ignition module coil no spark 89 buick won't start rough idle poor acceleration stalling shuddering

This is lengthy but if your car is doing any of the things in the subject of this post: please read on.

Hi everyone, I have read through any posts I could find relating to the sort of problem related to a GM running rough or stalling or not sparking and I found a lot of useful advice and came to a solution for the problem I had. I offer my experience to help others with similar problems.

My 89 Park Ave. has been a great car getting my to nearly 300,000 miles now and still going by replacing the ignition module and coils.

One evening I was just driving along with no problems then went around a corner and the car started spitting and sputtering and stalled shortly after. Everything was just fine up till then. It continued to try and stall and ran very rough until I was able to get home (luckily I got home). It sounded like it was just missing but didn't backfire so I figured the wires were just getting bad. But I didn't get a shock when grabbing any of them. It seemed odd but I figured I could just replace them the next day. So I headed home and trying to get up to highway speed was not too tough. Just not much power. But when the car tried to hit overdrive it gave a bad shuddering like it just didn't want to go in. The car was jerking pretty badly. Since I figured this would be a problem for my tranny I decided to make the thirty mile trip without OD which worked out well enough. No shuddering when the engine wasn't trying to run too slow within an gear.

Well I got it home and had turned it off at the corner gas station and once prior and figured it would at least start the next day for work. I was wrong. At this point the car would no longer start. The engine would turn over just fine and I could tell it was getting gas but just didn't sound like it was sparking at all. And it wasn't. I pulled several plugs and had someone turn it over while I held the plugs - still attached to the wires while grounding myself to the car. No spark, luckily for me.

I checked the computer (car) for any error codes and it gave no trouble codes. I heard from a mechanic that if the coils or module were bad that it wouldn't trigger an error code. I even put in my old faulty computer and tried to start it with no success!

I determined that it wasn't likely the cranshaft position sensor since this should give an error code if it was bad even though displaying similar characteristics to the module being bad. I picked one up at the parts store for thirty-five bucks just in case I was wrong.

I got a used ignition module (with the coils still attached)at the junk yard for twenty bucks after checking the auto parts store ($300 for the coil and module pair) and they even threw in an extra set in case the first didn't work. Well I put in the new/used module and coil and it started right up. Runs the same as before.

No one seemed to be sure what the problem was before I fixed it but I am offering this info to those of you who may be having similar problems. Good luck and I hope you have an inexpensive junk yard near you like I have here.

There are a few things, rather, methods to follow here:

  1. Make sure the car is getting air 2. Make sure the car is getting gas 3. Make sure the car is getting spark
  2. Most importantly - don't install electronics parts if you aren't pretty sure they are the cause of you prblem. Once installed you can't take it back!

Any of the first three missing and the car won't run. By remembering this you can cut through a lot of possible causes for some auto problems. At least, it helped me with this one.

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Ryan W.
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