Auto Parts: 93 Toyota Corolla loss of power, toyota corolla, coil pack

Question
I drove my car to the store yesterday morning with no problem but when I took it later that evening to get a friends child from daycare it sounded like it had a loss of power. I was figuring maybe a plug or plug wire?! Hubby listened to it & thinks it could be burnt valve or bad injector....not sure which one is could be now. So what would cause it to have a loss in power? You can tell more with it when its in drive or reverse. It idles fine in neutral or park. (It's a automatic)

Answer
Hi Teresa,

When you say "sounded like it had a loss of power" I"m going to assume you are also feeling a loss of power and not just a rough running engine. It idles fine in Park or Neutral because there is no 'load' on the engine.

What you describe could be a result of any of the things you mentioned, surprise, surprise right? But it does sound like a dead-cylinder, all you need to do now is find out why it's dead and fix it. Sounds easy.

Obviously a disconnected plug wire would be pretty easy to spot. While the engine is cool to the touch, push the plug wire onto the cap/coil pack and on the other end, to the spark plug. Run your fingers along the wire from the cap/coil pack to the plug making sure it is not broken, cracked or being pinched by another piece of metal or something. If all wires are ok, then you're pretty much done. I can explain to you how to check the other possible causes but chances are you either won't be able to properly complete the tests or you you won't WANT to.

The other tests require the engine to be running WHILE you pull spark-plug wires and dangerous things like that. If you have no issues with high-voltage secondary ignition and have the tools to insulate yourself from it, I will be glad to assist you further, otherwise you may want to seek out a reputable ASE Certified Technician in your area and have them diagnose the problem for you. I apologize, but understand my time is important to me and I don't want to waste it if you do not plan on doing the testing and repairing yourself.

Thanks for the question, I hope this information was helpful to you.
Fred
www.knucklebusters.us
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