Help - blinking cel - no code

I was driving home from work tonight and my check engine light started blinking occasionally. It would blink for a few seconds, and then turn off. The car was way down on power, I limped it home as I was only 1 or 2 minutes away. I took an idle log and it shows my AFR bouncing all over the place. The car is idling rough, and I'm scared to drive it. I tried pulling a code with my accessport, but no codes were found. Here's an idle log. The 14.7 afr at the end was after the car was turned off.

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to put it up on jack stands in the morning, and have a look. I'm hoping I just lost a vacuum hose or something.

troubled idle 4-2-17.csv

Did you check for pending codes? Makes little sense that a blinking CEL and limp mode would be accompanied by no codes.

 

Once when I had a bad cam sensor, the code would go away as soon as I turned off the car. Check codes while the car is running and symptoms are occurring.

If you have a CEL and no codes perhaps the problem lies with the ECU? A friend of mine used to own a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Out of the blue it would just stop running. No warning, no symptoms, just quit (though usually when running hot). When this occurred we could not pull codes from the computer. On a hunch I decided to purchase a new ECU (only $150!) and the problem went away. It turns out the part which provided the diagnostic information was the problem. Perhaps that's the case here?

Turned it on today and got p0301 cylinder 1 misfire. Going to start with the swapping coils etc.

 

Also shout out to Mike at Tuning Alliance who emailed me today on a Sunday with some advice on where to start on this issue.

 

 

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Swapped coil packs from cylinder 1 to cylinder 2 and the misfire followed. Added dialectric grease and bent the contacts a bit in the process in the hopes of generating better contact. Looks like I need a new coil pack. Lets hope that's the solution.

Cylinder misfires can make the CEL flash without staying on. Based on what you said, I would guess that's the issue. If your misfire followed your coil, you are most likely on the right track. Buy them from a regular auto parts store-exactly the same coil that Subaru uses. On that kind of specialized part, most sources simply buy the OE and rebox it.

New coil came in today. Here's some pics of the box. The quality appears higher than OEM as the black surrounding part isn't stacked sheets, but more of a solid piece. Here's some pics of the box. $56 off Rock Auto including expedited shipping.

 

Car fired up, and no misfires. The job was so quick I had time to replace my front sway bar bushings, and do a power steering fluid flush! Took her for a test drive, front end clunk is gone, and engine ran smooth as butter.

 

Also my receding hair line started growing back and I lost 10 pounds! How about that.

 

Keep those hands dirty folks.

 

 

 

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Hey, congratulations. This might be useful info for the future.

Yea a cel will only stay illuminated when the problem results in producing 1.5 times the ftv standards... Learning ecus like ours will shut down the associated injector of a misfiring cylinder.

 

A flashing cel indicates a condition that could Cause immediate damage to the catalyst.. so if it was intermittent it wouldn't be crazy for it to flash and the fo away