I was sitting at the gas station this morning finishing my breakfast, I started my car and the engine started idling rough. It had ran smooth all morning and I haven't noticed any problems here lately. My CEL started flashing so I immediately shut off the engine. I changed my plugs about 4,000 miles ago so I didnt think it had anything to do with a fouled plug. Anyways, I borrowed a car, drove to work and back then to autozone to get a code reader. I plug it in and get codes for misfire in cylinders 1 2 and 4 as well as a P1399 manufacturer control ignition system or misfire. Bought new plugs, changed them and checked to codes again... still the same and still idling rough. So I took the good coil pack from cyl 3 and put it in cyl 2... codes came up as misfire in 1 and 3 as well as the P1399. Changed to good coil pack to cyl 1 and the only code that came up was the P1399. I know on the CEL thread it says P1399 is a misfire, but the scanner also says something about the ignition control system, which has me worried it's more than a coil pack. Could it be the ECM? Or is it a case of bad gas or something simple and stupid that I am just overlooking? I am totally lost as the the direction I need to go and my car is stranded in a shady gas station parking lot.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

Nobody?

 

I *think* I had the same problem, but honestly I don't remember the code I kept getting.

I was getting a random misfire code. I would drive to Autozone and have the code pulled and cleared. Car would be fine on the way home, then next time I started the car (when it was cold) the CEL would come on again.

I finally found the problem (after several weeks). I had my front bumper off and had a funny smell on the drivers side...like a burnt plastic smell. Turns out my air pump for the emissions system had overheated and melted (the impeller melted to the inside of the housing). The pump looked totally fine, I had to pull it from the car to find the damage.

Not sure if that will help you out, but might be worth a try if you run out of options.

This was on an '01 with ~78k miles.

Scott-