Blinking Check Engine Light

[Husker Z]

Okay, any help would be GREATLY appreciated. 2002 LS V8, 80,000 miles. I changed the oil/filter, the air filter and the fuel filter last week. My wife drove it a couple days without issue or at least none noticed, but all slow city driving. Well, on Friday, I'm driving and we're headed out of town and I thought it accelerated funny when merging onto the interstate. Then, as I'm cruising, anytime I needed to give it just a little gas, it would sputter noticeably and continued to get worse for about 10 miles, then the check engine lights comes on, blinking, and the issue gets worse. So, I turn around and head for home and by the time I'm getting close to home, it's shaking an shuddering BAD at every stoplight, but never dies. We switched cars and took off again and I didn't get back into it until tonight. I head out and it feels okay until the first time I try to accelerate pretty hard and I notice a sputter and from that point on, it drives bad. It never got as bad as it was Friday and the light didn't come on, but it's obviously having some sort of problem.

The book says it's a misfire, but I'm not sure what's the cause. I did fill up with gas right before we left on friday, just FYI.

Any help would really be appreciated, I need to have this thing running.

 

[nearlyhalfamile]

As far as I know, the check engine light blinking means the computer is actively adjusting the fuel trim to get the fuel to air mixture right because something withing the usual parameters is completely off. I would say your problem could easily be that the fuel filter you just replaced is incorrect, incorrectly installed, defective, or clogged. Thus causing to low a fuel pressure to the engine, causing any attempt to accelerate would mean the engine would fall on its face. Another possibility is the the gas you bought was contaminated with something, possibly water, and is causing the problems.

 

[gcwimmer]

When you say the book, you have the CEL code.

What was the code?

 

[lseguy]

coil pack failing

 

[Husker Z]

The book I'm referring to is the Owner's manual. The blinking light apparently is different than a solid one. When it's solid, it sounds more like a fuel problem, the blinking refers to a "misfire".

LSE, can you elaborate? Have you had a similar issue? I read the thread about changing plugs/coil packs, but not sure if I really need to do the packs. And are the packs $40 each?? Any further explanation would help.

 

[lseguy]

Honestly..you'd do best by doing a few searches on this forum for terms such as "hesitation" "stumbling" "Coils" "coil packs", etc.

In short, the most common cause of your symptoms is one of the ignition coil packs about to fail. There is one coilpack per cylinder, and they sit atop each spark plug. Sometimes a leaky valve cover gasket(common) allows oil to seep into the spark plug wells, shorting out the coil pack. Coil packs are about $35-$60 depending on where you find them. Ebay used to have them, otherwise fastpartsnetwork.com has them.

Also, go to advance auto or autozone to get your CEL code read for free. It might help pinpoint which coilpack is the issue, but I've read that its sometimes difficult to pinpoint the specific one.

 

[Husker Z]

Honestly..you'd do best by doing a few searches on this forum for terms such as "hesitation" "stumbling" "Coils" "coil packs", etc.

In short, the most common cause of your symptoms is one of the ignition coil packs about to fail. There is one coilpack per cylinder, and they sit atop each spark plug. Sometimes a leaky valve cover gasket(common) allows oil to seep into the spark plug wells, shorting out the coil pack. Coil packs are about $35-$60 depending on where you find them. Ebay used to have them, otherwise fastpartsnetwork.com has them.

Also, go to advance auto or autozone to get your CEL code read for free. It might help pinpoint which coilpack is the issue, but I've read that its sometimes difficult to pinpoint the specific one.

Thanks lseguy, I appreciate the info. I thought as long as I was going to tear it all apart, I might as well replace the plugs and coil packs along with the VCG. I might try to get the code read though, I really don't want to spend $400 on coil packs if I don't have to.