2000 Accent P0301 Misfire
 

Hi everyone,
My girlfriend's got a 2000 accent with the 1.5 SOHC engine. She got a misfire code during the summer, so I replaced the plugs and wires then. This did not resolve the issue. She continued to get p0300, p0303 codes (random misfire, misfire in cylinder 3).

Her check engine light blinks while idling, but shows no other signs of having a problem. The car runs fine, plenty of power. I procrastinated on this, so now that she needs an inspection I'm trying to get rid of this CEL.

I pulled out the injectors and soaked them in sea foam for a while. I put them back in and moved the injector form cylinder three, into cylinder one. the CEL was reset, and after running for a bit a new one popped up, p0301, misfire in cylinder one.

I replaced the injector with one from a junkyard. The CEL persisted, and on rare occasion would blink. Finally, after putting in the some fuel injector cleaner the CEL went off. The next startup the light came back on, and p0301 is still coming up. Where the CEL had blinked on rare occasion, the light now blinks on almost every other time the engine is idling.

An autozone guy suggested that the cables could have gone bad again from the misfire. I'm skeptical of that idea.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

Bad coil pack assembly?

CHECKING IGNITION COILS

1.Measure the primary coil resistance between terminals 1 and 2.

http://www.hmaservice.com/data/Passe...G/ebpd040b.gif

2.Measure the secondary coil resistance between the high-voltage terminal for the No.1 and No.4 cylinders, and between the high-voltage terminals for the No.2 and No.3 cylinders.

: 13.0Ω ± 15%

http://www.hmaservice.com/viewer/img...n_icon_eng.gif
Be sure, when measuring the resistance of the secondary coil, to disconnect the connector of the ignition coil.

http://www.hmaservice.com/data/Passe...G/ebpd040a.gif

REMOVAL AND INSTALLATION

1. Remove the ignition fuse (Fusible link-F).

2. Disconnect the lead wire.

3. Remove the ignition coil mounting bolt and remove the ignition coil assembly.

4. Installation is the reverse order of removal.

http://www.hmaservice.com/data/Passe...G/ebdd004a.gif

The coil packs checked out. I tried to get the fuel injectors checked, but no one in my area can test/clean them. One guy suggested it could be Idle Air control related.

I have moved the suspect injector to another cylinder and reset the ECU. I'll be driving it around (in the snow) to see if the misfire follows it again. If it does, I'll just spring for a brand new one and hope that ends it.

Any other thoughts in the meantime?

Thanks for you help.

Well, the CEL remains in cylinder 1. It is not the injectors.

One thing I noticed when I checked out the spark plugs, was the carbon was only built up on one side of the cylinder one plug. I moved that plug to cylinder 2, but no change occurred.

So, I'm out of ideas.

Any thoughts?
Thanks.

Yes, well you've looked at the major items I would suspect. I went out on the web to my favorite OBDC site and looked up the P0301 code:

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0301

One item caught my eye, "running out of fuel". How long has it been since the fuel filter was changed on the car? I think on this car it is an in-line canister under the hood, so replacing it should be fairly cheap and easy. If both the oriignal injector and the fuel supply were marginal, I could see it creating this sort of conundrum to solve. This idea could also be a red herring, I just hate swapping out parts without a definiatively good reason to do so.

Good luck.

The fuel filter was recently replaced as well. :confused:

The problem persists, and I'm running out of time for fixing this. The misfire remains in cylinder 1, but other than a check engine light blinking randomly while idling there's no outward sign of a problem.

On a hunch, I switched the cylinder 1 spark plug cable out with one from another vehicle (not an exact fit), the check engine light stopped blinking altogether, but remained lit. I bought some new cables, but once again the light blinks while idling.

I'm pretty much out of ideas, except the possibility of a problem with the coil pack. I did test the resistance as suggested above, but I'm not 100% sure I performed the test correctly. Is it possible to switch the coil packs and see if the misfire moves?

I'm hesistant to spring for a leak test, considering the problem appears to be very minor. I assume a leaking valve or bad seal would cause more severe running conditions than what I'm getting.

Any thoughts?

I just reviewed a similar problem with a 01 Kia Rio on another forum. Problem turned out to be a bad ground cable or connection on the battery. Go to:

http://www.kia-forums.com/1g-2g-2001...tml#post274106

Have you figured out your problem?
I just had my 03 Accent 3dr to the dealer, engine sputter....on rainy days...CEL coming on flashing going out....then it after a couple times it came on and stayed. dealer put it on the computer and codes P0300 & P0301 and came up. They told me its the ignition coil, besides the code saying so...makes sense with it sputtering and sometimes being hard to start.

Thanks KEN99 for the images on replacing the coil. I've got a buddy picking one up for me at his dealership and I was looking for how to replace it. Dealer wants too much $$ to do it.