Cadillac CTS-V Forum banner

Filled up with 93 and started misfiring

2367 Views 38 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  RobF300
Hi, I am a first time forum member and unfortunately not experienced with the proper way to ask for help so hopefully I'm not doing anything wrong here.
I have a 12 coupe that I've owned for about 5 yrs. now and have had nothing but good luck with until now. It's go a few bolt on's 2.45 upper, K&N intake tube and filter in stock air box and a Diablo T1000 tuner running the pully tune. My problem is, I recently filled up at Costco just before they closed on a Saturday with 93 from about as empty as you can get without pushing. As soon as I pulled onto the main road and hit it I immediately felt a misfire. I continued driving for about 5mi. to pick up my wife and look for anything obviously out of place. My wife immediately noticed that the K&N intake tube was not fully seated and was sucking unmetered air just after the MAF. I fixed the leak and fully expected that to cure the problem but no such luck then I drove about 10mi. home taking it very easy and hooked up my scanner the following morning. It's showing cyl. 4 misfiring only so I pulled the plug it looked good so I did a compression test and it showed about 140psi (cold) not to bad I thought. I swapped coils and wires with the one next to it with no luck then proceeded to pull injectors 2,4,6,8 and clean them, still missing it now on 2,4,6 and a little bit on 8 but not nearly as much as the other's. WT.... Now I'm really confused can someone please help?
1 - 20 of 39 Posts
Dump the gas.

Maybe a new fuel filter as well.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Thank you, I was hoping to avoid that excitement but I do have an access hole under the back seat that should take some of the fun out of it. Maybe I can hook up an aux tank to see if fresh gas makes a difference before I dump all $60 worth of Premo.
Costco & Sam’s club our 2nd tier gas.....meaning they don’t have the additives that tier #1 fuels have....also if car sat for a period of time.....get some Redline SI-1 fuel system cleaner and run it in your gas tank when it get 1/2 tank down.....SI-1 has PolyeitherAmend and it eats carbon & alcohol byproducts
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Costco is Tier 1. I never had a problem with Costco gas. BJ's and Sam's sell Tier 2. I would never buy BJ's & Sam's for my V.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Costco is Tier 1 in Canada as well. Dump the $60, detonation will cost a metric ton more than that.
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Dump the $60, detonation will cost a metric ton more than that.
@Coupe De'V, Read this part again, with feeling...
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: 2
Hi, I am a first time forum member and unfortunately not experienced with the proper way to ask for help so hopefully I'm not doing anything wrong here.
I have a 12 coupe that I've owned for about 5 yrs. now and have had nothing but good luck with until now. It's go a few bolt on's 2.45 upper, K&N intake tube and filter in stock air box and a Diablo T1000 tuner running the pully tune. My problem is, I recently filled up at Costco just before they closed on a Saturday with 93 from about as empty as you can get without pushing. As soon as I pulled onto the main road and hit it I immediately felt a misfire. I continued driving for about 5mi. to pick up my wife and look for anything obviously out of place. My wife immediately noticed that the K&N intake tube was not fully seated and was sucking unmetered air just after the MAF. I fixed the leak and fully expected that to cure the problem but no such luck then I drove about 10mi. home taking it very easy and hooked up my scanner the following morning. It's showing cyl. 4 misfiring only so I pulled the plug it looked good so I did a compression test and it showed about 140psi (cold) not to bad I thought. I swapped coils and wires with the one next to it with no luck then proceeded to pull injectors 2,4,6,8 and clean them, still missing it now on 2,4,6 and a little bit on 8 but not nearly as much as the other's. WT.... Now I'm really confused can someone please help?
I have had my 2013 for 7 plus years and never had your problem. Every 3rd or 4th fillup I add a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner.
Thank you everyone for all the responses. Sorry for the late reply my schedule is all over the place. I am just about to go dump the fuel but before I do I was just thinking wouldn't I be getting random cyl. misfire and not just cyl.4 or on just one bank? I also failed to mention before that there is no check engine light except for the one my DW pump's cause due to current draw. I found the misfiring by looking at my scanner's live data. I'm not sure why with so many misfires there's no check engine light for it. I also looked at the fuel trims and both banks are not the same. Unfortunately I don't know what to look for I'm just piecing thing together from what I've read to look at. I took some pics. of the ST and LT fuel trims as well as the O2 sensor readings that also were not equal from bank to bank either but I don't know how to post them or even if I'm allowed to.
See less See more
Start with SIMPLE. DUMP THE GAS.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Start with SIMPLE. DUMP THE GAS.
Always start with simple. Go for the low hanging fruit.
If it started right after you filled up, it's the fuel. Could have had some water or crap in it, especially if they were either getting low, or I'd the fuel truck was there while you were filling it up filling their underground tanks. Never fill up while the station is getting gas as it stirs the crap up off the bottom of the storage tanks and it makes it to your tank
Same thing happened to me with my 2012 Cadillac CTS coupe after getting fuel, had to to a Dealership that charged me over $700 for a fuel system service, I am a Certified GM Tech and I was outraged and I went online and ordered a clone MDI so could perform my own repairs lesson learned
Ok drain the tank it is then. It was Saturday evening as well and they were still open 45 min. after the posted 7pm closing time surprisingly but only lanes 6 and 7 were still open. No truck was there refilling the tanks but there were red bags over the pump handles of the closed lanes which caught my eye along with cones blocking the lanes 1-5 and 8 which is normal I believe but I don't recall ever seeing red bags over the handles when I've gotten there before they open. I fully expected them to close lane 6 behind me as I was the last car at the pump but instead the person running the show was going to each lane with a couple attendants and pointed out to reopen lane 5 next to me because the pump still showed on or active. They looked a bit confused and I thought it odd because I happen to know that the pumps are normally controlled from the little office building. (That's another story) Anyway all that actually made me think about the fact that the tank's might be about empty especially being a Saturday but by now I was nearly full so I just kept pumping thinking I was being paranoid. I'll post the results of the fresh gas by this time tomorrow and thanks again for all the advice.
See less See more
The storage tank being nearly dry shouldn't matter. Just like it doesn't matter in your car. Contaminants like water are denser than gasoline, they sink to the bottom of the tank even when the tank is full. So if the pickup is going to suck that stuff up, it's going to regardless of what the actual fuel level above it is. And there are multiple filters for particulate between the in-ground tanks and the fuel dispensing nozzle. Nearly dry tanks generally deliver fuel as good as a full one.

But stations pump bad fuel sometimes. There was a story a few months ago about a station that got a delivery of gasoline pumped in to their diesel storage tank. Which was subsequently pumped in to a bunch of cars before anyone figured out what the problem was and notified the station.
Hello to anyone following the saga. This morning I hotwired the fuel pumps thru the fpcm by unplugging it and using a jumper plugged to the back of the harness from the large pink wire to Batt. ground and the large gray wire to Batt. POS. with the fuel rail Schrader valve removed and a hose clamped to it going to 5gal gas cans. Wow that sure goes quick with a pair of DW pump's! I filled 3 5 gallon cans in about 5 min. Reconnected everything and tried to start the car just to make sure it was empty and sure enough no start. I poured 1oz of Staybil fuel stabilizer in and then went to get 5 gallons of fresh 93.

Upon return I only added about two and a half gallons to the tank incase there was still some bad gas in there I could pump it out again and then add the remaining two and a half gallons. As expected I started the car and it ran exactly the same with misfiring on 2 and 4 at idle with 6 and 8 joining the party above 2k rpm. So I pumped out the fuel again added the last two and a half gallons with every expectation of it doing the same thing again, and it did! No surprise there at least not for me. So I'm passed the bad fuel now. I'm sure some people will want to say that there could still be bad gas in the tank or that I need to change the filter but my fuel pressure is right on 49-53 psi at idle the same as it's been since installing the new pumps so it's not a clogged filter and I refuse to believe that it wouldn't have changed in the least with fresh gas so please bear with me and help me figure out what else it could be.

Before I go any farther since I'm new here I would just like to say that I have been a Wholesale car dealer for all 45 of my years. Grew up standing on the front seat of a different car every day going from dealer to dealer around town with my father buying over 100 car's a month for one of the biggest used car dealers in South Florida in the 80s and 90s until I was old enough to do it on my own and have been ever since. I'm only telling you this so you can believe me when I say that I've been there and done that. Unfortunately I'm to the point now where I'm pretty sure that I've forgotten more than I know about cars and especially with the newer stuff I seem to be getting worse instead of better at figuring things out. Please don't take any of that as I can't learn anything new or know it all as I obviously don't. I would just like to be though of as someone who has a clue when it comes to pretty much anything with a motor on land or water and have earned the nickname MacGyver from those who know me best.

Ok with that out of the way I'll admit that I left out a few possibly important details about what happened.
After driving about 4 or 5 miles from the gas station to where I was going I may have been trying to see if it would clear up by how should I say, flooring it to get the green light with no success at it clearing up that is, I did get the green.😁 Probably not the best idea but that's how I roll. While idling in the driveway looking for something wrong under the hood about the same time my wife spotted the intake tube partially disconnected I began to hear what I can only describe as a marble bouncing in the exhaust pipe or lightly tapping the oil pan with a small hammer. Not quite like anything I've ever heard before. The second I would touch the throttle it would go away. It wasn't a constant noise like a lifter either but did somehow seem to be related to rpm in that it was a steady cling clang pawse cling clang pawse type noise but weirdly coming from under the car definitely not the valve cover. My 04 V just ate a lifter at 262k mi. and it's clearly from under the valve cover more than anywhere else.
I thought possibly the cat coming apart or worst case bearings but I have heard my share of bearing noises and none were like this. So as any normal car dealer would do I let it cool down for a few hrs. and then drove it home about 10 miles albeit slowly (under 65mph) down the Hwy. back home. When I got home the idle marble was gone so I shut her down for the night. The following morning I changed the oil which I do myself every 1500 mi. or so with Mobile 1 10w30 extended performance since I'm in Avg. 90 plus degree weather and drive her hard. So now you know everything I do.

So if there's anyone still reading maybe you have some fresh ideas hopefully not like my personally feared cracked cylinders, holes in pistons etc. that I deep down in the back of my currently still in denial mind know is what it probably is please feel free to share.
See less See more
While I don’t think the Diablo tune would cause a misfire, it has a very poor reputation here on these cars and could have caused damage that could lead to a misfire.

Do you have a local shop that you might be confident in to have take a look?

Assuming you are on the stock cam? If not, and you have higher than stock valve spring pressure, we don’t recommend M1 oil.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Motor internals are all stock. O2 sensors I just looked at again on the scanner and they all appear to be acting the same from bank 1 to bank 2 and passed all of the self checks. I two am kinda concerned about the tune even though it's been on the same tune since the week I bought the car 20k mi ago. because with the combination of the post MAF air leak possibly questionable fuel and the tune which may already push it closer to it's limit's than a stock tune might have been a receipt for disaster.

I just returned the tune to stock for shits and giggles with no difference other than noticably slower throttle response. I did install a pedal commander type throttle controller 6 months ago, don't know if that could be causing anything either. It just seems really odd that I only unplugged cyl.4 injector with it running because the noise seemed like it was more on the pass side and it was the only one I could get easily unplugged while it was running and I did notice a difference when I unplugged it. Afterwards I got only a cyl.4 misfire though. Then I removed all 4 injectors from the pass side to clean and inspect put it all back together and now have misfiring on all 4 but seems to run just about the same as before. This is the kind of sh.. I don't remember happening back in the day. I'd check something and it would either be it or not but it wouldn't get worse just from checking! Maybe it's just me .
See less See more
I'm thinking an issue with the wiring harness. Was only on #4 until you pulled them all to clean them, then on all on that side. I'd check the injector harness carefully, looking for cracks, splits, a broken/loose ground wire, and also make sure the injectors didn't tear any O-rings when you put them back in, as that would be a good place for a vacuum leak.
1 - 20 of 39 Posts
Top