My Hwy Breakdown and Quick Fix

Last night on the way home from work (11:30PM)....18 Degree's out...The 94 Metro fires right in the work parking lot.....10 miles down the road on the Interstate Hwy, the Car just sputters and Dies.....WTF!.....Pull the car off to the shoulder of the Hwy and hit the Emergency flashers, The Metro cranks over good, all electrical appears to be working fine. Dig out my emergency repair kit flashlight in the back, pop the hood and start looking around the Engine bay and to my surprise.....There's the problem!.....The Coil Wire Fell OFF the Coil itself.....:eek: ...No dryrotted or broken boot or terminal, it just fell out and off! So in between getting blown away by inconsiderate 18 Wheelers who refused to change into open L lanes (Flashers on, Hood up)....I Pried the coil wire terminal open a hair with my cold fingers and stuck the coil wire back on.....She fired right back up and made it all the way home???
My 1st thoughts were engine vibration slowly loosened it up, the coil wire is plenty long enough. This morning I spread the coil wire terminal out good, Put a small amount of silicone glue on the inside edge of the boot and put it back on, then tied a plastic strap around the boot and coil terminal for good measure...I dont need this hassle again in those temps and that time of night! Anyone else ever had this happen to them?....Also, the moral of the story here is: Always carry a flashlight or Emergency kit in your car and some gloves/warm clothing in Cold Winter temps......I do and it saved me the difference between calling someone to pick me up (Cell Phone), waiting 30-45 Mins in freezing temps while they get there and finding out the next day that a friggin coil wire fell off and I could have fixed it.....If I'd only had a flashlight in the car at night!......Worse.....Could have called a tow truck too!

yes it is a good idea to carry a flashlight and things in your car,awhile back i put new plug wires on my car,the company greased one of them to much ,while i was driving one night it was about 35 and raining it popped off about 20 miles from home,and the bulb under the hood blew,so thank god i had gloves cause the engine was hot and a flashlight so i could see to put it back on.

I've talked about this stuff in other threads....

Have some tools, a flashlight, some warm clothes, and maybe some flares!

Be a good idea to carry a gun....some places...(?)

Anyway - have a Cheater Pipe so you can take a wheel off in the worst circumstances imaginable!

Something like this always happens in the worst possible conditions!

Imagine it happening to your wife or kid(s).......

I want to buy those new stick up circular hi-intensity LED light thingies
so I can glue it to the underside of my Hood - so I can work on the engine with
good light.

Most flashlights are as dependable as a drug addict!

Be a Boy Scout - be prepared - or else!

DoctorBill

PS - Seen that car insurance ad where the pickup truck stops when the nerd
guy has car problems...? The two hillbilly type guys grinning at him...

THAT's where a gun would come in handy.

Or practice running as fast as you can.

Well, it looks like I'm not the only one this has happened too! anyone else with a Metro ever have this happen to them (Coil wire falling off)?....I drove my 94 2 Dr Metro Automatic 3 years and this never happened. My current 94 4Dr 5 Speed has the Engine out of the 2 Dr (RIP) in it and was on the road for 6 months before this incident. Coil and plug wires were a new set I bought a little over a year ago.

This hasn't happened to my '94, but I recently cleaned EVERY electrical connection under the hood while troubleshooting a different problem, and remember my coil connection was not very snug. I tweaked both ends to fit better, sparkplug wires too - the only thing connecting two of them to my sparkplugs was gravity. A particularly awnry pothole could have dislodged them.

Santa left me an LED two-pack like DoctorBill mentioned. I attached some super-strong magnets to the back and keep one under the hood, the other above the cargo area of my hatchback. I really love these things, and magnets let me move them around if needed or hold one like a flashlight.

I agree with the gun idea - I've gotten lost before, whoa! The metro simply won't haul enough ammo to get you thru some areas. When I began driving, my mom made me promise to tote pepper-spray within reach of the driver’s seat.

The only problem nowadays is that the "other guys" probably have bigger guns
than you'd be carrying.

I stay out of "those areas." Use Full Metal Jacketed Ammo - it goes thru car doors....

Out in the country where I live, all the signs have big holes thru them.

Now that I think of it - wouldn't it be fun to post some pictures of shot up
road signs on this Forum !?

Pepper spray....ha! Some people eat that stuff on their Chili Beans.
Be careful - they can spray that crap, too!
Keep the window rolled up.

DoctorBill

Had this happen to me too. Someone on teamswisft told me to take a flat screwdriver and slightly seperate the metal "prongs" under each boot (plug wires and coil wires). This will give you a tighter fit and they will less likely fall off.