- Aug 24, 2012
- 1,098
Hey gang, my question is on a '98 C1500 4.3 with an external coil. I bought it used in '04 with 140K on it and sold it with over 240K. Drove great, ran fine, no issues. One night I was driving home from work and ran through some deep(er than I thought) water over the road in a low lying area during a heavy rain. It started running rough, missing, almost wanting to die, but it would stay running, but with very little power. Next day, started and drove fine so I didn't think any more about it. Then, after a drill weekend, I was getting ready to leave on Sunday afternoon. Rained all weekend and was still raining. Get in, try to start and it just cranked and cranked. Finally caught and ran, albeit rough. I thought I was going to kill the battery or smoke the starter and/or wires. Made it home, coughing and chugging. Next morning, dry, started right up and off to work I went. Next rainy weather we had, it would not start. Drove the wife's car to work and had it towed to a local garage for diagnosis. Weak spark. Their fix was to put in a new coil. Since I know a whatsit from thingamajig, I said I'll do that. $50 for their diagnostic fee. Not terrible. I go pick it up and drive to Auto Zone and get a coil and head home. Thirty minutes later, I have a new coil installed. Next rainy weather, no issues. Fast forward a few months to the next humid time and here we go again. I immediately head to AZ and get a new coil, this time about 20 minutes later and the new coil is in. Fires right up. Process repeats a couple more times before I sell it to a guy here at work last year when I got my TB. We changed the coil shortly after he bought it, and it did the same thing the other day when it was rainy and humid.
My question is why this would keep repeating? Is there a wiring issue that could cause this? Should dielectric grease be used somewhere? Anyone else ever see this on a GM platform? I have been around GM's my entire adult life (and even worked at a garage for a couple of years and saw all kinds of fun problems) but I have never seen a repetitive fault like this.
Thanks!
My question is why this would keep repeating? Is there a wiring issue that could cause this? Should dielectric grease be used somewhere? Anyone else ever see this on a GM platform? I have been around GM's my entire adult life (and even worked at a garage for a couple of years and saw all kinds of fun problems) but I have never seen a repetitive fault like this.
Thanks!