I've been very busy with school lately, finishing up my masters, and I haven't had any trouble with the car in a long time. But a couple weeks ago it would not start after getting gas. I had to give it starting fluid and when it started up it ran terrible and would not accelerate. It felt like it was running on less than 8 cylinders, sounded awful as it limped home. It would not rev above something like 1500rpm.

This problem just came out of the blue. I changed the oil last month and had driven a couple hundred miles. The ignition system is all about 4-5 years old, cap and rotor and plugs are probably just over a year old. Fuel filter is new, air filters are clean, it doesn't have an EGR valve (shhh ).

Any ideas? I was thinking of starting with a new ignition coil and some spark plugs, just for the hell of maintainance. I guess I will be probing around for shorted wires near the firewall too. Thanks guys and gals.

 

Code 42 is what you get when you unplug the tan/black timing connector on the passenger side to check the timing. Make sure that wire is plugged in. Also, check your timing to make sure its 6 degrees advanced. A bad ignition module will also show the same symptoms.

 

I decided against replacing the coil and plugs since I don't have time to do the plugs and my MSD coil has lasted five years so I didn't think it was the problem.

What happened is the small connector on the back of the distributor cracked its little fastener off and wiggled out. Runs great, started right up after sitting that long.

Thanks Kevin.

 

Glad to hear it is fixed. Just goes to show, always check the simple stuff before spending money to throw parts at the problem.