I have a 95 cavalier 2.2l. It sat for awhile with a bad wheel bearing. Started it up about one-four times a week. Drove it for a couple weeks after the wheel bearing was fixed. Coming home one day a noticed a mis under acceleration (not all the time though). Then got a little worse the next time I drove it. Now just about everytime I drive it I get a bad mis (sounds like a weed eater). Then went back to the main car. Anyhow sometimes when I start it, it has a misfire then comes in to running fine. Slowly went down to more of a misfire and comes in once in awhile. I noticed the other night when running it I could see spark around the boot/plug area on atleast one. I know for certain it needs a tune-up. My question is though is sometimes when trying to start (kinda hard to do when it sits for a day or mainly two) I will get a backfire through the intake (had that once in awhile before on hard start-ups when it had no miss) sometimes I will get a rear back fire, and once in a great while I get both. Anyhow I am worring about my timing being out. Could I still get those backfires without the timing being out, maybe caused from it needing the tune up. Im asking mainly I don't want to put a tune up on her then find out timing is off, then find out the motor is shot and have all that money wrapped up in it. I truely doubt the motor is bad and if it is outa time then only by a tooth. I truelly do little about timing though and I guess it coulda been shot. If not And timing is off Id rather pay the same person to do the timing and tune up. If the timing is likely good then I will do the tune up myself. Anyhow I am asking the gearheads in here your opinions and prior knowledge. Thank you in advance

i'm not a 2.2 expert but sounds more like ignition coils, plugs or wires to me. when were the plugs changed last?

Plugs and wires are not that expensive, buy them, installed them. Then see if the backfire and the other problems go away.


ACDelco Spark Plugs

ACDelco Spark Plug Wires

Less than $40. U can get them from NAPA and not pay summits handleing fee.

The wires are definitely at fault if you're seeing sparks. That will cause your entire problem, as one bad wire will take down two cylinders on these engines.
I would change the plugs too - but at a minimum, the wires. If you change the plugs, make sure that the area around them is clean - they tend to collect a lot of crud down in there, and you don't want that in your engine! Ideally, use some compressed air (and safety glasses), or when the engine's cold, use a garden hose to spray in there. You will probably need a parts cleaning brush too, to loosen up the stuff. Just make sure you dry it thoroughly before removing the plugs - water isn't a good thing to get in there either.
ACDelco parts are probably about the best bet (especially for the plugs IMHO), but I've never had any bad luck with wires as long as I didn't buy the cheapest ones out there. I wouldn't bother with any "special" wires either for that car - stock ones work just fine there when they're not broken.
The timing is not adjustable on these cars. Just change the wires for sure, and you'll be happy.

ok new problem, I put the tune up on it and it ran good for awhile (couple days). Started it up one day and drove maybe 1/4 to my friends to ask him maybe to replace my starter since he has a garage, and I left the car running (maybe 5 mins tops) on the way there and back the car was misfiring or cutting out during shifts. Then it just started missing all the time. Replaced the plug again, same. Replaced the wire, same. Checked for spark, good spark. By the way it is the #2 cylinder (second in on the passenger side) and I have had no codes. Due to snow and cold weather I haven't been able to check the injector, though. I know it is that cylinder because with the car running I can pull the wire off and nothing changes. I am worried that it maybe a stuck valve, but I dont see why it would stick during shifts (auto tranny) then run fine in gear up till it just started missing all the time. Also I don't see why no codes have been thrown if the car is obviously missing on a cylinder.

ONEOFFCONCEPTS wrote:ok new problem, I put the tune up on it and it ran good for awhile (couple days). Started it up one day and drove maybe 1/4 to my friends to ask him maybe to replace my starter since he has a garage, and I left the car running (maybe 5 mins tops) on the way there and back the car was misfiring or cutting out during shifts. Then it just started missing all the time. Replaced the plug again, same. Replaced the wire, same. Checked for spark, good spark. By the way it is the #2 cylinder (second in on the passenger side) and I have had no codes. Due to snow and cold weather I haven't been able to check the injector, though. I know it is that cylinder because with the car running I can pull the wire off and nothing changes. I am worried that it maybe a stuck valve, but I dont see why it would stick during shifts (auto tranny) then run fine in gear up till it just started missing all the time. Also I don't see why no codes have been thrown if the car is obviously missing on a cylinder.

I'm thinking you have a coil going out. Change the coils around and see fi the problem follows. If so that is your problem.



FU Tuning

the 2200 runs on one coil so switchin them wouldn't work. Take the car and have the codes ran anyway, i have had no engine light before and checked the codes and there was some there. Kinda sounds like ur 02 sensor could be going out to, try cleaning it up and see if that helps any.

there are 2 separate coils on them... one for cylinders 1 and 4 and one for cylinders 2 and 3... that happened with my dads s10 (98 2200 5 spd) and my old cavalier (96 2.2 5 spd)... we changed the coils and that fixed the problem...

im almost 99% sure your problem is a coil....