I have a 2000 Hyundai Sonata, 6 cyl, Front Wheel Drive, Automatic, 90000 miles.
The car has trouble starting after it rains and if it does start it idles low and rough. I drove it for about 2 minutes to the store and when i came back out it ran fine and started up quickly. The car gave an error code for the crankshaft sensor after trying to start it the other day in the rain but i think that may have been tripped by whatever is shorting out the electrical system after it rains. Could the problem be the ignition coil or is there another culprit?
If the spark plug wires are the originals, they likely need to be replaced.
What you described is the exact symptom of bad spark plug wires.
Difficult starting in wet, high humidity circumstances often means you need an ignition tune up. Old spark plugs are affected by moisture. When was the last tune up; new plugs in particular?
the spark plugs and wires were replaced about 1 month ago and this problem happened before that.
Agree with both VDC and Uncle, this is the most common cause of poor wet weather performance, unless you own an English car with Lucas electrics. In the latter case you have poor performance most of the time.
My younger brother during his poor college days had an old flat head Dodge and used the sport section of the paper (just the right size) which he set on fire and placed under the hood on top of the engine to dry out the wires. The weekend edition of the New York Times would have been enough to incinerate the car. Needless to say I don’t recommend this effective but dangerous practice, except in an emergency. A proper iginiton tuneup is in order.
Good luck!
Does that engine have a distributor?
If so, then a cracked distributor cap would be my next suspect.
It has an ignition coil that the plug wires connect to. i believe this is a distributorless car.