The engine has no power?

TBMCCALL6

MEMBER
1998 BUICK LESABRE
3.8L
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
190,000 MILES

Just got car it was running rough, so I changed plugs and wires next day started making a racket pulled over and check and the edge of the belt and come apart. I changed the belt and noticed the tensioner was jumping really bad, so I changed the tensioner car still has no power I pulled off each spark plug from the cold pack and only two spark plugs sparked at the coil pack when I pulled them off.

Monday, November 11th, 2024 AT 7:24 AM

3 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
110,176 POSTS

Hi,

Are the two getting power from the same coil? Also, how did you check for spark? If only two are working, it won't run at all. Is it possible that the damaged belt may have hit some of the ignition wires at the coil (pic 1) or connectors to the module under the coils? (Pic 2)

Let me know.

Joe

See pics below.

Images (Click to make bigger)

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Monday, November 11th, 2024 AT 5:58 PM

TBMCCALL6

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Sorry took me so long to answer, I couldn't figure out how to get back to the question. I checked for spark by having the car running and pulling the plug wire off. I have since changed the coil and it's running better. So, I'm going to go ahead and change the other two coils and thank you for your time I really appreciate your help.

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Wednesday, November 13th, 2024 AT 9:11 AM

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
110,176 POSTS

Hi,

Thank you for the update and no problem whatsoever on the time. I'm glad to hear you got it running better. This design can be a bit tricky because you could have a faulty coil pack as you found. I've run into similar situations where it was the actual DIC (digital ignition control) module that the coils mount to.

Regardless, this is good news. If anything changes, feel free to let me know or come back anytime in the future.

Take care,

Joe

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Wednesday, November 13th, 2024 AT 6:07 PM