Flashing CEL - Car shaking

[Travis2k7]

The strangest thing happened this morning.

I started my car at 5:30 am to head to work, and the car was shaking... it felt like the engine was bouncing up and down if that makes any sense.

After about 15 seconds the CEL came on and was flashing. I know that's bad, so I turned the car off.

Then I waited about 10 seconds... cranked it up again... it didn't shake at all, I let it idle for about 5 mins... no issues.

Drove it 15 miles to work, 75 mph on the interstate, no issues. When I got to work I ran the key check for codes, and it didn't return any.

Any ideas? The is the first hint of weirdness the car has given me since I bought it in March.

[CREWZIN]

Sometimes people wake up on the "wrong side" of the bed, maybe your car did too.

Kinda hard to diagnose a problem that only happened once. Hopefully it was just a fluke and won't happen again. If it happened to me, I'd take the negative battery cable off for 5 minutes to reset the computer. Like my computer at home, sometimes it just needs to be turned off and rebooted to get everything to work right again.

[quicksilverdon]

So, light was off when you restarted?
Not much to go on with no codes, and no more symptoms.

[Travis2k7]

Yeah I'm wondering if it was a "wrong side of the bed" thing myself... it's extremely weird that's for sure.

As said when the light came on and flashed I turned the car off... then restarted, the light did not come back on and no codes were returned with the key check.

I just went out to the parking lot and started it and let it idle for 3 mins... was at the normal 750ish RPM's and all appears well.

The only thing I can think of was maybe it's water related? It rained extremely hard here yesterday and last night... although I drove it home fine yesterday and while it did get rained on all last evening the hood was obviously down

Will update the thread if it happens again...

[03GTCruiser]

I had a 200 ford focus that did the same thing. At first just at random, then more frequently. The cel would flash while it ran real rough. When it smoothed out no cel. It turned out that my coil pack had a crack in the bottom causing a horrible misfire. I hate that the plugs are not easily accessible, or I'd sugest to check them. I would say if problem percists to check the connection atthe coil then check the plugs. Again, this was on a ford, so not sure if it could be the problem here as well.

[Travis2k7]

Thanks for the tip 03GT. I will definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Bought the car in March and over the last 7000 miles it's been great with no problems at all. Shortly after I bought it I did change the plugs and wires (Autozone wires, Bosch +4 Plat plugs) along with flushing the tranny.

Plugs have been in it for about 3k miles now. If the problem comes back will pull and check them as well as the coil.

[CREWZIN]

I thought about it but didn't say anything about the weather. We're getting severe thunderstorms with sometimes gale force winds in he afternoon here. Possible your problem is water/moisture related. Older cars were more prone to water getting into the engine compartment doesn't mean that a few drops somehow managed to get over to the ignition parts or computer. Our computer is right next to the firewall and it's not a air tight space between the hood and cowl weather stripping.

[Travis2k7]

Yeah it could be weather related... who knows at this point.

I did a quick check and saw ignition coils for $35 so at least it's not a huge expense if something needs to be replaced later.

Will let everyone know if the problem shows itself again. It's a rainy day again today

[03GTCruiser]

I'd say with the rain avoid abbercorn unless they fixed it since I lived in hinesville. (I've seen plenty of cars dead beside the pepboys parking lot from high water, even had to pull one outwith our pathfinder)

[Travis2k7]

Originally Posted by 03GTCruiser

I'd say with the rain avoid abbercorn unless they fixed it since I lived in hinesville. (I've seen plenty of cars dead beside the pepboys parking lot from high water, even had to pull one outwith our pathfinder)

LOL small world! I spent some time growing up in Hinesville (dad was manager for a number of years at Gibson McDonald furniture)... moved away for a while in '90.. came back in 2000 and have lived in the Rincon/Pooler area since then.

I avoid Savannah like the plague... 45 mins to go 2 miles down Abercorn isn't something I enjoy