Reasons for a car to misfire/run like crap

[2013 Geee T]

I know someone with a 96 Chevy truck with a 5.0 and all of the sudden it started misfiring and has a loss of power. The service engine light started flashing too. I replaced all of the plugs. 2 of them had oil on them and one had ash on them. The passenger side was all good. It still runs the same after doing the plugs.

Could it be wires? Cap and rotor?

Or could the motor just be on its way out. It eats up oil. It doesnt leak or smoke but still uses a lot of oil.

 

[Orange...]

why not get it scanned at the local (what is it... pepboys??) that does the free scans... so you know not to waste any more money into guessing what is wrong and find out for sure. They way you are doing it you could spend thousands of dollars for a $2.00 fix.

Could be a bad wire or something but why waste time and $$ when you can find out for free.

 

[stangGT97]

How many miles on the engine? Could be worn rings causing a ton of blow by, and causing an excessive amount of oil consumption. Compression loss will lead to misfires and noticeable power loss.

 

[2013 Geee T]

I think its the rings. It has 147000 miles on it.

Does Pep Boys do the scan for free?

 

[2013 Geee T]

I just called Pep Girls. Its $20 for a "general" scan and $89 to "pinpoint" the problem.

 

[merc123]

Advanced Autoparts scanned mine for free and gave me a printout of the codes

 

[03ghoststang]

good old autozone will do it for free

 

[Orange...]

yeah autozone... thats what I was thinking of... (thanks)

I don't even have these stores here but I knew one or two does it for free.

I wouldn't waste my time fixing things blindly though... with that free service it can save you alot of $$

It could be the rings or it could be the pcv could be plugged as well ... etc. etc. etc.

 

[LI98GTStang]

O2 sensor? Have any ever been changed out? Did you pop the dist. cap and look inside - could be corroded/cracked dist. cap.

 

[2013 Geee T]

I was thinking maybe a distributor cap. Ill have to check it out. You have to take apart some other junk to get to it though. Fun.

 

[stangGT97]

I dont get how an ignition fault would cause your car to eat oil though. that has to have something to do with the misfire. As svttech has explained... loss of compression causes fuel to get into the oil, then fuel vapors are sucked up by the pcv system, richening the mixture in the combustion chamber and causing random misfires. So if the rings are shot, you will be eating oil and probably having misfire symptoms.

 

[2013 Geee T]

Im sure the motor is about toast. She is out looking at new cars tonight so hopefully I wont have to worry about it anymore!