Strange.....sounds

Engine is the quad 4 dohc h.o. Near the alternator or intake manifold or even the coil pack there is a strange sound. I can't figure out the exact location or what it could be. It's hard to describe but i will try my best. Like maybe something loose, electrically. Like maybe a spark isn't getting full contact and it's a loud enough spark that it can be heard. I guess if you have heard the sound that static electricity can make, like that but more high pitched. It's annoying more than anything. Car runs fine. But as in a previous post i think i need to clean some stuff out. What should i check in the areas i mentioned?

Pull the coil pack off and look for carbon tracks on the plastic housing. It sounds like you have a crack in the housing and its arcing. Also check the plug boots, see if they have carbon tracks on them as well, they will look like little dirt lines. If everything checks out, disconnect your alternator and start the car, see if the noise goes away. If it does, its in the alternator and you should replace it before it fails and leaves you stuck somewhere. Good luck.

As you take the cover off to get to the coils check the ground strap, the flat braided strap that has a loop that goes over one of the bolts as you tighten the cover, That may even be youy problem, unlikely since you say the car is running fine.

This may sound silly, but I have had it happen to me, look to see if you maybe have a piece of paper/plastic or road debris in behind one of the pulleys. It could sound like what you are describing.

Another thing to try is if you get a pitch black night, start the car and look under the hood in the dark. If there is a spark arch you will see the light caused by the spark jump. My wife's uncle found bad plug wires that way, he could not see any probs with the wires but when he checked in the dark he could see the wires arching where they came close to or made contact with the engine brackets.

Hope this helps,

I'll be sure to check for debris being in the engine. I've found leaves in such obscene places when going through the engine so that could be it. I was also thinking of check the plugs just to make sure they are tight enough and what not. And the alternator seems to work fine. It failed me the night it was replaced and started up a minute later and hasn't done anything strange since then, well except one night i was taking a corner after stopping. It was in first and i thought that i was smooth with the clutch but all of a sudden the whole thing surged and launched itself up to 3k rpms and then went back down. I KNOW that i didn't give it that much. I learned standard with this car and since i've learned i've been real good. But it's been fine. But I will remove the coil as soon as i can to see what's what. When I replaced the plugs i didn't replace the boots. I had no ride to get to the parts store that day and they gave me wrong ones so i just went with putting the new plugs in. I don't know if that will have much effect but i figured i'd mention that.

By the way...does anyone's blinkers work kinda weird? When i have my lights off the blinkers flash more quick than with the lights on. What happens at night is i'll pull the little switch down and the light will come on on the guage cluster, wait a few seconds, then start to flash but kind of slowly. A lot slower than most cars i've seen. Is this normal for the year (94) or maybe were lights replaced incorrectly or something? I replaced a really small tail light not too long ago. It was so tiny that it might have been burnt out for awhile. Because there's the 3 in the back on each side.

As for not replacing the boots you should be OK with that as long as there are no cuts or rips in the rubber, they are not exposed to the weather and wet conditions that external plug wires are, however I would give thought to changing them when you get in there to get to the coil packs. The boots/wires in our engines are exposed to constant heat when the engine is running not as much hear disburstment under that cover.

As for your flashers, it could be from the fact that the GA's are for the most part under altenatored, with all of the electrical comopnents on these cars there is such a draw that when you turn on another component it will slow the one that is already running, If you go back and read some of the threads there are a few that complain about the headlight dimming for a second when decellerating or applying the brakes, my 96 used to do this until I put on a lager alt. has not happened since then.

Hope this helps out some more, Good luck

Yeah that makes sense. When i put it in reverse the voltage meter goes down some. And it goes up and down more when the blinkers are on. I thought that maybe that was a malfuntion somewhere I didn't think that that was normal. Would explain how terrible the alternator was in the car at first. When i turned the lights, defrost and heat on, the voltage would be real low and forget about the blinkers even flashing. The next nice day i have off i am definatly going to check under the coil pack to see what's going on. And if someone with a car is here then i'll go get some new boots just so i can take one with me so i can get the right one.

When you go to buy the boots, don't let someone try to sell you some high preformance boot/wire. Don't forget the power from the coil packs to the plugs is only about 3-4 inches, unlike plug wires that can be upwards of 2 feet. If you want to buy a better set it is not going to hurt wspecially if you are getting an engine whine thru the radio, other wise factory equivillent should be fine. I think I paid between $12.00 and $16.00 but I can't remember for sure.

Hope this helps,
Dan

Alright well i will be sure to get some new boots for it anyways. And I will let you know how it all works out. And thanks for all the help!

No problem, that's what we're here for, For those of us that have been throught this kind of thing we like to try and help out with some of the short cuts that we have learned, and some day you will help some other member later on.