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Can driving with a misfire hurt the engine?

dvinesquirrel

dvinesquirrel

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mays landing, NJ
My daily driver is an '07 Colorado with the 3.7l I5. I'm at about 116000mi and it's slowly starting to have mechanical issues. Most recent was misfiring cylinders. Happened on the way to work last week. Didn't get an engine code just a flashing CEL and saw my MPG drop from 20avg to 11 and felt some extra vibration. On the way home I stopped at NAPA and bought the only coil pack they had and diagnosed which coil it was. From what I figured I was only running on 2 "working" coils of the 5 so I replaced the #1 coil and it seemed to make the truck worse. It would lurch and shake if not kept above 2k RPM.
I ordered the remaining 4 coils just to have all new and not worry about it. I probably shouldn't have drove the way it was but had no choice since I was just out of work for 6 months.
Now that I have 5 new coils the truck runs just as it had before and doesn't seem to be having any problems except now I am getting a P0351 code which is ignition coil 1 the first one i replaced. I checked it out and it's working just wondering if I caused any extra problems by driving over 200mi with 2-3 bad cylinders.
 
flashing check engine light = bad

any time long driving with miss fire can add up to bad as it could be dumping fuel in the oil if not firing at all.

and all this work on coils did you even change the plugs ? and fyi best to use oem brand / # plugs . do not use bosch platnum CRAP in american cars.

newer electronics do your self a favor dont toss parts at them . could be a 5 doller fix not a 500 doller fix of thinking its this or that .

pull n change the plugs . newer plugs these days dont like to work good after fouled out or flooded .

did you clear the codes after each part replaced ? and if so how did you do it ? you cant unhook battery like old stuff and have them clear. need a scanner / code reade that clears codes.
 
Might take a look at your cat too. Unburned gas causes really high temps in one. It may have melted part of the inside or damaged it in other ways. Including clogging.
 
The Flashing CEL is what lead me to the misfire. that has gone since replacing the coils.

All the plugs were replaced maybe 20k miles ago with OEM AC delco. didn't think to pull them and check when I had the coils out.

All codes were cleared with a scanner after the coils were replaced then only the P0351 came back after some driving.
 
Check the wiring on the offending coil...maybe try replacing it with one of the old ones which was working...just to diagnose what could be a defective new part.
 
The flashing CEL means it is possibly damaging the cat but I'm pretty sure once the computer sees a misfire on a cylinder it cuts the fuel off so it probably did not hurt anything.
 
had to replace the cat on my dads '04 Aveo because one side of the coil pack quit working properly, burnt out the cat and wouldn't pass the computer emissions test after the new coils were replaced, after cat sensor wasn't getting the required reading saying the cat was working properly, because all the mesh inside was burnt out.

Are you still getting this code, or did you just check it recently after changing out all the coil packs? That code will be stored in the computer even after you replaced the packs until you actually delete it from the memory.
 
easy test for bad coil is swap it for another position and see if the problem moves .

if not then its with that position and not coil .

as I said best to do new plugs if run with no spark .

and also never drive if you can on a flashing check engine light . its BAD to do .
 
4xcrazy said:
Are you still getting this code, or did you just check it recently after changing out all the coil packs? That code will be stored in the computer even after you replaced the packs until you actually delete it from the memory.
Click to expand...

I did clear the code after replacing the packs. drove around and it came back. It's been raining all day so I haven't gone outside to do anything yet. hopefully tomorrow will be nice and I can start working on it again.
 
One of many reasons why i won't buy another Nissan. I stop at Home Depot, xterra won,t restart for a few minutes. I get it restarted, and drive straight to dealer which is 8 miles away. Dealer states replacing ecm under recall but says my cats are now bad because truck misfired. Cats have an 80k warranty and my truck has 81k on it. However, i purchased truck new in cali which has 100 k warranty on them. Nissan denies claim as vehicle left cali. Filed compaints all the way up the chain with carb, dot, ntsa. Part of class action suit that maybe one day pays out and reimburses me on cost of cat. Funny part of whole deal was that i was in process of purchasing a pathfinder for my wife and dealer wouldn,t take care of me. Walked out of dealer and bought suburban that day instead. My story Not really relevant to the question at hand, but yes the cats can go bad with a misfire, and it felt good to finally vent. Thanks
 
My 04 S10 blazer got so clogged it wouldn't run. Just replaced the cat with a pipe. I can do that where I live, as there are no emissions inspections. Of course the check engine light is always on now, so I just check for other codes periodically.

Funny thing? Cat not working code is 420. My car is a pot head.
 
Got the new plugs in today. Still had a misfire so i swapp ited the cylinder 1 pack with cylinder 2 and the code changed. So i believe i have a defective pack. Got the replacement on order just got to wait for it to come in. It figures this was the only one that wasn't an AC Delco.
 
I may try that.

On a K-5 topic...how do you remove the lockout hubs on an '84? I have an old axle I wish to scavenge the lockouts from to use them on my running K-5 (which had the auto locks but one was not installed correctly and fell apart)? Do I remove the Phillips head screw or are there locking rings similar to the auto hub?
 
Are you sure it's the coils? My brother has a 05 Colorado that developed a similar severe miss, turned out to be the "variable valve timing solenoid," seems to be a really common problem with those trucks.
 
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