on the move

Monday, March 26, 2012 For Advertising Information Contact Your Local Cars.Com On-The-Move Sales Team at 599-2329

First big piece oF

‘electric HigHway’

gets juice

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — Fol-lowing a trail blazed by Indians and pioneers in covered wagons, elec-tric car drivers hit the road Friday to inaugurate the first major section of a West Coast “Electric Highway” dotted with stations where they can charge up in 20 minutes.

The stretch of 160 miles of Inter-state 5 served by eight stations marks the next big step in developing an infrastructure that until now has been limited primarily to chargers in homes and workplaces.

The stations go from the Califor-nia border north to the Oregon city of Cottage Grove and are located at gas stations, restaurants and motels just off the nation’s second-busiest interstate. One is at an inn that was

once a stage coach stop.Spaced about every 25 miles, the

stations allow a Nissan Leaf with a range of about 70 miles to miss one and still make it to the next. Electric car drivers will be able to recharge in about 20 minutes on the fast-chargers. The charge is free for now.

“I would say range-anxiety with these fast chargers will be nearly a non-issue for me,” said Justin Denley, who owns a Nissan Leaf and joined the caravan.

Inspired by the stations, his fam-ily is planning a trip from Medford to Portland, a distance of about 280 miles. Last summer, he took the fam-ily on a 120-mile trip to the coast and had to include an overnight stop at an RV park to charge up.

He expects the trip to Portland to take perhaps three hours longer than

in a gas car, because the only char-gers available for the last 100 miles are slower, level 2 chargers.

Level 1 car chargers use 110 volts, like a regular home outlet, and it can take an entire night to charge a vehi-cle. Level 2 uses 240 volts, like a home dryer or range, and can charge a car in three or four hours.

But Level 3, which uses 480 volts of direct current, makes en route charging feasible by boosting a Nis-san Leaf’s 45-kilowatt battery from a 20 percent charge to 80 percent in less than 30 minutes.

Bruce Sargent said, when he was using a Level 1 charger at home, he barely noticed the difference in his electric bill. When he installed a Lev-el 2 charger, it went up about $15 a

By Jeff BarnardThe Associated Press

The Medford Mail Tribune, JaMie lusch/The associaTed Press

Bruce Sargent charges his electric car at the grand open-ing of the Electric Highway station at Chevron on March 16 in Central Point, Ore.

See JUICE, Page 2

/ Monday, March 26, 2012 Tallahassee Democrat / OnTheMOve

month, still far below what he was spending on gas.

“For drivers to build confidence in driving hun-dreds of miles like they do in gas cars, they need an infrastructure,” said Wahid Nawabi, senior vice pres-ident of AeroVironment, Inc., the Monrovia, Calif., company that makes the stations.

Interstate 5 stretches 1,350 miles from British Columbia to Baja, Calif. The section from Ashland to the Willamette Valley fol-lows an ancient Indian trail that was expanded by pio-neers who blazed a southern branch of the Oregon Trail in the 1840s.

The governors of Oregon, California and Washington signed an agreement to turn I-5 into an “Electric High-way” in 2009.

Oregon made a deal with Nissan in 2010 to start aggressively install-ing charging stations if the company focused sales of electric cars in the state, said Art James, project leader for the state trans-portation department.

The latest addition is

financed by $915,000 in federal stimulus grants. “That’s why Oregon is a leader,” with about 1,100 plug-in electric vehicles in the state, James said.

By the end of this year, DC fast-chargers will be installed along I-5 from Canada to the California border, a distance of about 550 miles. Another 22 are being installed in locations as far away as 120 miles from Portland, Oregon’s largest city.

The eight new charging stations each have a level 3 charger, and a level 2 char-ger for backup.

Drivers equipped with an electronic key fob can drive up and plug in around the clock. They get the fob when they sign up with AeroViron-ment’s charging program. Stations can be located with smartphones and software on the cars.

The Interstate 5 stretch is not the first electric highway corridor in the country.

That honor goes to Ten-nessee, where Cracker Bar-rel Old Country Store res-taurants installed a network of charging stations last year along interstates con-necting Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga, a total of 425 miles.

JuiceFrom Page 1

The MedFord Mail Tribune, JaMie lusch/The associaTed Press

An electric car fast-charging statioin stands ready off Interstate 5 in Central Point, Ore. The Oregon Depart-ment of Transportation opened the first 160-mile sec-tion of an Electric Highway that will ultimately allow electric cars to travel from Canada to Mexico along the nation’s second-busiest interstate.

Nissan to bring back Datsun car brand — but not in US

LOS ANGELES — Nissan Motor Co. is bringing back the Datsun brand, but American drivers are unlikely to see any new vehicles adorned with the storied name.

Nissan is positioning Datsun as a lower-cost brand in emerging markets. The new line will go on sale in India, Indonesia and Russia in 2014.

The Datsun brand dates to 1931 as the nameplate of Japan’s DAT Motorcar Co., which was purchased by Nissan in 1933. The car was first known as a Dat-son, and later changed to Datsun.

The marque grew to international prominence by featuring well-engi-neered, sporty cars such as the 240Z and Datsun 510 sedan in the United States.

Much of that growth is attributed to Yutaka Katayama, the auto marketing guru who spearheaded Nissan’s launch into the American car market.

Katayama, who is 102, worked in a variety of marketing jobs before being exiled by senior management in 1960 to what looked like a dead-end position in the United States because of his oppo-sition to a company-backed union.

At the time, Nissan sold barely 1,000

vehicles in the United States under the Datsun brand name through indepen-dent distributors. Katayama, known as a savvy marketer and enthusiastic gearhead, turned the company into a household name.

The Japanese executive started with an ad budget of just $1,000, one engi-neer and an office clerk, wrote author David Halberstam, who chronicled Katayama’s story in “The Reckoning,” his 1986 book on the auto industry.

The first Datsun office was in an old Mobil oil building in downtown Los Angeles. Katayama later moved to Gardena, Calif., where there was a large Japanese-American population that he believed might be more accept-ing than other consumers of products from their ancestral country. It turned out that they liked the American cars of the time better.

Katayama was among the first Japa-nese auto executives to understand that foreign cars had to be customized for the American market. He understood that the initial Datsuns were under-powered and unrefined and nagged the home office for improvements such as bigger engines, better fit and finish and improved brakes.

His badgering paid off in 1968, when the new Datsun 510 models arrived at

the Port of Los Angeles. The 510 was a small, durable four-door sedan that performed well and sold for a price — around $1,800 — that was within nearly everyone’s reach. Automotive buffs compared the car favorably to the BMW 1600, a German-made sedan that sold for about $5,000 at the time. The 510 powered Datsun to a sales boom, especially in import-friendly California.

U.S. growth boom turned Nissan into an international automotive pow-erhouse. In 1981, Nissan decided to phase out the Datsun name. The com-pany wanted to sell all its cars under the same name, no matter what the market. But that strategy lasted only a few years until Nissan launched its Infiniti luxury division in 1989.

Now it makes sense to establish a third brand to sell in developing mar-kets, said Aaron Bragman, an analyst with IHS Automotive.

“What this does is safeguard the Nissan and Infiniti brands,” Bragman said.

The new Datsuns will be small, inex-pensive cars without the power and amenities of Nissan’s other brands. To sell such vehicles under the Nissan name could hurt the reputation of the parent brand, he said.

By Jerry HirschLos Angeles Times

Harley-Davidson Softail Slim a stripped-down throwback

Motorcycles represent a lot of things: freedom, pow-er, fearlessness. With Har-ley-Davidson’s new Softail Slim, unveiled Wednesday, “exposure” would also be appropriate. The Milwaukee manufacturer has stripped its classic Softail to its skiv-vies with a retro bobber that highlights the brute force of the machine.

Starting at $15,499, the new-for-2012 Softail Slim repre-sents a sort of Harley-style spring cleaning, for which every bit of bling was removed to showcase the bike’s essen-tials.

The chassis, in a sense, is merely a black-and-chrome accessory to the star of the show: the engine, which is the same guttural and counterbal-anced 103 cubic inch V-twin Harley rolled out for the 2012 model year and is standard equipment on all Softail and Touring models.

Designer Casey Ketterha-gen intentionally left a peeka-boo gap between the tip of the seat and the tail of the tank, so riders can see from the saddle the mule that’s making them move. And he left the fender struts uncovered to expose the steel and fasteners underneath and more distinctly draw the line between this modern-day

production custom and its post-World War II inspiration.

The Softail Slim marks the return of Harley’s so-called Hollywood handlebar — a cross-braced accessory to Springer-fork Harleys that used the extra slab of met-al to mount lights and bags. The “cat’s eye” console on top of the five-gallon tank is also a nod to the past, though its vintage-looking face is given away by its modern electron-ic speedo.

The Slim is, of course, a modern motorcycle, hard as it tries to look retro with its bobbed front and rear fend-ers and lack of overt glitz. In terms of suspension, that’s a

distinct positive. Although the Slim’s suspen-

sion is designed to mimic the look of a vintage hardtail, and the engine is rigid-mounted within the frame, the coil-over-shock absorbers are invisible to the rider because they’re mounted within the frame rails.

Like the Seventy-Two Har-ley-Davidson also introduced Wednesday, the Softail Slim is going for more shimmer than Harley’s embraced in recent years. The powertrain is finished in a black powder coat, but the engine covers are polished, and the air cleaner cover, headlamp and oil tank are all gloss black.

By Susan CarpenterLos Angeles Times

OnTheMOve / Tallahassee Democrat Monday, March 26, 2012 /

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Infiniti EX35 one stylish family hauler

The popular Infiniti EX35 com-pact luxury crossover is back for 2012, now with a starting price of $35,800 for the base rear-wheel-drive model, and $37,200 for that model with all-wheel drive.

O r i g i n a l ly rolled out for the 2008 model year, the five-passen-

ger EX35 is Infiniti’s entry-level crossover, and also is one of the brand’s best-selling models.

The EX offers sporty perfor-mance in a car-based crossover chassis that has SUV-style seating and cargo-carrying capability. We tested the up-level Journey model with rear-wheel drive, which has a base price of $38,100. The Journey with all-wheel drive, the top of the line, begins at $39,500.

Added as standard equipment for 2012 Journey models is a universal garage/gate opener, which previous-ly was available only as part of the Deluxe Touring Package.

Above it in the Infiniti crossover lineup are the five-passenger mid-size FX35 and FX50, and the all-new, U.S.-built seven-passenger JX, which went on sale this month.

Infiniti also offers the eight-pas-senger, full-size QX56 sport util-ity.

Built on the same architecture as the Infiniti G sedan, the EX35 com-petes in a crowded class of vehicles that includes the Acura RDX, BMW X3, Volvo XC60, Cadillac SRX, Land Rover LR2 and Audi Q5, among oth-ers. It also goes up against sedans in the entry-premium segment.

This is essentially a smaller ver-sion of the FX, and has essentially

the same engine as the FX35, the V-6 model. Starting price is about $7,000 less, however. The EX does not offer a V-8 engine, though, as the FX50 model does.

Standard on the EX are leather seats; a rearview camera; automat-ic climate control with rear vents; cruise control, 18-inch aluminum-alloy wheels; power windows, mir-rors and door locks; remote keyless entry with keyless push-button start; polished aluminum roof rails; heat-ed outside mirrors; automatic head-lights; and a USB port for iPods.

There are heated front seats on the all-wheel-drive models.

It’s powered by the same engine used in the earlier G35 sedans, a 297-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6. EPA ratings are 17 mpg city/24 high-way with either rear- or all-wheel drive.

Last year, a new seven-speed auto-matic transmission replaced the previous five-speed. Also added then were the 18-inch wheels and more available high-tech equip-ment. Dual-zone automatic climate control became standard last year

as well, and there is now an option for 19-inch wheels and tires.

Unlike many of its competitors, the EX has standard rear-wheel that helps give it a sporty driving experience. It’s also the only vehi-cle in its segment with a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive.

Unlike many family crossovers, the EX is quite fun to drive, and feels a lot like an Infiniti sedan. When you’re on twisty roads, it’s easy to forget you’re in what’s essen-

By G. Chambers Williams IIIMcClatchy Newspapers

Review

2012 INFINITI EX35n The package: Compact, pre-mium, five-door, five-passenger, V-6 powered, rear- or all-wheel-drive crossover utility vehicle. n Highlights: This is Infiniti’s compact crossover, and is aimed at women, young families and empty nesters. With impressive V-6 power and a seven-speed automatic transmission, it’s great fun to drive. It also has a long list of impressive high-tech options. n Negatives: Back seat is a bit cramped for adults. n Engine: 3.5-liter V-6. n Transmission: Seven-speed automatic. n Power/torque: 297 HP/253 foot-pounds. n Length: 182.3 inches. n Curb weight: 3,753-3,980 pounds. n Brakes, front/rear: Disc/disc, antilock. n Cargo volume: 18.6 cubic feet. n Side air bags: Front seat-mounted; roof-mounted side-curtain for both rows, standard. n Electronic stability control: Standard. n Fuel capacity/type: 20 gallons/unleaded premium recommend-ed (but not required). n EPA fuel economy: 17 city/24 highway (all models). n Base price: $35,600 plus $950 freight. n Price as tested: $43,295, including freight and options (2WD Journey model). n Rating: 9.3 out of 10

Guy SpanGenberG/InfInItI/MCt

The 2012 infiniti eX35 is the only vehicle in its segment with a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive.

See INFINITI, Page 5

OnTheMOve / Tallahassee Democrat Monday, March 26, 2012 / Page 5

tially a station wagon. The intelligent all-wheel-

drive system is useful in snow and rain, but also helps guide the car through curves on dry pavement. But it’s not intended for serious off-road driving, and the car has a fairly low ground clearance — just over five inches — which won’t allow it to clear rocks and other off-road obstacles.

The EX35 earned the “Top Safety Pick” designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, getting the top score, “Good,” in separate front-, rear- and side-impact and roof-strength tests.

Among the standard safety features are electronic stabil-ity control with traction con-trol, dual-stage/dual-threshold front air bags with seatbelt and occupant-classification sensors, roof-mounted side-curtain air bags for both rows of seats, front seat-mounted driver and passenger side-impact air bags, and front-seat active head restraints.

The EX also comes with rear child-seat anchors and tethers, tire-pressure monitoring, and four-wheel antilock disc brakes.

There is a long list of optional safety equipment as well, although the Top Safe-ty Pick designation was not based on any of these extra-cost features. Those include the Infiniti lane-departure-prevention system, intelli-gent cruise control, distance-control assist and intelligent brake assist with forward collision warning.

Another option is a blind-spot warning system, which

signals the driver with a light if another vehicle is detect-ed in the blind-spot area on either side of the car. If the driver activates the turn sig-nal with another vehicle in the blind spot, the indicator flashes and a warning tone sounds, as well.

The blind-spot warning sys-tem is included in the Tech-nology Package ($2,750), which also brings the lane-departure warning and pre-vention system, intelligent cruise control with distance-control assist, and intelligent brake assist with forward-collision warning.

With this package, though, you’re also required to have the Premium Package ($2,900) and Deluxe Touring Package ($2,400). All three were included on our Jour-ney tester.

The Premium Package adds a navigation system and Bose audio system. The navi-gation system comes with a seven-inch LCD screen, and includes a 9.3-gigabyte hard drive for music storage and playback. Versions with the Bose premium audio system but without the navigation system have a 2-gigabyte hard drive for music storage.

Total sticker for our tester was $47,100, including freight and options.

It’s really not necessary to pay that much for an EX35, if you can live without all the high-priced, high-tech gadgetry and other extras. Without them, you’d still have a great premium crossover for under $37,000, including leather interior.

—G. Chambers Williams III has been an automotive col-

umnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since 1994. He can

be reached at [email protected].

InfinitiFrom Page 4

Four ways to get around while dodging gas prices

ORLANDO — With the cost of gas seemingly stuck in the stratosphere, a grow-ing number of motorists are becoming more and more frustrated when they fill up at the pump. But what’s an outraged motorist to do? These four don’t fret; they just use other modes of transportation.

ScooterQuintin Worcester, a

28-year-old disabled Iraq war vet, found the daily commute to culinary school in his Chrysler Concorde was eating a hole in his bank account. It wasn’t just the 20-mile round trip from his Orlando apartment to Le Cordon Bleu College of Culi-nary Arts. It was getting up every morning at 6:30 to take his girlfriend, Toni Cloutier, to her job, then schlepping back home before leaving at 10 for school. The four-door, V-6 Concorde gets about 20 mpg.

“It was costing me way too much in gas,” Worcester said. “It pretty much caused me to get a scooter.”

Worcester and Clouti-er, 23, ended up with his-and-hers scooters that get 70 mpg. The scooters cost $1,674 each. They require top-grade “super” gas, but even so, Worcester figures he is saving at least $230 a month by parking the Con-corde. The couple use their scooters for every trans-portation need — “unless we have a major grocery-shopping list,” he said.

Worcester and Cloutier are not alone in their brain-storm. Sales at Wild Hogs Scooters in Winter Park, Fla., where they bought the scooters, are up 30 percent from last year, said own-

er J.J. Rupp. “Most people say they’re tired of paying for gas.”

AfootTyger Danger, 23, learned

to hate the car commute in Washington, where the Uni-versity of Florida gradu-ate worked as a magazine editor.

“It was about eight miles from where I lived to work — almost an hour in traffic,” she said, her voice weary with the memory. “A large majority of my paycheck was spent on gas.”

After spinning her wheels for a year in D.C., Danger moved to Orlando and found a job at a downtown public-relations company — and a home in Thornton Park, Fla., a mile and a half away. At first she tried driving to work, but parking downtown was costly and tiresome.

“I had to run down and feed the meter three times a day,” she said.

After a month of that fire drill, Danger hit on a pedes-trian solution: She could walk to work. She loves her 20-minute stroll to work as much as she detested the soul- and budget-draining commute in D.C.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I see Lake Eola every morning. It’s always an interesting scene. It gives me a chance to mentally prepare for the day — and it saves me a bunch of mon-ey.”

BusTori Kelly, 33, has never

owned a car — “by some strange freak of nature, call it an act of God,” she said. She is content to take the bus to and from her job at the University of Central Florida, where she works in the financial-aid office, as well as to her part-time job at the Orlando’s Amway Center arena.

She continues to take the bus even though a recent move from her home near UCF has increased her com-mute temporarily from five minutes to two hours. Kelly hopes to find another home soon near UCF. Buying a car instead is not an option — not at today’s gas prices. And aversion to cars just seems to run in the fam-ily.

“My mother never drove,” said Kelly, who doubts she has the hand-eye coordi-nation to be a good driver.

Moreover, the anecdotal evi-dence argues against own-ing and driving a car.

“It seems there are a lot of car wrecks,” she said. “A lot of high-school and col-lege kids get killed.”

Kelly thinks she is in good company.

“I’ve noticed all the veg-etarians and celebrities — none of them seem to own a car. It’s better for the Earth.”

BicycleAfter signing the lease

on their condo, Joey McCoy and his fiancee, Amy, had a rude awakening: Home-owner-association rules did not allow McCoy to park his company work van, with its logo, on the premises, so he had to leave it at work. McCoy, 31, couldn’t take the couple’s car to work because they have a 14-month-old son.

“I can’t leave her without a vehicle,” he said. “If there is an emergency, it needs to be there.”

The couple tried a routine that proved exhausting for all involved.

“To get to work, I had to wake everybody up, put the baby in the car; my fiancee had to drive me there and back — two round trips a day.”

After nine months, McCoy decided there had to be a better way that involved less crying. He now bikes 5 ½ miles each way to Fer-ran Services, an electrical contractor, near downtown — a piece of cake for a self-described “fitness nut.”

And the switch cost almost nothing.

“I was going to buy a bike, but my cousin had one sit-ting in his garage and gave it to me,” he said. “All it’s cost me so far is two new inner tubes.”

By Greg DawsonThe Orlando Sentinel

thinkstockphotos.com


Peer-to-peer car sharing aims to earn owners cash

CHICAGO — Three years ago Jackie Capozzoli pur-chased her dream car, a sil-ver 2006 Jeep Wrangler. But her graphic design job at Groupon and her side busi-ness making and selling jew-elry keeps her so busy she rarely drives it.

Now the 23-year-old Chi-cago resident has a shot at making money with her unused car.

The latest twist in the car-sharing market has compa-nies helping owners of pri-vate vehicles rent them for short periods to people in their neighborhoods. Last month San Francisco-based RelayRides entered the Chi-cago market as part of a national rollout, and Capoz-zoli signed on.

RelayRides lets car own-ers set their own rental pric-ing but suggests they charge about $5 an hour, or $40 a day, for a full-size sedan; specialty vehicles might command higher rental prices. Renters are respon-sible for returning vehicles in the same condition they were in when picked up, with the same amount of gas in the tank.

Under the RelayRides banner, the owner of the vehicle receives 60 percent of the rental proceeds and grosses an average of $250 a month, said Shelby Clark, who founded the company in 2010 and is a 2004 grad-uate of Northwestern Uni-versity.

For years, car-sharing enterprises Zipcar and I-Go have appealed to city dwell-ers looking to save money. They rent their vehicles for short periods; the vehicles

are available at parking lots or stations across the city.

Making the argument that using a car-sharing service works for the occa-sional driver isn’t hard. The average cost of owning and driving a sedan 10,000 miles a year is $7,632, according to a 2011 study from AAA, a nonprofit drivers group.

Still, renting out a person-al car and thereby not having it ready for use at any time is a huge psychological bar-rier for some people.

“Old habits die hard. Transportation habits in par-ticular die hard,” said Dave Brook, a car-sharing con-sultant with Team Red U.S., who has worked with Relay-Rides in the past. “(People) just sort of automatically go for the keys.”

Peer-to-peer car shar-ing faces other hurdles as well: Car owners have to accept that if their vehicle is trashed or crashed that damages will be covered.

RelayRides, which adver-tises its service online, said that its car owners are cov-ered by a $1 million insur-ance policy and that it checks that each renter has a valid driver’s license that match-es his or her credit card. A renter who gets into a fender bender is responsible for the first $500 in repairs.

The company said it charges the renters and reimburses car owners for minor damages such as stains from spilled coffee or pets. Inconsiderate rent-ers are often rated unsatis-factory by fellow users and can be kicked out of the pro-gram, RelayRides said.

Still, car owners worry. Before Capozzoli listed her Jeep on RelayRides, she was nervous the car might get

scratched. “I love my car, and I take

care of my car,” she said. At the same time, money from renting her Jeep will offset the $500 to $600 a month the vehicle costs her.

“I think the benefits out-weigh the risks,” she said.

Some people who have signed up to rent their cars like the idea of helping neighbors. Kevin Patton-Hock, 52, who said he has been involved with Relay-Rides in Somerville, Mass., since 2010, said he earns $200 to $300 a month rent-ing his 2009 Hybrid Ford Escape.

“Initially it’s sort of been about getting some extra cash,” said Patton-Hock. “(Now) it’s just sort of a nice thing to do in your neigh-borhood.”

In January the reputation of peer-to-peer car sharing took a blow when HiGear, which focuses on luxury vehicles, made headlines after thieves using stolen identities drove off with four of its users’ cars. Last month HiGear was acquired by Rent2Buy, a luxury car rent-to-own business. Rent-2Buy said it has retained most of HiGear’s car own-ers and was beefing up secu-rity, though a spokesman declined to be specific.

Clark got the idea for RelayRides as a student at Harvard Business School. One wintry day he couldn’t locate a Zipcar to drive to a Thanksgiving family gath-ering.

“I’m slugging through the sleet and the snow, very unhappy that I’m biking in the snow ... (wondering), ‘Why am I passing all these cars to get to a car?’ ” said Clark.

By Naomi NixChicago Tribune

Murky trouble code points to ignition coil

QUESTION: I’m hav-ing motor problems with my Chrysler PT Cruis-er. Awhile ago, my check engine light kept com-ing on so I had a mechan-ic put it on a computer. It named the No. 2 spark plug as the problem. I had the mechanic install all new spark plugs and wires, and still the engine light was on. We even tried just switching them around to see what it would say — and again, No. 2 spark plug.

Then he thought that it might be the coil, so we replaced that and still no results. If anything, now the car rides worse. When I come to a red light or stop sign, it shud-ders as if it wants to stall, and the check engine light dings and flashes.

What’s going on? What else would alert us to a No. 2 spark plug? Are PT Cruisers known for this trouble? I hate doing this trial-and-error stuff — besides the cost, the car seems worse every day.

—Walter Bartlebaugh

ANSWER: Walter, I’m a little fuzzy on the exact diagnostic trouble code your technician has retrieved. Could this be P0302 (cylinder 2 misfire detected) or P2303 (igni-tion coil No. 2, secondary circuit, insufficient ion-ization)?

Here’s the difference: P0302 means cylinder 2 is misfiring more than 1 percent of the time dur-ing two consecutive vehi-cle trips or more severely

during a single trip. The cause could be a mechan-ical, fuel, or ignition fault. Mechanical faults include leaky valves, valve train faults and, in rare cases, piston or pis-ton ring problems. Fuel faults peculiar to cylinder 2 include a dirty or errat-ic fuel injector, a vacuum leak, and injector circuit faults — that is, engine computer or wiring.

In addition to a likely misfire code, an ignition fault may also set code P2303, which means the No. 2 ignition coil’s spark burn time, or duration, is incorrect or not present. I think this may be the code you are referring to. If so, the onboard diag-nostic system has done a great job narrowing the search area for you. P2303 could be caused by a faulty spark plug, spark plug wire, ignition coil, or coil circuit fault — again, engine comput-er or wiring. Irregular spark burn time could also be caused by a cyl-inder mechanical or fuel problem.

Your PT Cruiser employs a waste spark ignition system. This means two ignition coils, both contained within a single assembly, provide spark for the four cyl-inders. Coil No. 1 fires cylinders 1 and 4, and Coil No. 2 fires cylinders 2 and 3. Since the No. 2 coil fires two cylinders,

the problem could reside within either of the two cylinders, or with the coil or coil control circuit, causing misfiring in both cylinders.

I’d begin by double-checking the diagnostic trouble code. Is there a cylinder-specific misfire code? Next is a cylinder balance test, which deter-mines power contribution of each cylinder; a com-pression test, which looks for mechanical faults; an injector balance test to check injector flow rates; and careful observation of the No. 2 coil control circuit, using an oscillo-scope or graphing multi-meter to verify correct and consistent electri-cal signals sent by the engine computer to the coil. I’d also take a close look at the fuel injector circuit commands for cylinders 2 and 3.

This is an intriguing problem. If you weren’t 2,700 miles away, I’d be tempted to drive to your house to check this out. Try to get this fixed as soon as possible, as mis-firing causes massive exhaust emissions and will damage your catalyt-ic converter. —Brad Bergholdt is an auto-

motive technology instruc-tor at Evergreen Valley

College in San Jose, Calif. Readers may send him

email at [email protected]; he cannot

make personal replies.

By Brad BergholdtMcClatchy-Tribune News Service

Under the hood

This is an intriguing problem. If you weren’t 2,700 miles away, I’d be tempted to drive to your house to check this out.


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