A good spark will be blue-white and will be plainly visible in daylight. If a good spark is present, the problem is probably not in the ignition system. Check the fuel system and/or stark timing. Weak sparks are orange or red and may be hard to see in daylight.
Condenser first. The other possible item is a failing coil or low voltage from some bad connection. Condensers do deteriorate with age, and since it is the most likely cause, I would just change it anyway. Another possibility is the coil wire as someone else said.
Make sure the spark is strong and blue in color. If the spark is weak and dull orange, it's likely that it's not strong enough to ignite the engine's air and fuel mixture. (Optional) if There Is No Spark, Connect a New or Known Working Plug Connect a good plug to the coil pack or spark plug wire and repeat the test.
Malfunctioning spark plugs cause engine problems including, misfires, hard starts, reduced gas mileage, rough idling, and lack of acceleration. Driving with a faulty spark plug will be difficult because the engine might fail to function.
One of the key factors that makes a spark plug work well, or not, is the size of the gap between the electrodes. If the gap is too small, the spark will likely be too weak and cause the engine to run poorly or with poor efficiency.
For an engine to start and run properly, the energy must arc the plug and keep that arc going until all of the combustible mixture is consumed. Anything less and the engine will be weak, run rough, stall, and misfire.
It's important to remember that many times when a coil fails, it becomes weak. It still produces spark, and may still run the vehicle fine at times, but often under load, or acceleration, it can produce a misfire. Other times, the coil completely fails and stops working altogether.
The strength of the spark is revealed in the color. A red or yellow spark is weak and probably will not spark in the cylinder. A blue or white spark is strong and has enough voltage to fight across the spark plug gap even under pressure within the cylinder.
The least likely cause of a weak spark is a battery voltage of 12.2 Volts. Even though the battery voltage is less than normal, it should be enough to allow the ignition coil (s) to become fully saturated and provide the correct spark to the spark plugs.
On an automobile ignition system the spark should be bright blue. That's because the compression ratio is higher than that on an air cooled small engine.
A failed coil will prevent any spark, and in turn, no combustion for the car to turn on. A weak spark will fail to burn the air-fuel mixture fully, which causes the incompletely burned fuel to exit along with the exhaust gases. Fuel in the exhaust can be detrimental to the catalytic converter.
Intermittent misfires are almost always caused by a weak spark or a lean fuel mixture. That piece of knowledge may not tell you what exactly is causing the misfire, but it should lead you toward a coil problem or an injector problem. Random misfires are another type of misfire that can be very difficult to diagnose.
A bright blue spark is best. A yellow/orange spark signifies weak ignition.
Black spark plugs are a sign of a weak spark or too much fuel in the air-fuel mixture.
Ignition coil damage is often caused by underlying issues never addressed in engine misfire repairs. Issues like spark plug gapping, leaking valve covers or moisture intrusion.
If your Spark Plugs are failing your engine will sound rough and jittery when running at idle. This can cause vibrations to resonate through the vehicle which could cause further costly damage.
a faulty ignition module can affect ignition timing, resulting in an engine that misfires and runs rough. the engine may also run well at low speed, but won't accelerate well. 3. stalling: a failing ignition module can occasionally prevent the engine from getting spark, causing it to stall.
Faulty spark plugs can cause the car to exhibit starting troubles. Worn out plugs does not produce sufficient sparks, which is needed for starting the engine. This results in the engine to stall and fail to start quickly.