Coil Pack keeps going bad

[Tbay99Venture]

Well if you wanted to isolate your ICM from the rest of the systems you could always power it off a motorcycle battery, assuming the module takes full input voltage and not crank vs. run voltage. (+ to the ICM, ground to the vehicle's ground.) Of course if you've gotten almost a month of clean running it's silly to do a test like this -- the flakey power theory doesn't explain how only the ICM gets cooked and not the radio or the PCM or the (etc.)

It's also a stretch to think arcing from the secondary is cooking the module, but you could make a shield with aluminum foil to cover the connector and twisted wire a ways down towards the sensor end. Make sure the foil has good contact with the ground. The problem here is that the 7x crank sensor could also be marginal if that much arcing has happened. Not an easy thing to replace due to interference from the transmission.

[jeffreylane]

ok, here is an update. This morning I pulled the coil pack off, and checked all the wires running around the engine. Re connected the altenator hot wire to make sure it had a good conection. Checked for damage on the wiring harness. Everything looked ok. Replaced the spark plugs with AC Delco rapid fires. Put a set of 8mm plug wires on it. I did find one plug wire that had a chunk of the rubber missing out of it on the old set that I had missed before. I checked the main ground connections on the inner fender by the battery. Loosend them moved them around a bit, then tightend them back down good.
I hooked the air compressor back up, and cranked the car. seemed to run ok with the air off. Turned the air on. Everytime the compressor would kick in, the motor would want start acting up and die. Acts like the engine is struggeling with the extra load. The compressor would engage (cold air coming from the vents), the engine would struggle, then the compressor would dis-engage. Then engage, and then the engine would die on the 2nd or 3rd time this happend. I sit in the car with my foot on the gas when the compressor would engage, and it would stay running longer, but run really rough, then eventially die.
I don't know, I'm out of ideas. Just to make sure I give all the details, the plugs I took out really didn't look all that bad. I expected them to look much worse after all the problems I have been having.
I have to pick up a radiator hose, the upper one is swelling pretty good, but the car is not getting hot. Tried to get one this morning, but autozone by my house was out of them.

[jeffreylane]

Also just changed the idle control valve again. Seemed to stay running longer with the AC on, but once the engine temp gauge started getting closer to half way, it died. Cranked again, same thing, run for a little bit, stumble, then die.

[Tbay99Venture]

Sorry if you've tried this recently, but what about running w/o the serpentine belt and activating the A/C? This would isolate engine load vs. electrical load. I believe these systems have the plastic orfice assembly that is inserted into the line leading to the evaporator & that could have become clogged. (Long story about how my in-laws had an Aerostar with the dreaded Ford fx-something compressor. Plastic rings for the compressor pistons would fail and attach to the condensor insides. Put a new compressor in and under operating temp the goo re-dissolves and clogs up the orfice enough to burn out the *new* compressor.)

[jeffreylane]

Sorry if you've tried this recently, but what about running w/o the serpentine belt and activating the A/C? This would isolate engine load vs. electrical load. I believe these systems have the plastic orfice assembly that is inserted into the line leading to the evaporator & that could have become clogged. (Long story about how my in-laws had an Aerostar with the dreaded Ford fx-something compressor. Plastic rings for the compressor pistons would fail and attach to the condensor insides. Put a new compressor in and under operating temp the goo re-dissolves and clogs up the orfice enough to burn out the *new* compressor.)

last night i pulled the belt off and cranked it up. It ran smoothe. Turned the air on and it did not stumble. I'm wandering if there might be a vacuum problem. Anyone have a vauum hose routing diagram?

Still really dont' understand about the ICM getting hot still. Car has been parked now and not being driven.....I really don't want to lose to this car, lol.

[jeffreylane]

Trying to check everything, I was looking around the wiring of the PCM and noticed alot of wires just kind of hanging out of place. They were zip tied together, but there where 4 relays attached to the wires (with multiple splices, etc). These are not the wires going to the main plugs to the pcm, but are attached to the cluster of wrapped wires and come out of the pcm harness right behind the pcm. There are 2 plugs that are on the wires that I'm pretty sure went to an alarm. I say this because I had removed an alarm horn/speaker from under the hood when I first got the car. There is also a vibration detector mounted to the underside of the steering column under the dash, and the wire has been cut and taped. The other end of the cut wire goes into one of the plugs. I also followed a wire to the underhood compartment that was cut (a red and black wire). This may be the wires that went to the alarm horn I took off, i really don't remember back that far. What made it catch my attention mostly was that the 4 relays were just hanging and not mounted to anything (although all the wires were zip tied, and professionally, or factory spliced). I 'm just wandering if one of these wires is disrupting ICM. Should there be 4 relays hanging out beside the PCM, or are these probably part of the alarm system that was installed? I puzzled over the wiring diagrams in the Haynes manual, but was not able to really match the wiring up. Maybe I had trouble because i've been out in the 100+ degree heat index for the last too days, I'll try and look them over again in a couple of days, but want to pick you guys brains again and see if any of you remember seeing the 4 relays by the PCM. If so, if anyone new what they controlled, because these are what the alarm harness is tapped into.

[bszopi]

That just sounds like part of the alarm, possibly to interface with door locks or something. Alarms typically require several external relays in order to function properly.

[pocket-rocket]

Or for remote start, which would tap into into ignition and starter wires. But that's key ignition, not ignition system.