QUOTE(bd1308 @ Jul 5 2007, 09:26 AM)
The misfiring (more of a hesitation) can be felt only on highway speeds...did not go away after a full tuneup.
I bought a code reader, and cleared all codes after my tuneup.
Could a failing crankshaft position sensor and/or harmonic balancer cause misfires WIHOUT the computer throwing a CEL?
I *REALLY* appreciate the responses! !
By the way, is the ignition coil a seperate part? (1996s had the coil IN the dizzy, cant seem to find a standalone replacement coil and a replacement dizzy is 300 bucks)
Sorry for the long rambling diatribe just thinking out loud
Highway speeds,
Normally at highway speeds you are at a light load situation, soft on the throttle. Consequently your EFI is ratcheting down your fuel mixture as lean as it can. During those times, lean A/F the amount of voltage needed to fire spark plugs goes up and if theres any flaws in the plug wires, or coil insulation, including for example the plastic in-which your coil is held together with can be skewed with carbon tracks / paths to ground for that higher ignition voltage. So if you give it just a little more throttle that increased the electrical pressure and could cause a misfire. A small one but the system will pick it up.
I would take a look at the coil , now I have no idea how it laid out so I can't help you there but If you can clean up the coil tower and put something like WD 40 on it maybe it will stop the misfire, on the other hand to make it worse and help isolate the problem you can spray some water, better salted on the coil wire and drive the car. If there is a problem the salted water from a spray bottle will likely make it worse, thus helping you narrow down the problem.
The crank sensor and the balancer can cause a misfire but I don't see your point? If you have a misfire and a check engine light, its being seen.
Well, if the balancer is wobbling that can cause the system to see a change in relative crankshaft rotational speed and may set a code as well... Normally when theres a misfire theres a code set.. However thinking further since the crank sensor is the first thing many times the EFI looks at when first starting an engine and acts as a rpm reference, often a car won't start, however crank fine just not fire and wont set a code, but I can't say once the engine is running is it likely to cause a hesitation which would be likely related to your problem, could be however in your case there is a code being set..