Ignition misfire

[Ryan_N]

can anyone tell me if the 2004 recall of the ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION:SWITCH has anything to do with my current problem.

I started my car today (year 2000, 72K) and the whole car started to shake while i was driving.

I took it in to the nearest shop as my warrenty was up at the pontiac dealership and they gave me the following diagnostic.

they told me my car is Misfiring

Needs tune up, wires and plugs
2nd cylinder wires are burnt
4th cylinder spark plug cracked
new fuel filter
not burning fuel efficiently
lots of carbon inside


Charges:
Diagnostic - $79
Wire and plugs - $177
Fuel filter - $135

Total taxes and charges $469

these are canadian figures mind you.

anyhow, after they did that it still did not work. And told me that it might the ignition module which is a $500 part. Also they said it was strange because this part should last over 10 years.

I'm getting a little suspect after they wanted me to do a further advanced diagnostic to my car.

Is there any relations to this and maybe they didn't do the recall correctly. I have a feeling these guys are up to something.

thanks in advance for any help possible.

[phoenity]

This summer the same thing happened to my car, except the misfire got worse over about a month period until it was no longer driveable. At the time I knew hardly anything about cars except how to do tuneup stuff so I took it to the GM dealership. They first told me that since the spark plugs were not OEM plugs that I should try changing those first.

Like a dummy, I had them go ahead and change them and of course the problem still existed. Then they did some real diagnostics and narrowed it down to the coils/module. They told me the parts + labor was going to be $800 US. I said screw it I'll buy the parts and do it myself for a quarter of that cost. I invested in a Haynes manual and found instructions to replace that part. I was lucky enough to find a module + coils taken from a brand new Sunfire engine on Ebay for $50.

I was in for a real treat when it was time to replace them. I found out that the module was on the back of the engine block and it was hard to get back there. Four hours later the car ran fine haha.

First off, I suggest you not take it back to that shop again because you really got ripped off for a simple tuneup. Plugs and wires cost at most $40 and 20 minutes to replace. The filter is about $5 and takes all of 10 minutes to replace.

I'm no mechanic, but just as in my case I'd say that burnt wires resulted from the ignition module shorting out.

I also asked GM if the short in the module had anything to do with the recent recall they had done a month before that. They said no, but after your case I doubt it's a coincidence, but hey what can you do?


All in all, $500 is way too much to pay for that part. Look it up yourself...you can go to Autozone or Advanced Auto website and find the module for $140 US and the coils for $30 each. Depending where your module is located it could take from 20 minutes to much longer to replace yourself, but certainly save you money.