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Misfire When Wet

5.6K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  drjonez  
I had this. I took it to the car wash to wash down the grime on the motor to get to things a bit. Next thing I know, the motor is wobbling horribly and I'm getting misfire codes.

What I figured out is that the coil plugs and the wiring harness plugs were getting water between them the coils were not firing.

I came home, cleaned out all the wiring harness and coil connectors with QD Electronics Cleaner, let them dry (the hot motor will make quick work of that task, then filled them up with a reasonable amount of dielectric grease (not so much but enough to fill up the free space in there). Finally after a round or 6 of squeezing the two plugs together on there you should have either forced the excess out one of the last hole with a plug in it the harness(be sure to put that back in) or mated the two together without issue. They are now waterproof and you shouldn't have an issue further.
 
The other item that gets hit with water is the PEM. Have you checked your car to see if the relocation was ever done? Look in front of right rear tire for a small control unit. If you only find a jumper plugged into the wiring connector it's been done. Disconnect the jumper & add dielectric just for grins as long as you are down there.
^^^this too 100%.

And as for what you said for mine. If you look at the coils they're all facing away from you, how does water get inside that? Simple, when water exits a nozzle at a given pressure, the laws of physics don't apply and water goes anywhere it chooses. Just kidding! But good point by PCZeilon, if that isn't it, then you got to start looking over your harness for an exposed point that is grounding the circuits for your ECM and preventing the car from delivering the required signals (such as crank sensor, cam sensor - oooh that's a good one right there, considering those actually plug in upside down, get great for catching water and dirt, not great for keepign it out). Good luck man!