My 2001 Caravan is starting and idling rough. This started only a week ago and I have since done an oil change with new oil and air filters, replaced all plugs, wires and the ignition coil. I disconnected the battery for a couple of minutes to try to reset the computer. It's still having the problem. Initially, I couldn't even get the car to start but after replacing the plugs, wires and coils, it starts fine, just runs rough. I am also smelling a small amount of gas in the exhaust.

If anybody has any ideas about what this might be, I'd appreciate it. I have broken too many nails trying to get this thing running right. I am out of ideas!

 

May have an injector on the fritz or dropped valve causing low compression. Are you getting spark and fuel and injector pulse at #4?

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0304

 

Yes, I am getting spark but haven't checked beyond that. The odd thing is, I had changed the plugs and tested - #1 and #4 were misfiring. I changed the wires and the problem with #1 went away. The old plug in the #4 spot seemed particularly fouled when I removed it but, then again, I have no idea when the last time might have been that these things were done.

How would I go about checking the injection and ignition pulse, as you recommended?

 

Was there any milky color to the oil when you changed it? I'm thinking maybe a head gasket tear around cylinder #4...

 

So where did you end up on this? I have a P0304 code as well, just under 100k on a 2001 SE 2.4L. Just replaced the plugs and wires this weekend hoping it would be that easy, still getting the code as well as a flashing light sometimes at idle (rough idle, intermittently). Should I move on to a new coil, or do some other diag's first?

 

I should have posted earlier. Sorry. Turned out that we had a blown head gasket. After trying to fix various things, we gave up and bought a new car. This one just wasn't worth any more time of money invested.