Mine does it at idle, under light throttle, and goes away after about 4K. John, I just read your posting on the other forum about the tappet bracket breaking. I am in the middle of coilpack/plug swap so I just ran out and checked mine and the brackets are in tact. Can you tell that they are bad if you pull it out?

 

not sure John. I think it was only scanned under acceleration...Idles fine as far as I can tell.

 

What is the "the tappet bracket breaking"?

Just curiose..

 

The bracket breaking can cause it, but my code was from the non broken bracket side, so I replaced the tappet solenoid on the affected side and my misfire code / CEL went away forever. I lived with it for over 2 years. It would only happen at light, steady throttle about 3000 RPM's.

Don, You should try switching sides of the tappet solenoids since you are right there and if the code changes banks - I think you would have found the problem...

 

OK, I isolated it today, sort of. It seems to only happen on light throttle between 2k and 3k and stumbles when you hit it...

What are these brackets you speak of Mr.D?

 

TT,

That sounds very similar to my former problem, except I did not have stumbling on throttle other than maybe 4-5 times over 2+ years. In general, my car ran perfectly - it just threw this light every other day. The light would clear by itself, then come on again the next time I took a cell phone call on the highway and I just started cruising steady and not really driving the car. A slightly different problem with the solenoid could possibly cause regular stumbling, as I did have it happen a few times - but practically never.

Here are some pictures that show the solenoid and the bracket. There is one located between spark plugs on both sides and it is a very simple replacement. It just pops in and only costs about $120...




This is the solenoid with bracket, which are separate pieces:



This is a close up of the bracket - it breaks where the leg meets the ring:

 

Whats the purpose of the bracket and solenoid and how does that make the car "stumble"?

Oh yeah, I never get a CE light...

 

The bracket simply holds the solenoid in place. I have no idea what the solenoid does - I only know it was the cause of my CEL at steady cruising speed. And on a few rare occasions, I had a stumble upon throttle input when the problem (flashing CEL at steady throttle) was taking place. Usually, though, I could get on the gas if I saw the CEL flashing early and it would not register a CEL. It would go away under throttle. This was a strange problem that no one could figure out (several shops looked at it and most offered the wrong remedy - including a $2,000+ repair of the cam solenoids that were not the issue). Not even the dealer could figure this out when I was under warranty. Needless to say, I was very happy to have figured this out with the tip of a forum member that had the same issue and actually had the cam job done for $2000+ before finding a cracked bracket. His fix ended up being a $20.00 bracket.

 

Thansk, John.
I guess I'll take a look the next time I'm down under. 1 on each side of the engine between the last 2 cylinders? (2 total on the car?)

 

Yes, that's it. But remember, my problem was a failed solenoid, not a cracked braket. I took a chance and threw a new solenoid on the affected bank and that ended up solving the problem. I was doing plugs in the middle of winter, had time and figured for $120, I would take the chance. I waited until spring to test and sure enough, I won that gamble (which is rare when you throw parts like that).

 

Cool, thanks, John, I'll check it out when I'm there. My car is not setting a light like yours, so maybe mine is not that bad... yet... I just get a little stumble on light accel between 2k and 3k after a short period of cruise and a few months ago we datalogged it and it showed a consistant cyl 5 misfire at 2400-2700rpm's...

 

It sounds like it "could be" a tappet solenoid, but who knows....Try switching the solenoids and see if the problem moves to the other bank. If it does, I think you have the source of the problem.