I Got an Emergency Call at 1a.m.

[PopPop]

Friend called this morning upset that his car was shutting down on him! Well this is what he told me! 1.) Car started idling rough yesterday 2.) Today continued running rough 3.) Tonight while he was out car got worse was barely moving! 4.) Checked codes he said 34 came up 5.) Drove and then rechecked codes came up 21-34 6.) On his way home smelled and seen smoke coming from under back of plenum and smoke out of exhaust with a steady miss! Also said he heard a noise in rear speaker area a few times like clicking or shortening out. Also said wet stuff was on the ground behind exhaust! 7.) Called me and I told him to check codes again and now was only flashing 21-21-21 he said!8.) I'm looking for help with info to help save me time and headaches when I look at it for him tom. All info will be appreciated! He also told me a few days ago that he had did some work on the right bank of the engine to fix oil leak if that helps!

[240TweakerNewbee]

Wow, sounds like it could be anything: From wiring, to gasket, to ECU, Fuel system, intake leak... sounds like it could be more than one of these problems.Check one thing at a time; sometimes ECU codes are wrong, the computer tends to over generalize things. it will give you an ignition code when it could be something on the same circuit but unrelated.Good Luck!!

[Raxephon]

Codes 21 & 34Runs roughWet stuff on ground behind exhaust

Sounds almost like one or more of the cylinders are not getting spark.

Did he unhook any electrical connectors when he was working on it?

Checking the sparkplugs to see if they're saturated in gas would probably be a good idea.

[maxnix]

I am thinking leady injector. If I may be correct, tell him not to crank it again for fear of hydraulic locking.

Or pinched injector O ring. Wonder what the technician did?
Modified by maxnix at 8:59 AM 3/27/2006

[PopPop]

The ECU / knock Sensor harness was damaged so I just replaced it for him and that cleared the codes! It's amazing how something so small can cause so many problems! Thanks for your responses!

[Q451990]

I'm glad that worked, but I the issues he was having are not typical of a bad knock sensor harness! Maybe you put something else back correctly in the process?

Heath