Ignition problem/static electricity in body

[Inf]

I had a local z mechanic tune my car up last weekend since it was up there anyway from a bad clutch slave cylinder.

It was running great at first. I took it to the car wash a few days later (the pay and spray wand type), and on the way back it started to misfire here and there, and now it idles really poorly, 200rpm lower than it did before, and I can sometimes hear a small popping noise when the engine is idling and I am over the engine compartment. It sounds like the pop you get when you touch a doorknob when you have a lot of static electricity built up.

Also, when I get out of the car and my feet are on the concrete, I can always touch the body of the car (i.e. the stainless door trim) and get a pretty good static shock the first time after I shut the car off. The static builds up even if I don't move the car. If I turn it on and let the car run for maybe 20 seconds in my parking space and turn it off, it is already charged up and ready to shock me.

Has anyone had this before? I checked all the ignition connections I could see and saw nothing out of place.

At the moment it is more or less undriveable

This really aggrivates me as I had a date setup tonight with a girl I just met :mad:

[matria]

Did you try and clean the engine/engine bay with the water spray? If so, check for water in your dizzy.

[cremmenga]

In my newer camaro something similar happend to me. It started out running fine, but when I would get out of the car and my leg hit the side when i stepped out I would get one hell of a shock, like a very good static shock, then a few months later it started feeling like it would miss and lose power once inawhile especially when i stepped on it or went up hills, but barely noticeable, not noticible to anyone but me who drives it all the time. It did this off and on for weeks, but only for a few seconds and not real often. I even took it in to the mech and he ran test and drove it and him and my dad both said I was crazy and not really feeling anything. turns out on my way home from work one night it started losing, lots of power, my amps went to almost 0, then gauges and warning lights started going off like mad, i was on a long over pass and kept going to get off, a few seconds later the radio failed fallowed by lights, followed by warning lights, and the car was still running and the tach and speedo went, then power brakes and stearing. talk about a freaken mess!!. It would just click click click when you turned it over. Ended up being spark plug wires had been arching off each other and everything else, It fried both coils, and some other $^!#! Had to replace the coils, spark plugs/wires, and some computer junk. Total bill was like 6 hundy. If I were you I would take it in and have it looked at by someone that actually believes you before you end up spending and arm and a leg like me!!!

[Inf]

Did you try and clean the engine/engine bay with the water spray? If so, check for water in your dizzy.

I didn't, but some water may have been blown in through the grille, maybe over top and around the radiator support. I took the dizzy cap off and everything looked fine.

[Inf]

In my newer camaro something similar happend to me. It started out running fine, but when I would get out of the car and my leg hit the side when i stepped out I would get one hell of a shock, like a very good static shock, then a few months later it started feeling like it would miss and lose power once inawhile especially when i stepped on it or went up hills, but barely noticeable, not noticible to anyone but me who drives it all the time. It did this off and on for weeks, but only for a few seconds and not real often. I even took it in to the mech and he ran test and drove it and him and my dad both said I was crazy and not really feeling anything. turns out on my way home from work one night it started losing, lots of power, my amps went to almost 0, then gauges and warning lights started going off like mad, i was on a long over pass and kept going to get off, a few seconds later the radio failed fallowed by lights, followed by warning lights, and the car was still running and the tach and speedo went, then power brakes and stearing. talk about a freaken mess!!. It would just click click click when you turned it over. Ended up being spark plug wires had been arching off each other and everything else, It fried both coils, and some other $^!#! Had to replace the coils, spark plugs/wires, and some computer junk. Total bill was like 6 hundy. If I were you I would take it in and have it looked at by someone that actually believes you before you end up spending and arm and a leg like me!!!

I'm running some NGK wires that are only a few thousand miles old, but that may be what is going on, or the coil is flaking out. I hooked a timing light up and each cylinder seemed to be showing a consistent firing pattern. Something is shorting someplace I'm guessing, I'm not sure how the condenser and all that works, could a little water have damaged it?

[240ZX]

Just a wild quess but, it sounds to me like condensation in the distributor cap is causing the ignition to ground out to the chassis.

[ezzzzzzz]

Pull the distributor cap and spray with everything WD-40 or another water disperser. Make sure the points are set proper and not loose and the condensor too. At night, open the hood in a very dark place and look for blue aura around the cap, wires and plugs. You should only see a faint blue glow at the base of the sparkplugs boots, if anything at all. Any blue glow anywhere else down the sparkplug wires indicates an isulation breakdown. Also look at the coil lead as it can be jumping to the chassis too. If you look in daylight at the same areas of this glow you'll see a slight greyish color on the wire(s) where the voltage is leaking out.

[LanceM]

ezzzzzzz's test is the easiest and best, dark night hood open engine running, it's really something to see when you do have bad wires, looks like a mini thunderstorm is going on, hard to believe an engine can run if you have seen a bad one!

Since the wires are new I would also check to make sure that the connectors are firmly seated in the cap, the best way to do that is pull them out one at a time and slide the boot up a bit, then seat the connector, it should give a little click, maybe more of a feel than a hear thing, then slide the boot down. I had this on a ZX I bought a couple of years ago, running bad and I thought bad wires, when I pulled one I found that the electrode in the cap was completely gone from the arcing because the wire wasn't fully seated but was held on securly by the boot.

[=Enigma=]

Voltage is definitely leaking somewhere. Since you have newish plug wires, my guess would be a cracked dizzy cap, coil lead or tower shorting/arcing on something, or perhaps even a broken/cracked spark plug insulator.

[Inf]

The spark plugs are new NGKs, so I will check them and everything else for cracks and voltage leakage, thanks for the hints everyone.

If anyone has any additional suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them as well

[beandip]

Just start the engine and run your bare hand over the wires and plugs and all the ignition . Stay away from the fan . If you have a bad wire you will find it. Or you can open the hood in the dark and many times you will see the leaking wire if it is bad enough. some times a light mist of water will show a wire that is breaking down like this also . If it was moisture inside the cap of the dist the engine wouldent run . I doubt vary much that this is the sourse . Even if the plug wires are new , check them any way . They are just a string coated with carbon covered by a insulater .