
Possibly cancel your appointment that may extract BIG $'s from your hip pocket,

Agree Krusing, I also believe it is likely a coil and/or plug. That said, all plugs were changed 6 months ago, which concerns me a bit. Understand coils can break, but can also break via bad plug/fitting/gap (and quite a few other reasons!)

I'm trying really hard not to jump the gun here, but that service was also the one they left the radiator fan unplugged. That didn't impress much.
That said, it might be nothing to do with slack/bad work, just bad luck/age.

Really appreciate the offer - and I think this will be its last work at this particular dealer, but i'm going to persist with it and look very carefully at their explanation. Yes, it'll cost.