2001 QX4 missfires in wet weather

[whorne]

I love my QX4! It impresses me every time I drive it. (When I can get it away from my wife). It has an intermittent miss-fire which is almost totally associated with wet weather. When miss-firing the check engine light flashes. When the miss-firing goes away the check engine light stays on. I have not asked for an OBDII diagnosis but a Honda dealer turned it off for me once and had no further comment. ??

[DAEDALUS]

What kind of spark system does the car have? Coils and plug wires or coils on plugs? It sounds like an arcing problem...the spark is arcing prematurely before the spark plug in the moist environment.

[whorne]

It's a 3.5 litre V6. (235 HP I think) I can't see the plug wires without removing the top engine cover. I may get a chance to that tomorrow.

Jan. 22, 10:00 PM. Just got back from running an erand. When I left from my heated garage into -18 degrees C it was running very roughly with the check engine light flashing. It cleared and ran smoothly within 3 minutes and the light stayed on. When I returned I popped the hood and the top engine cover. I found individual coils on the plugs. Actually I couldn't see the plugs but I assume they were under the coils. Everything looked to be dry. I slid under the front end but couldn't see much there due to the skid pan.

Any ideas would be welcome........
Modified by whorne at 6:09 PM 1/22/2005

[whorne]

I love my QX4! It impresses me every time I drive it. (When I can get it away from my wife). It has an intermittent miss-fire which is almost totally associated with wet weather. When miss-firing the check engine light flashes. When the miss-firing goes away the check engine light stays on. I have not asked for an OBDII diagnosis but a Honda dealer turned it off for me once and had no further comment. ??

It's a 3.5 litre V6. (235 HP I think) I can't see the plug wires without removing the top engine cover. I may get a chance to that tomorrow.

Jan. 22, 10:00 PM. Just got back from running an erand. When I left from my heated garage into -18 degrees C it was running very roughly with the check engine light flashing. It cleared and ran smoothly within 3 minutes and the light stayed on. When I returned I popped the hood and the top engine cover. I found individual coils on the plugs. Actually I couldn't see the plugs but I assume they were under the coils. Everything looked to be dry. I slid under the front end but couldn't see much there due to the skid pan.

Any ideas would be welcome........

Modified by whorne at 6:09 PM 1/22/2005

[DAEDALUS]

If it's not too much work see if you can take the plugs out. When my car did the same thing it was dead obvious from the plugs which cylinder was bad. On a hunch I replaced the coil on that cylinder and the problem went away.