Misfire on my 96 cavalier

[DETROITMUSCLE]

My DD has been giving me a CEL the last few days so yesterday I finally got it to autozone and they scanned the code for me. P0302 which is a misfire on cylinder 2. I'm trying to narrow down the issues so that I can fix it without spend $ on several different parts. The car never stumbles at all during driving but when its just sitting idling is when it misses. Its not constant and sometimes it will go away and then return an hour later. I know there are many problems but any ideas of where to start or check for free?

[ThreeHonks]

switch plug wires/coils with a different cylinder to see if it will follow

[DETROITMUSCLE]

thats is one of my plans, as well as spraying the plug wires and boots and seeing if there is any arching. Plugs and wires currently have about 8K on them.

[98blackbeauty]

Jeff I find it helpful to use an inductive pickup timing light, (although you may not have ever seen one.LOL) clip it on good and then failing plug wire just flash in your hand and watch pattern or flash rate. That way when you swap parts you'll see if failure moves.

[ezcruisn71]

Does it happen more when it is raining or damp outside, or it doesn't matter?

[DETROITMUSCLE]

Does it happen more when it is raining or damp outside, or it doesn't matter?

weather doesn't make any difference.

[ezcruisn71]

I would start by inspecting the Spark plug. I have seen several spark plugs with hair line cracks in the insulator shell that have caused this same problem. I have also seen carbon tracking on the outside of the spark plug on the insulator.
I know at work if we drop a spark plug on the ground we throw it out.
Most of the time they will crack the insulator if they are dropped and sometimes you can't see the crack.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

I will do that first then, the plugs are super easy to access, the coilpacks are a ***** though.

[ezcruisn71]

I not sure of your exact setup with that engine, but you can also check for external spark jumping to ground across your wires.
The way we check it on the Engine dyno at work is we shut the lights off in the Dyno cell and vary the engine load while we look around the plug wires at the spark plug to see if we have any external spark jumping to ground.
So at home wait until it is dark out and fire it up and check it out in the dark.

[nascarnate326]

My 98 had the same thing, and it was a coil pack. Totally sucked to change too.

I hope yours is a wire or plug.


The good thing, parts are cheap for Cavaliers.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

well thats sucks to hear but guess it could be worse. Any tips on changing it out Nate if thats what it comes to?

[nascarnate326]

well thats sucks to hear but guess it could be worse. Any tips on changing it out Nate if thats what it comes to?

I didnt actually do it. I tried, then we took it to a friend of my dads. I had another car to fall back on and was too busy to deal with it.

What motor do you have? I had the 2.4

[DETROITMUSCLE]

2.2 in my car and the coils are behind the motor changing plug wires took me like an hour because I had to fish my arm through and do them one at a time as to not mix them up.