All four cylinders misfiring?

Question

I have a 2000 Chevy S-10 that started running very poorly. My brother came to take a look and thought that it was the transmission and said I could drive it home like that, which he did. He did a horrible park job so I started it back up to park it better and found that the check sngine light came on. The mechanic I took it to did diagnosistics and said that all four cyclinders are mis-firing. He has me waiting until Monday to try and figure it out, but I would like to know what I am possibly looking at fixing.

I guess I should have mentioned that the timing belt was replaced less then one year ago, which is the second time since I bought it new in August of 2000. And this past winter I have it tuned up with all new wires. Had one bad wire causing misfiring.

Answer 1

Your S10 does not have a distributor cap or rotor. It has an electronic ignition located on the pass. side lower engine block.
It may be a defective ignition module or a bad crank sensor.
I would rset the engine codes and drive it until the light comes on again, then read the codes again.

Answer 2

if all four cylinders are misfiring, that means that you motor has "jumped" timing. it could be as easy as resetting the timing by adjusting the crank gear, you might as well change the timing belt/chain while the mechanic is there. By easy, I mean if you are using an ASE certified mechanic, it will take them about 4-6 hours to replace the timing belt/chain, and reset the timing. And all of this is depending on if you have any valve or piston damage caused by starting and driving the truck after the timing was jumped. I hope this helps you out.Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions .

Answer 3

I would first off get it out of that aftermarket shop that will throw tons of parts at it. I can imagine the first thing they are going to say is "first off we need to replace the spark plugs & wires and see what happens" then they will have to really find out what is going on, and the end you will probably end up at the dealer anyway.

After the dealer diagnosis and gives you the estimate for repair you can figure out who is going to fix it (I would recommend they do it) and have the repairs made.

There are tons of things that can cause a "random missfire" which I image is the code your "mechanic" is seeing (P0300). If the codes are P0301, P0302, P0303, P0304 then that means all cylinders are missfiring. You should take it to the dealer and get the problem fixed.

Answer 4

Nothing too heavy...distributor, maybe. Distributor-cap, coil module, rotor, plug-wires, plugs, plus a good tune-up including setting the timing. Probably nothing over a couple hundred in parts but it could take several hours of labor or more to find the problem. It could be something as simple as a vacuum hose or as bad as a jumped timing belt, too.

Answer 5

You may not want to listen to Freddy boy....that truck should not have a distributor...it should have a 4 cyl with high energy ignition controlled by the computer. It sounds like the timing belt but may also be the ignition module. One of the two for sure. Best of luck and sorry for your troubles.

Answer 6

maybe youbought low quality wires for your tune up. Its not you, some manufactureres just make cheap crap.. The best Ive seen so far are napa supreme.

Answer 7

it mit need a tune up which is replaceing the spark plugs and spark plug wires and distributor cap and rodar. which if you can do it yourself would cost about any were from $40 to $70.00.but if a mechanic dose it it will ran about any were from $80.00 to $150.00. so if your brother knows how to do it have him do it............good luck.......chuck

Answer 8

Before I trust this mechanic. I believe you should change your plug wires and plugs.