My Poor '90 Bonnie.... fixed

[clm2112]

Well, I knew something like this would happen sooner or later.

My daughter and her boyfriend managed to temporarily kill the bonnie. The story that got fed to me was that they were cleaning the car. Then got the not-so-bright idea of cleaning the spark plug wires. Car went from running fine to no-start immediately thereafter.

After day one of my trying to get her to think back to what they were doing, so as to undo it. Sent her annotated photo of engine with coil & cylinders numbered. She's managed to get enough of the spark-plug wires back on the right cylinders so the car will idle. Still having issues with stalling out. No CEL is coming on, it just quits on her and will restart.

I'm kinda at my wits end on this. It was bad enough getting her to follow my advice when she was living under the same roof as me. Trying to get her to follow instructions from 900 miles away is getting close to impossible.

I'm leaning towards having her test each plug wire one at a time. ( Engine off, Disconnect a plug wire, see if any change in the idle on the next start up, then reconnect it.) I'm still guessing she has a pair of plug wires on the wrong cylinders or has damaged a plug wire to the point that it has a dead cylinder.

I've suggested that she take it to one of the small auto shops in Port Orange, FL about three days ago to sort this out. Advice that was also not heeded.

I've already grilled her on the stuff I would normally look for... like did she wash the engine without covering up the TPS and other sensors, or disconnect anything else in the wiring harness ( I can't remember if a 90 would have a bypass connector on the firewall that disconnects the timing reference signal from the module.)

Other than a two-by-four upside the head, any other suggestions?

[MattStrike]

I like the 2x4 idea.

But I'm going to agree, there is still a pair of wires on the wrong plugs. As far as getting the point across, well, perhaps baby steps? If they aren't already, have her number each post on the coils 1-6. Then do the same for each spark plug. Have her send a picture to you of the way she numbered everything, and do a 'one picture at a time' to make sure each wire is still good and gets to the right plug...

Or find out why the boyfriend can't figure it out - that would annoy me more than her not being able...

[Jrs3800]

I agree... Must have a crossed wire or a bad wire... Thats the one thing that sucks about the waste spark system, if one cylinder has a bad wire it could cause issues for the other cylinder.. Or a coil took a crap? Hard to say but still seems ignition related...

The coils have numbers... and its easy to figure out where they go...lol

[RJolly87]

Unless he still has the magnavox system. I don't remember if those were numbered.

[clm2112]

Naw, I ditched the Magnavox pack years ago. Fortunately, I had put the '93 coils on in the factory order (so the numbers match the factory illustrations...I was kinda worried that I had them in a different order or two coils with the same number on them from mix and match.)

So, she managed to do the test of checking each plug wire. Looks like cylinders 1 and 5 are D.O.A. Swapping them didn't make any difference. I also got her to un-loom the front plug wires so she could follow them from the coil to the cylinder.

At this point, she probably has some combination of two bad wires/fouled out/worn out plugs.

She has no tools available to speak of, so it looks like the car is going to some shop in South Daytona or Port Orange for new plugs and wires. Can't risk her breaking off a plug or cross-threading the head.

[clm2112]

Car is fixed. Paid shop to replace the spark plugs and wires. A few of the wires had badly degraded jackets and the plugs were worn out according to the mechanic who changed them out. Thinking back, it was probably before the 2009 SEBF when the plugs were last changed with plain delco plugs..I guess they lived as long a life as could be expected. Back to running like normal again.

Only have another four months or so to go, then daughter, car, her gear, and perhaps her boyfriend, get packed up and shipped north.

I can't really complain much about her boyfriend. He's a decent egg and he's trying not to be a looser. He went into the military back in October, but was discharged for medical reasons (kept getting asthma and falling behind the rest of his class.) He's been employed putting down carpet and tile, but otherwise hasn't had any opportunity to gain any mechanical experience...doesn't even have a driver's license, never had a car to drive. Jobs are pretty scarce in central Florida, perhaps he'll have better luck up here in PA.