have been exaggerated, Had a near death experience today
well i was just driving along gingerly at 35 and the car starts shaking, and sounding like a WRX, and idling at like 400. I thought head gasket at first because the symtoms were similar but no white smoke like last time. I thought I was a goner for sure. Total power loss and a very hot exhaust smell. Shut off the car, took a peek under the hood and under the car, no leaks anywhere. However the header was smoking.
Lucky for me mom and dad were just up the street so they followed me back home and said i was shooting out thick black smoke that stunk really bad out. I managed to get the car home, I sort of live on a hill so that was a feat. I had to build up as much speed as possible then make a 90 degree turn to have enough momentum to clear it. Another few mph slower and I would have had to get some ppl to push it. Shut it down again. Checked codes and I had a 300 Random/Multiple misfire, checked plugs all intact but blacker than usual. I was starting to think coil pack. I talked to Fallen Angel when she had a similar issue a few months ago it was her coil pack, so I swapped packs. Started it up just fine, im getting some white smoke in the exhaust at first that does seem to be getting better no doubt due to all the crap in the engine. Seems to run fine now, so it was a bad coil pack.
Lucky for me I have 2 spares, when I first hooked up the MSD I was unsure of whether the stock coils can take the MSD, that was last year and 25,000 miles ago so I sort of forgot about it and figured they didnt have trouble holding the power. So the moral of this story is that when running an MSD on the eco you can use stock coil packs and they will last, but not forever.
My exhaust went from being totally black to looking like this, theres a white residue on the pipe and all the black is gone
1989 Turbo Trans Am #82, 2007 Cobalt SS G85
good thing it was a quick fix
it might have done some long term damage driving around like that and the exhaust residue has me concerned
1989 Turbo Trans Am #82, 2007 Cobalt SS G85
that much raw fuel being dumped through the cat can cause it to do that for a time. may also have cooked the cat. hard to say right away. had the same thing happen to my Cav coupe twice. coil pack the first time and coil tower the 2nd time. very unerving. specially when the cat heats u and starts smoking the interior carpet!!!!
Glad it was not serious. I will say the MSD might not have killed the coil packs. You are the 3 Ecotec I know of needing new coilpacks at or around 100k miles, might have just been time.
FU Tuning
Glad to hear this was not major.
Thats Him Officer The WICKED One.
So, you're saying the MSD will eventually kill the stock coils before their time?
yup cant expect much more than a year out of them
1989 Turbo Trans Am #82, 2007 Cobalt SS G85
Rodimus Prime wrote:yup cant expect much more than a year out of them
I do not think that is safe to say. This happening once does not make it true. Like i said before I have seen it to be common after hitting 100k on a Ecotec the coils going bad. I'm also not saying it is not true.
FU Tuning
