help, lights flash and idles really rough

[darnellracing]

In my 90 festiva i got from a guy for $150 the ecu was suppose to be bad and i changed that. now once and a while when i start it it will go into this fit and the lights in the dash and my radio lights with flash and the tail lights will flash. and then it will idle really really rough and it u give it gas it runs really rough too. i grounded it out and idk what to do now. any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Cody

[darnellracing]

O and after it does that for a while it will die out and wont start. just spin and spin and spin, and u let it sit for a while and it will start again

[bravekozak]

Based on the symptoms you described, you need to perform an exorcism.

[91mcnasty]

sounds like a bad ground or short somewhere.

[darnellracing]

ya i grounded off the battery and it stopped for a while but it started again today

[FestYboy]

a better discription of your statement "I grounded off the battery" is needed. are all of your injectors firing? what's your compression lool like?

[DrMaxwellEdison]

are you saying that you have too tall of a battery in such a small car (our Festivas) or that you ran a ground wire from the negative battery post? As FestYboy said more description is needed for any of us to really make any sense of this...

[darnellracing]

i ran a wire from the post and it stopped it all. and i do know it's timing is advanced, and as far as i know they are, like i said it fixed everything for a while. when it runs right it runs really good.

[FestYboy]

A wire from where to where? Dude, you have to be more spicific!

Once you type your answer, read it back to yourself and ask "does this make sence?" i think what we're having trouble with is, you're sentances aren't complete thoughts and there's no context to them.

[darnellracing]

alright ill be specific. i ran a black wire from the negative battery post to the frame. i cleaned the frame off and mounted it with a screw. i tested it my having a light hooked to pos and having it grounded that way and the light worked so its a legit ground. if that helped you. and im 16 give me a break lol. and i know its not a ground problem. i just would like to know if there is any mecanical features that could cause this. ive been thinking its a short somewhere but i dont really wanna get started on that and find out i did everything for nothing.

[FestYboy]

now this helps!!! lol :p

i'm thinking the first thing you should do is replace the fuseable links and clean the harness tabs like this. then go from there.

[darnellracing]

i have brand new fuses and everything is clean in there. what im getting at is it stopped for a couple weeks after i grounded it. and i thought i had it fixed but now its doing it again and the more i think about it the more im thinking its a short because it stopped for a while, the the headlights dont flash like the tail lights and reverse lights do, and the last time it smelled like it flooded out

[FestYboy]

that sounds almost like you're having the coil discharge into the engine harness somehow...

do you have the ability to post pics of your engine bay? they higher the res the better.

[darnellracing]

i can try tomorrow with the camera. no promises on the res. and i do have another coil if u think i should try that

[darnellracing]

ok update. was thinking stereo was shorting out and i taped it all up nice and good. got the lights to quit flashing. atleast this time i did lol. but it still runs really rough and smokes..... can advise on this one?