Rennsport Systems Community

I started my car cold and drove about half a block when it started running rough and the CEL came on flashing. I drove back home and shut off the car. After waiting about two minutes I started the car again and it was still running rough with flashing CEL. After the car sat for about two weeks (while I looked for my diag cables) I read the codes and found cyl 1 misfires. I checked the plug wires for security, looked for obvious plug wire damage and found nothing that looked wrong. I started the car and it ran smoothly with the CEL on steady. I cleared the codes and it didn't immediately return. I revved the car to 2000 rpm and then 4000 rpm and held for a few seconds. The engine ran smoothly. I drove the car to work (33 miles of freeway each way) and just as I returned home the CEL came on steady. Again with the cyl 1 misfire code.

Car is a 97 C2S with 98,000 miles. Steve programmed the ECU for me. The plugs, plug wires, caps, rotors were replaced for the second time (engine out) Jan 2011 at about 85,000 miles. I have owned the car since 2005 when it had 45,000 miles. As far as I know there has not been any fuel injector maintenance.

My amateur theory is there must be an intermittently shorted plug wire or a problem with the fuel flow at the injector. Or possibly a valve train issue? This guess is based on the misfire only occurring on cyl 1 and being intermittent. I think this makes the flywheel sensor, coil, coil wires, caps, rotors, plugs unlikely to be the cause?

The only way I can think of to troubleshoot this is to replace the most likely part and drive? Is there something that should be done with the fuel injectors? Any suggestions?

Found the top spark plug boot not seated in the cover. Both contacts, in the boot and on the spark plug have corroded green. I hope this is the problem that will be remedied with new spark plug and wire..