Question-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
The check engine light has come on. The code is a 43. This code says peak primary current not reached during maximum dwell time. I have replaced the ignition coil. I have disconnected the negative terminal of the battery to reset the codes stored, but that has not eliminated the code. The previous day when I accelerated the car would respond slowly and then pick up speed like a turbocharger kicked in. The change in engine power was not predictable.
Any answers?
Mark
Answer -
Hi Mark,
I don't know which engine you have so that might be helpful to me. The code 43 as you have surmised does involve the coil primary circuit. The possible corrective actions based upon a powertrain maunual that I have include replacing the coil, repairing the ignition coil driver circuit (which I need to understand better as to exactly where that is and what might be reparable), shaking the wiring harness from the igniton coil to the controller to reveal a defect, and replacing the controller. So let me know which engine and year you have there and I'll see if I can be more specific.
Roland
The engine is a 3.5 liter, V-6.
AnswerHi Mark,
Thanks for the info; unfortunatley that 3.5 is one that I don't have the wiring diagrams for, rather I have the 3.3 and 3.8, though it may be identical. But setting that aside, I notice that there are actually 2 different interpretations for the code 43 (at least as shown for 1996 and later vehicles). The primary coil issues that we have exchanged info about is one, and the other is that there is a general misfiring of the spark, which has a separate corrective approach. It is fairly conventional and goes like this:
Ignition cables installed correctly? (if there is a conventional distributor cap there might be a non-match between the order around cap and firing order because of internal re-wiring in the cap, i.e. this is a real issue on the 3.0L engine's distributor cap)
If you have an oscilloscope type analyzer see if the pattern shows 25kV for all cylinders
Pull off one spark wires one at a time to see if they all have the same effect on the idle
Spray igniton wires with water, observe any change
Test all cylinders for compression of 100 psi
Check timing for advance with rpm
See if vacuum if at least 13" at idle
There are a couple of other tests, but they require the diagnostic readout box to cut off individual banks of injectors and observe effect, etc.
On the ignition coil drivers I mentionned earlier, on the 3.3 and 3.8L engines the three drivers are on pins 17, 18, and 19 of the 60-way connector at the controller. So you could check the patency of the three wires between the coil and the controller: 17 is dark blue/yellow, 18 is red/yellow, and 19 is black/gray at the coil, but they change color at a gray 10-pin connector behind the battery and arrive at the controller as dark blue/tan, dark blue/ gray, gray trace, respectively. I assume that is what is meant by "repair the primary drivers" in the earlier message.
That is about the best I can offer.
Roland
