Bad misfire solution

[red griff 500]

I posted a while back that I was having serious Griff problems, misfiring, running rich etc. Three weeks ago I said that I was 99% confident I'd found the problem....Ha that was a joke.

However, I'm now 99.5% confident...I replaced the ignition amp, coil and temp sensor but it was still running rough. Finally, I thought I'd try resetting the ECU, and hey presto, the things like a new car.

I know that in SH's book it says that this can mislead you because an "out of spec" component will cause the ECU to make adjustments over a period of time and re-setting will only temporarily make it OK if you don't replace the original faulty component. However, it seems to me that if you do replace the faulty component, the only way your going to know that it's fixed is if you reset the ECU (unless you've got the car hooked up to garage diagnostics kit). This is because the ECU will continue for some period of time to run with the wrong "learned" settings. An arguement for not re-setting might be that you lose the fault codes, but I think that if the fault is still there, then it will register the code very soon again.

So I guess that if the car gradually starts to run richer and rougher, then I know I haven't fixed the fault, whereas, if it continues to produce that magnificent burble which I've so,so missed over the last month then I reckon I've got it cracked.

Comments welcome.

Steve

[monkeypilot]

I had all sorts of rough running problems with the chim. Changed the leads, coil, plugs , stepper, throttle pot - you name it, I changed it. Eventually took it to Austec who put it on the rolling road. Turns out my cats had melted and were blocking the exhaust flow. The car couldn't breathe. Cat's removed - power output nearly doubled! I was down to about 125BHP before.
Worth a check if your car's "wheezy".