Rough Rider - Part 3 - End of the saga, for now.

  Brad was available Monday afternoon so, I stopped by to ask him his thoughts on the current situation. When I rolled up his Part Specialist asked if I had changed the relay beside the ECU. I said umm...no. I didn't even know there was a  relay there, let alone what it did. What can I say, I'm still a noob in some (cough many, cough) areas on this car.

  My old one on the right. Look how the pins are discolored. The relay was hot when we took it out as well. More so than brad felt comfortable with.

  The relay goes in there beside the trans and engine computers (DME). I'm still not entirely sure what this thing does however, it is quite important to the overall workings of things. I found this Pelican Article interesting here: Fuel Injection DME Relay Testing.

  Per the scanner it looked like the car had a misfire on cylinder 5 as well. Brad recommended I move that coil pack to see if the misfire followed suit.

  After the relay was in and, the coil pack was moved, I took the car for a spin. It seemed better. Still hesitant however it was not as laggy. Seemed to have some power again. After my test run I went back around and parked it by the shop. When I put it in park it seemed to be misfiring/running on 5 cylinders. Which I was really glad for because, Brad was kind enough to re-scan it for me. That misfire followed that ignition coil. It was now saying Misfire on Number 1 Cylinder. Glad we caught that little bugger.

  I pulled two working O2s for a buddy while I was there. Made straight with Brad (cash flow) then, headed on.

  After dinner I got back out there and swapped coil 1 out for working spare I had. Upon starting the little beasty, viola, smooth as silk. The power was back like never before. She felt good and smooth. Between the ASC delete, cone filter, and the new plugs it feels much better. The hesitation was gone entirely. 

  So the lesson learned for me here is: proper proactive maintenance is best however, when things go bad, a systematic approach is better. Had I known the check engine light was burnt out/removed, I would have known there was an issue. So is life sometimes, glad to have some help as I worked through the process that's for sure. It really makes all the difference in these situations.

  All said and done, it was fun and some needed maintenance items were taken care of in the process. Now on ward to the next project.