Sunday, February 12, 2006
This was a successful weekend in the car department, unlike last weekend. Last Saturday I spent almost the entire day trying to figure out why the Pontiac wouldn't start. I managed to run the battery all the way down last week Wednesday by leaving the dome light on inside the car. On Thursday after work I connected my van to the Pontiac and let the battery charge while we ate dinner. After dinner we went out to start the car. It cranked just fine, but never even hinted at firing. So, Friday night we pushed the car into the garage, and on Saturday we looked for problems. All fuses looked okay. Checked to see if fuel pump was working. Well, we could hear it pumping when first turning on the ignition. Checked for spark. None. Hmm, why not? Thought that a code reader might indicate which electronic component failed. So, we went to the car parts store and paid $40 for a code reader. The only failure code was for the VATS (vehicle anti-theft system). Spent the rest of the day at book stores, car parts stores, and a library looking for information on the VATS. No one had a book in stock specifically for my car that was any good, and none of them had much information on the VATS. Looked online more when I got home, and finally made some headway late in the evening. After cutting wires, measuring resistors, etc., I conclusively proved that the VATS was not the problem. Later my son reported seeing online that the VATS error code is a known bug for the computer in our car, and that it probably didn't mean anything. Great, now what!
So, the car sat in the garage all last week while I was in Allentown. The car is pretty long so it makes it difficult to open the front door to the freezer. My wife counseled me on the issue when I got home from work on Friday. So, yesterday I fired up the kerosene heater in the garage and gave it all another go. I took off the coil and ECM (electronic control module), though at first I thought the ECM was part of the coil. (I haven't had many problems with cars with electronic ignitions, so this is new to me. Give me points and a distributor any day -- at least I know how to fix them!) After reading information about similar GM cars online I decided my coil pack was bad because of high secondary resistance readings on two of the three coils. I went to two closed car parts stores before finding one that was open. Good old Pep Boys. Asked if they could test the coil, and they said no. Well, I was pretty sure it was bad, so I was willing to fork over the $80 for a new coil pack. However, when he handed me the coil pack I noticed the bottom half was missing. "Oh, what's this part on the bottom of my old one that isn't on the new one?" I asked. The parts guy didn't know either, but he went out into the garage area and asked one of the techs. Now I know the silver thing under the coil pack is the ECM. Ah ha! Well, the ECM was leaking green sticky goo all over the place, and I really didn't want to put a brand new coil onto an old ECM leaking green goo, so I bought a new ECM to go with the new coil. That was another $140. The good news is, when I put them back in the car it started right up. The Pontiac got driven about 100 miles today with no problems, so I guess it is fixed.
So, that is why this weekend was more successful in the car department than last.
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So, the car sat in the garage all last week while I was in Allentown. The car is pretty long so it makes it difficult to open the front door to the freezer. My wife counseled me on the issue when I got home from work on Friday. So, yesterday I fired up the kerosene heater in the garage and gave it all another go. I took off the coil and ECM (electronic control module), though at first I thought the ECM was part of the coil. (I haven't had many problems with cars with electronic ignitions, so this is new to me. Give me points and a distributor any day -- at least I know how to fix them!) After reading information about similar GM cars online I decided my coil pack was bad because of high secondary resistance readings on two of the three coils. I went to two closed car parts stores before finding one that was open. Good old Pep Boys. Asked if they could test the coil, and they said no. Well, I was pretty sure it was bad, so I was willing to fork over the $80 for a new coil pack. However, when he handed me the coil pack I noticed the bottom half was missing. "Oh, what's this part on the bottom of my old one that isn't on the new one?" I asked. The parts guy didn't know either, but he went out into the garage area and asked one of the techs. Now I know the silver thing under the coil pack is the ECM. Ah ha! Well, the ECM was leaking green sticky goo all over the place, and I really didn't want to put a brand new coil onto an old ECM leaking green goo, so I bought a new ECM to go with the new coil. That was another $140. The good news is, when I put them back in the car it started right up. The Pontiac got driven about 100 miles today with no problems, so I guess it is fixed.
So, that is why this weekend was more successful in the car department than last.
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