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'03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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CarNewbie2013
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Jan 5, 2013, 10:22 PM
Post #1 of 11
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'03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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Hello,
I have a 2003 Chevy Impala LS (3800). I was making a long trip back home and noticed the car was losing power when going up any hill (regardless how small). It became so bad that I cannot go faster than 20 to 30 MPH on a few degree incline. The check engine light came on so I took it in and got the following codes: P0301; P0171; and P0404. Well, given how the car was losing power and I got a P0301 code I replaced all of the spark plugs and wires. This did not help, so then I switched two coils around hoping the P0301 would turn into a P0305, but it didn't. I don't know what else could be causing the car to misfire. The car shakes when going uphill and a little when idling. I do notice when driving uphill the car makes a "spraying" sound that becomes more frequent with the increase in RPMs. This sound seems to be coming from the engine, I don't know how else to describe it.
Any help would be appriciated.
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Sidom
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Jan 6, 2013, 12:26 AM
Post #2 of 11
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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Well if you are getting a misfire, you probably want to track that down. The 404 is for the EGR position and that could cause an idle problem and it would be very noticable but shouldn't be giving you the problems at other speeds. You could pull the valve off & see it there is some carbon stuck in the pintle but most testing would require a scan tool
Some of the symptoms you mentioned almost sounds like a restricted exhaust problem...If you can check the backpressure or rig up a vacuum gauge and take a reading at idle & under load while the problem is happening
swaptronics can be a good way to go to help narrow down a misfire if you are limited on diag equipment.......You should take a compression reading and if you have the means to do it, you could try swapping the injector to see if that moves the misfire....
If you have a scan tool that will read a datastream would really help to narrow down the problem
(This post was edited by Sidom on Jan 6, 2013, 12:26 AM)
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
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Jan 6, 2013, 5:22 AM
Post #3 of 11
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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I think I would verify the fuel pressure also.
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We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
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CarNewbie2013
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Jan 6, 2013, 9:11 AM
Post #4 of 11
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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What would cause restricted exhaust? You'll have to forgive me, I don't know a lot about cars. Also, I don't have any equipment for testing; I only own a tool set and that's it. Another thing, could it be whatever feeds the coil? I was thinking of disconneting the spark plug wire from the plug and putting the old plug in the wire boot and see if it is firing while the car is on; I only fear that this may cause cylinder 1 to flood since it would have zero spark.
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Sidom
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Jan 6, 2013, 9:27 AM
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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No, it's ok to check spark that way, the minute you run it isn't going to hurt the cyl, if you are really concerned about it you can always disconnect the injector for that cyl while you run your test.....Using a plug will tell if you have no spark but not if the coil for that cyl is weak. A weak coil can jump a plug gap out in the open but not in a cyl under compression...A spark tester would be better, that way you could wind it out to a wide gap and check max output..
An exhaust system "usually" gets restricted/plugged thru the catalytic converter. If there has been some runnng problems where it's been too rich, this can take out a cat. One way to see if it's an exhaust problem is to pull out an O2 sensor but if it hasn't got bad enough to be giving you problems at idle then that test wouldn't do much... checking backpressure is the best way to see if there is something going on there
You might want to go borrow a fuel pressure gauge from a parts house and check fuel pressure like HT mentioned.
Since you are limited on equipment....It might be a good idea to focus on the miss 1st and see if curing that brings the other stuff into line....If you don't have a compression gauge, see if the parts house will loan one of those as well & take a compression reading....
(This post was edited by Sidom on Jan 6, 2013, 9:30 AM)
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
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Jan 6, 2013, 9:34 AM
Post #6 of 11
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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You have to remember that the plug has to be securely grounded for that to work and you also need to know that the coil has a capacity of about 30,000 volts so you don't want to be holding the plug when you do that. You can get a cheap spark tester for a couple bucks.
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We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
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Sidom
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Jan 6, 2013, 9:44 AM
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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Hey!!! U got a pic of my spark tester............lmao...........Damn clip fell of the end within the 1st month.......cheap pos........... But with a jumper wire.....it still works fine....
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
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Jan 6, 2013, 9:47 AM
Post #8 of 11
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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Come on brian, you can afford the 3 dollars for a new one ........... LOL
I don't like jumper wires on those because they are not sufficiently insulated and end up arcing all over the place.
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We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
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CarNewbie2013
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Jan 6, 2013, 9:55 AM
Post #9 of 11
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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So, what feeds the coil?
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Hammer Time
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Jan 6, 2013, 10:02 AM
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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The ignition module controls the coils but each coil fires 2 cylinders so if you only lost one, I would look elsewhere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
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Sidom
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Jan 6, 2013, 10:15 AM
Post #11 of 11
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Re: '03 Imapala - Loss of power and shaking
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Like HT is saying....Lets stick with the basics on this one.....check spark, fuel, compression and depending on what you find we'll go from there.
I doubt you can rent a noid light but if you can find a cheap enough one it wouldn't be a bad idea to check for injector pulse as we'll.....It just plugs into the connector that goes on the injector and should flash rapidly if that is ok but since there is no injector codes lets just get what we can get with the equipment you got and if nothing jumps out from those test we can move on to plan B later....
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