2003 Montana cylinder 2 misfire

[kdoye]

Hi

new to this forum and happy I found it.

A couple of questions

My Montana has 80,000kms on it. Bought it in August when it had 60,000.

1. After checking it out, my mechanic has found that I have a misfire in CYL 2. What can cause this and what kind of $$ am I looking at? I would like to know before he gives me the quote.
2. THis is more of a concern. My van was running great before I decided to take it in to my mechanic (above) for an oil change last Friday. I have been using Active Green and Ross and I think I should've kept going there. Now all of a sudden (on Saturday) I am having this misife problem. My question is this.....could he have done something to the van to cause this? It all seems to coincidental to me.

I am really pissed as I have been without my van this whole week. I am losing $600 as I cannot help my customers this week plus the amount this is going to cost me. it is Thursday and my van has been in the shop since Tuesday.

I am not a happy camper and feel I am being taken advantage of.

thanks

[bmod305]

Possible causes for a cylinder mis-fire:

1. Bad spark plug
2. Worn out or shorted spark plug wire (Have they ever been replaced?)
3. Bad fuel injector or leaking FI oring.
4. A million other things. Your mechanic will not be able to give you an exact $ until some diagnostic time/money is spent.

Oil change has nothing to do with your misfire.

How are you being taken advantage? Any garage/mechanic must make a profit. This means they mark up the parts (you don't bring your own hamburger to McDonalds) and charge a fair labor amount. I'm not trying to start an arguement but cars are complicated they need proper maintence (more than just oil changes); they need plugs, wires, o2 sensors, filters etc & most of all-they do break down and need repair at some point; it's the joy of not walking.

Find a local garage that has been around for awhile. Become a loyal customer and they will treat you right.

Dave

99 Montana 201K miles, original owner.

[kdoye]

Originally Posted by bmod305

Possible causes for a cylinder mis-fire:

1. Bad spark plug
2. Worn out or shorted spark plug wire (Have they ever been replaced?)
3. Bad fuel injector or leaking FI oring.
4. A million other things. Your mechanic will not be able to give you an exact $ until some diagnostic time/money is spent.

Oil change has nothing to do with your misfire.

How are you being taken advantage? Any garage/mechanic must make a profit. This means they mark up the parts (you don't bring your own hamburger to McDonalds) and charge a fair labor amount. I'm not trying to start an arguement but cars are complicated they need proper maintence (more than just oil changes); they need plugs, wires, o2 sensors, filters etc & most of all-they do break down and need repair at some point; it's the joy of not walking.

Find a local garage that has been around for awhile. Become a loyal customer and they will treat you right.

Dave

99 Montana 201K miles, original owner.

Hi Dave

There is a history and a repuation here that I am getting concerned about. I have been taking my vehicle to him for 3 years now with major issues. Those were with crappy cars. I now have this nice van and decided to give him a chance to change the oil last Friday. Now as of Saturday, this problem has come up. Coinidence???? I am not the first here and he is not that busy.

Spark plugs have never been changed and I am hoping I am just being paranoid and he finds a nice simple solution to the issue. I am not to optimistic about the latter.

[bmod305]

Kdoye-any more info from your mechanic? I'm curious.

With 80K on the van, I suggest a good tune-up. New plugs, wires, pcv valve, fuel filter, coolant change, tranny filter change, and o2 sensors. I know it sounds like alot but preventative maintenance pays off in the long run.

Dave

[rockwood84]

i would change the plugs and plug wires as they are supposed to be changed at 100,000 miles but it is not unusual for a plug wire to fail before then. as for the machanic some look or wait for a venture, montana or silhouette to be brought to them then try to make a killing off the van. most won't but some will.these vans are a pain in the *** to work on. but if you have a set of ramps the you can change the plugs and wires yourself. this should correct the #2 misfire. he most likely ran a scanner on it and the code popped up.

[Headnsouth]

Go to a local auto parts and get the DTC codes read. They'll do it for free.
DTC= diagnostic trouble codes
Then come back with them and we can help you a bit more.

[hueroloco]

here at our shop we have "coincidences" happen every so often.

Sometimes it's our fault, sometimes it's our fault because we overlooked something that we shouldn't have.

Sometimes, it really is just an unfortunate coincidence.

Under normal circumstances, it's not likely that you can cause a misfire doing an oil change. But just today a Toyota Camry came in that we did a radiator and an oil change on last month and he claims it has been misfiring ever since. I looked at it and the intake air hose had a hole in it. Somebody probably leaned on it and tore it, things like that don't just happen usually. But they do happen and it isn't necessarily our fault. A good hose won't tear from somebody leaning on it (The rubber did tear quite easily, as I did rip it completely by inspecting it.) My boss always takes care of the customer if it is any way a problem that we caused. Hopefully on your car it is something simple like that and they treat you good. That is how shops (like us anyway) develop trust with the customers.

[rockwood84]

like i said there are good shops and most are good shops that take care of their customers because without customers there is no money flow.but a few and i do mean a few are rip-offs and these are the ones you have to watch out for .they do not have repeat customers and have to rely on one big paying job to carry them until he next big job comes along.and these vans are ideal for producing big paying jobs or if they can convince you that the intake or head gaskets are blown then they can keep the lights on a month or two.i did not mean that every shop is like this.as i know most are not.the g.m. dealerships will rip you off quicker than the average shop.and i know this for a fact.