96 corolla dx misfires while driving

[dyep8ball03]

Kinda stumped on this one. It all started on a cold day, gas was a little low and car killed out. thought it was just due to low gas so got more and put some in. car still did not start so i proceeded to check plugs and wires. plugs were soaked and giving off a very weak spark. replaced plugs and car ran enough for me to get it home. went to start it the next day and nothing. thought i may have slugged the fuel filter so i replaced that, did not help that. investigated it further and found a burn mark on the coil pack right where the coil pack connects to the cap. replaced that and it starts up like a charm. only problem now is when i am driving down the road getting up to speed it misses randomly. any thoughts? 1.8 with 260k

[Corollajoe]

thats a bit of a mystery, I would try checking out the distributor to make sure you didnt do any more harm, first try checking the cap and rotor button and go from there, also pull the new plugs out and check just to make sure you didnt foul one out, good luck

[dyep8ball03]

cap and rotor are brand new, plugs used were autolites.. (not my choice) Im going to try putting NGK's back in and then ohm out the wires as well, maybe i have an intermittent short/open in one of the wires?

[Piloter]

Corollas are not happy with plugs other than NGKs or Densos. I put a set of new Boschs in and the engine was misfiring like a mother...even correctly gapped, it ran far better on the old worn-out ones.

A trick I've heard to reveal shorts/insulation issues with the wires is to, in the dark with the engine running, get a spray bottle and mist over the plug wires to look for little blue crackles. If you see those, the wires are bad.

[dyep8ball03]

Kind of what I was thinking.. my other car is a dsm and it hates anything but ngks too

[speedy25]

Troubleshooting without doing proper maintenance is STUPID!

I have read soooooooo many threads from people with problems where they just did shortcuts or used crappy parts to try and solve problems.

Put in some GOOD spark plugs, (Sorry, but Bosch is crap!) and new wires and then see what else should be replaced. Since you ran it low on gas you may have clogged the filter sock on the fuel pump too. Keep your tank as full as you can. Fuel injection HATES contaminated fuel.

-SP

[ganda1f]

Wouldn't it be likely that the fuel pump got damaged, since it was run dry? Or do they have some safety switch that cuts the power when the fuel is extremely low? The fuel is used to lubricate the pump.
I did not see anything that looked like such a safety device though, when I had the pump out.

[dyep8ball03]

fuel pump I am ruling as fine right now. car starts right up and has no problems under acceleration, so i am also ruling out the filter sock. Im not dumb I know basic maintenance, wires were done this past summer so they most likely are not bad. Main reason I made a post was to see if there were any 'common' problems associated with this that toyota people would know so that i wouldnt be chasing my ass in circles.

[speedy25]

I think the only common problem I have seen posted here is problems with the distributor.

Other than that Japanese engineering is pretty good.

-SP