i bought this car knowing it needed some work for a fair price. i drove it home and when i would either set the cruise or turn the heater fan on, the car would start chugging and backfiring, as soon as i turn one or the other off then it would go away, so i just turned both the cruise and heater fan off, even though it was about 30 degrees out DX and continued home. a few days later i was going to take it to my dads work and have them try and pull some codes through the OBD hookup and it kept chugging out and backfiring through the TBI, and exhaust both, not at same time though, it died many times. i had to restart and pump the pedal rapidly to keep the engine even at idle speed. couple times i got going again and then it would stall and i would wait.. and wait.. then it would start again. then i had to get help. an hour passed. thought maybe was out of gas and put some in and it fired. thinking it was the solution. started off again, then it started all over again, chugging and backfiring bad, real bad. made it about 4 miles and lost it all. didnt fire again, so right then and there i figured i must have lost spark, due to the wait between starts and such. that was giving the worn out ignition module time to cool off and work a bit longer. but now it was completely dead. i then got a used one i had from another camaro i used to have, put it in, and it fired right up when i hit the key, idled for a bit, i revved it twice and it died D:< frustrated i bought a new one, put it in and it didnt last hardly half as long as the used one. and it died again. i then found out that there was supposed to be a packet of di-electric grease included... there wasnt. could this have caused the used one and new one to fry so quickly??? or could a poor grounded/ bad ignition coil do this? or just a poor ground in general? or maybe a bad pickup coil? sorry if this is tooo damn stressing to read lol i just wanted to try and get all the detail in one shot xD

 

Yes, not using the grease will cause a premature death of an ignition module.

However, it does sound like you hae some other issues that may be contributing factors. I'm sure someone with more knowledge will be along shortly.

 

ok thanks, i have a new module ready to put in, i will probly try finding more used ones so i dont keep toasting these spendy critters

 

Sounds like a plugged "CAT" or the electric fuel pump is dying. I'm assuming the engine cranks over ok during a start attemt. Check your fuel pump fuse and see if its still good as my fuse was fried when the pump finally failed-conditions similar to what you described prior to failure. How many miles on the car? the electric fuel pumps can last from 20K to 200K miles, you never know. If you have close to or over 100k on the car a clogged converter will cause the symptoms you described also.
Good luck, hope this helps,
Roy

 

That grease won't do the job, you need heat sinc compound, it's white thermal grease.

 

ok thanks guys, i will try cutting out the cat, i do recall a hissing (dont know how else to explain it lol) from under the car as a plugged cat would, and i will get the grease recommended by Dyno Don. i'm getting fuel yet, last time i was messing with it, i put my finger down in the tbi and was wet from fuel. i can hear the pump activating from turning the key on, but i guess it could also be getting weak, car has 113k. if i cure the module problem with the grease, then i will move on to test fuel pressure. and thanks again for the help so far

 

i put the new module in and coated it good with grease and put everything back together, started it and it ran great for almost 5 minutes. then i just put the air cleaner back on with it running and after i turned around to get my coat it stalled again.... of coarse it fried another one. its a borg warner module, i've been told that ac delco is the way to go if i want my problem solved. but i fear there is more to it than just a bad module. where do the wires go that plug into the module? maybe one of them is shorted. if i cant figure this out soon i'm either going to sell the car for what i have into it, or swap my 010 350 and tranny into it. just dont want to go that far yet. especially if it turns out to be something really simple im looking by. any help is appreciated as always

 

A bad coil will blow out ICM's ; I went through a few until the faulty coil actually died .Replaced the coil , no more ICM problems

Maybe read through this
http://easyautodiagnostics.com/gm_ic...n_module_1.php

 

I will take the coil in and have it tested. Its a new one but I've heard of new stuff being defective, so its possible I suppose. Could my computer box cause this too? My dads boss said this year of camaro had ecm problems.

 

Could also be the in car wiring related to the coil ,
read

http://easyautodiagnostics.com/gm_ic...n_module_1.php

 

I wonder if the voltage regulator in your alternator is not working and the alternator is putting out too much voltage?