97 cavalier, 2.2 L

Don't blast me if I am mistaken but I believe the coils are side by side like this:

And the drawing of the order is like this:

My drawing is not matching your description in relations to the coil location. With out seeing it I don't know if I'm helping. The coils are usually marked if original, a small mirror will help to check.

Thanks Paul. The mirror is a good idea.
I assume if I had the wires in the wrong order the car would run rough. It's running well right now.

Ralph.

I would say that's accurate. I looked at my wife's car last night to see if it was similiar, but there must have been a design change. The only thing I noticed was the numbers on the plug. You can use a digital camera as well to "look".

Paul (or whomever), I verified the wires are connected properly. Turns out the ignition module is mounted vertically in my car.

So the car is running fine, except it idles roughly. It runs well otherwise.

So the new plug wires have fixed the starting problem and now the idle is bad. I assume this is a coincidence.

I've been told this could be a vacuum problem. I don't see any visible hosing that is lose. The PCV is new and also the air filter. The fuel filter has never been replaced (200,000 km) because the garage couldn't remove the old one.

All of the original sensors are still installed.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Ralph.

The fuel filter concerns me. Find a way to get it replaced. We just did a caviliar fuel pump and fuel filter. I told her before to get it changed or this would happen. May be too late on yours. Check fuel pressure for a better insight.

Well, I decided to go all out and take the car to the garage.

They did the computer thing and are doing the following work:

- replace spark plugs -(they have about 75k-100K km. on them)

- replace EGR valve - They claim it was in bad shape and there was a missing gasket. (never replaced before - 200,000 km.)

- clean the intake manifold (probably never properly done before either)

I haven't picked up the car yet.

Just thought I'd get some feedback on whether this work sounds reasonable for an idling problem and then let you know the results.

The fuel filter is not being replaced at this time.

I like the intake valves being cleaned and the plugs being replaced, mostly from a maintenance preventative view. If codes were produced to diagnose the egr I'm okay with it. Missing gasket sounds odd.

My reason for concern on the filter is less about performance than prevent a 500 dollar fuel pump job. As the filter plugs, it makes the pump work harder and burn out.

Well, the car is running well and the idling problem seems to be resolved.

I didn't receive any results from the computer scan (I didn't have to pay for it), but I'm going to follow up on that.

I got the old parts. The plugs are worn and white. The EGR valve is dirty, but I guess you can't tell from that its true condition.

Those EGR valves must have a lot of sophisticated electronics in them considering their price.

Next on the list will be the fuel filter.

Thanks for your various suggestions on this situation.