2006 sadan 5spd check engine light flashing and sputtering while accelerating

[MDickerson_1999]

I hope someone can help. my 06 sedan with 103k starting sputtering while I would accelerate in 2nd and 3rd gear, now its getting worse and doing it in all gears and my engine light will flash from time to time. I had the codes ran and it came up with nothing. The plugs and wires were changed around 90k but I plan to check them again(I live in the woods and have had prior squirrel problems in the past). Can anyone give me some ideas of what to check so I don't throw money at this in the wrong places?

Thanks in advance....

[06T200]

Have you read the PCM for codes? That will give a clue. Without that, Might be a good idea to see if your valve cover gasket is leaking oil into the center cavity where the plug wires are. If oil is leaking bad and filling the plug bores with oil, then that will cause misfires and all sorts of problems. You may also need to do Rabbit's water spray test to see if anything is shorting out in the coil, or the wires if you find no oil. A common problem seems to be the DIS coil pack on the drivers side of the head. Look for cracks in the case. Aside from that the guru's should check in and give some tips. It should eventually give you a code if the light is coming on.

[avguy]

Makes no sense to have a flashing CEL but no codes. Do you know if the OBD reader was able to establish communications? You should try this again, maybe at a different shop, and make sure the reader being used is able to establish communications.
Living in the woods, mice can be even more of a problem. Have you checked the air filter box? They love to make a nest there, and it could be big enough to severely reduce incoming air. And yes, take another look at the plugs and wires as well.

[slayerized6]

A flashing CEL usually indicates that the engine is misfiring. If you pull the codes, it should be "P0300," which is mulitple cylinder misfire. i had a similar problem not too long ago (2005 Aveo, at 98k miles); turns out it was a bad ignition coil. New coil was ~$35 on Amazon.

Check your plugs. Are they correctly gapped? Is oil leaking on them from a bad valve cover gasket?

Check your wires. Have squirrels been chewing at them? Are they properly seated and not arcing?

If not, its properly the ignition coil.

[MDickerson_1999]

Thanks for the advice guys. My engine light was flashing but not all the time. It would flash for a min and then stop. I had the codes ran again today and it didn't show any codes. It was able to communicate with the car so I find it odd that it pulled no codes. Anyway I pulled the plug wires and blew out the holes and had a little oil but not real bad. I replaced the gasket not long ago so it sucks that there was oil. I took the plugs out and they looked good so I cleaned everything up and put it all back together. Checked the air filter and it was good and clean so I took the air tube off and sprayed a decent amount of Deep Creep to try and clean things out.

After all that I took it out for a test and it seemed to run back to normal. I assume it was the oil in the plug holes so there may be another gasket replacement in the near future.

Again thanks for all the tips you guys were a great help!!

[06T200]

Cool, glad you got it sorted out.