Bad RPM gauge, Had this same problem - replaced it with one from a junkyard and it fixed it.

 

That would aslo cause the car to run rough? Like it has no power?

 

missed that.

Have the Check Engline light read.

 

Time to look for a vac leak. Something came loose somewhere.

 

I figured it out, kinda. I'm guessing I pissed somebody off in the store parking lot and while I was in the store they swapped my #1 and #4 spark plug wires. I swapped them back and the car ran fine for about 30 minutes but then went back to doing what it was before

 

Are you serous about the switching plug wires? Were you driving with no hood? Sounds pretty ballsy for someone to actually mess with your car. To me thats the same as someone messing with your food or family, car comes first.

Whats the update?

 

Since you have a base and a distributor I am pretty unfamiliar with how it behaves during a failure, but on a DOHC the tach signal comes from the PTU, which is the ignitor for the coils.

Any misfire can make the tach act up as far as I know.

 

It's a DOHC with a coil pack. Would the wires being switched like that ruin the coil pack?

 

its been theorized that unplugging wires while the engine is running can damage a coil or the ptu, but I've never heard of anyone proving it. Sorry, for some reason I assumed you had a stealth.

 

1 and 4 are the same coil so it doesnt matter if the wires are switched on the towers.

 

Hmmm. Then it must've only ran fine for those 30 minutes because it was cold. And after the car warmed up it started running like crap again.

 

My Stealth had an intermittent issue with the tach reading about half of what it should and it running rough; it was the PTU (ignition control module). All DOHC (including turbo) use the same unit 91-99 so they're easy to get. It's also about a 10 minute job to change it, assuming the mounting screws don't break. I'd put money that the PTU is your problem. Good luck

 

Now a new problem. Replaced the PTU, reconnected everything. Intake, battery ect. Went to start the car an poof, saw a small white cloud come out of the engine bay and the car went complely dead. Any ideas on what would cause that?

 

sounds like you let the magic white smoke out of an electronic of some kind. unfortunately it may be difficult to track down which one.

 

Got the car running. PTU didn't fix the problem. Gonna change out the coil pack next and then possibly the ECU.

 

Dont just throw parts at a problem, FIND the problem.

Your next step to change coils is still OK because they do age and fail,but leanr to use a multimeter and confirm the part is bad first.

-SP

 

I replaced the coils. Still have the same problem but at 230k miles they needed to be replaced anyway. I opened up the ECU and only thing that looked wrong to me was this. C105, C3.