Saturn SL2 engine misfire problem

[arnold]

I have a high milage 1999 Saturn SL2 which seems to misfire alot after every rain storm or snow fall. The car also is hard starting whenever temps fall below -15 degrees centigrade. I have seen similar problems in other vehicles (1999 subaru legacy and older dodge truck). The old dodge would usually end up needing a porcelin resister module replaced ($2.00 part located on drivers side inside fender-fire wall). What can be causing the problem on this saturn - the problem has been with this car since I owned it for the last 200,000 kms.

[carriedi]

How old are your spark plugs? How about your wire set? When the engine is cold it will be harder for the spark to jump so it will look for another route. as for snow and rain check to see if condensation is building up on the wire set.

[arnold]

I purchased the car with 90,000 km (54,000 miles) and today it has just over 300,000 Km (180,000 miles). The misfire has been there all along and only slightly improved when I installed new plugs, plug wires and replaced positive lead from battery to starter (at about 175,000 km). It misfires at idle speeds and is very slow from initial pull away from the stop lights. After a few seconds it seems to get a real power surge and works fine at higher speeds. Also works a little better if I use premium fuel and when vehicle is warmed up. The hesitation (feels like inadequate fuel) happens only when the vehicle is not warmed up but the fact that this occurs for a few seconds at take off followed by excellent acceleration after the initial hesitation makes me think that it is not fuel pump related. It may be an injector problem but vehicle is not worth the cost of injectors. Just looking for a cheap fix - thanks

[carriedi]

so you have a misfire code stored in the computer? Are there any codes stored? is the check engine light on?

verify that your wires are on correctly. the order on the coils are 4,1,2,3. #4 and #1 are commonly on the wrong position.

How well does it start up? does it take a long crank to start up when it is cold?

[arnold]

Engine light comes on and will stay on for a week at a time and then go off for a few days. No engine misfire code stored and starting is variable. It will either start quickly or if it fails to start with the initial attempt then it will take several minutes to start and I will have to pump the gas like on the old carburated engines if too cold it may not start at all unless I plug it in. Starts better with premium fuel.

[carriedi]

you're probably going to need to have the car scanned when the light is on to see why it is coming on. Then drive it with the scanner on and see if you can see what is happening when it is not running right and what happens when it clears up. Look for the change in the data that goes along with the change in performance.

[arnold]

pulled out the BKR5EGP plugs which came up as a cross reference at Canadian Tire and put in the cheap oem AC 41- 627 plugs and car started with first turn of the crank , will have to wait for the next snow storm to see if misfire is cured. Thanks for all your suggestions. This car is used as a back up vehicle when other family members need to do repairs on their vehicles and its nice to know that the back-up is reliable and it also saves putting on in-town miles and diesel in my low mileage Silverado.