von.ah

It seems my luck is changing. I installed the new wires and that fixed the issue. No more rough idle, no misfire. Car runs like a bat outta hell now. What's funny is that I tried just swapping the two on the passenger side, drove it to indice the misfire, but couldn't get the CEL to come back on. So I couln't tell which cylinder was acting up. Then I started getting facny with my DVM, and got totally confused by the resistance of the new wires. For identical wires, one measured ~11 kOhms, while the other measured ~140 kOhms. The old wires on that side measured ~ 10 kOhms. WTF? I was getting angry of course, so I just put in the new wires, it ran fine, so I'm happy. Thanks for the help, guys.

Regarding ol' Heisenberg, I'm no Muad'Dib. :-\ Back on topic, the misfire happens warm or cold, driven under heavy load. "Stomping on it" in any gear will produce the miss. By the way, thanks for the great welcome. This has been the coolest intro into any forum I've experienced. :cool:

Thanks, guys. This is a lot of help. On my drive home from work I decided that tomorrow I'll swap the 1 & 3 cables and then see what gives. Regardless, this car is most likely due for new plugs/cables, since it's at 119k, and these have been in for at least 30k. Also, I purchased new cables from a dealer, so they're ready. So, to recap: If the misfire follows the cable, then it's obviously the cable at fault. If I still get #3 misfire, the coil may be the problem, but couldn't it also be the plug? As for the physics, I have read "The Elegant Universe" and "The Fabric of the Cosmos" by Brian Greene... :cool: Therefore I can safely state that regardless of what I may think is the cause of my automotive troubles, it's all just vibrating strings. And possibly there's a parallel universe in which my evil twin is tearing up Pike's Peak in a wickedly modified Outback. With a goatee, of course.

Yes, the head gasket was replaced. After a melt down. I'm having ignition problems and keep getting a P0303 code. I measured the #3 wire resistance, and it seems OK. On the coil (with the igniter disconnected), I measure 14 kOhms for 1-2 and 3-4, but get overload readings for the 2-3 (and 1-4) measurement. I realize this may be a dumb question, but do I need a new coil? I know it should be ~ 0.7 Ohms, so "infinite" resistance means it's not doing well, right? Or am I doing something wrong with the measurement? Thanks so much for any help.