Spring comes early in TX compared to many of the places in the vast nation. I t was just one of those days, work was piled deep glow of the monitors was getting to me. I went for a drive. I don't get out a lot, a whopping 174 miles in total for Feburary so I was driving like I stole it. Long uphill sweeper, foot to floor in 3rd. The shift lights warnign me it's time to go to 4th and then all of the sudden limp mode, flashing CEL and running on 3 cylinders. My heart sank, not this again. Pull to a parking lot and shut it down, pop in the code reader. P0302 - Misfire Cyl 2. Oh thats fun, I've had this for cyl 1 and 3 but never 2. Clear the code, start it back up, running on all 4 now. Nurse it back home and the the CEL comes back on. Check the code again when home, same thing, clear it out. *****, moan, cry and throw stuff. Not now, I've already been into the guts of this engine twice and it there are only 53 K on it. Plug the data logger in for the next drives. Life gets the way for the next week, a few little jaunts to the store still shows the same P0302 code. All kinds of things are going through my mind, coil, wire, plugs or something nasty internal. All the spare parts and tools are already packed for the move so I take it over to my favorite tech here in the Dallas area. Props to Will at Bob's Tire and Auto. Pull the data logger, hook up the laptop and fire up the Data Viewer software. load the file for the drive from the home to the shop. We narrow down the view to Speed (red), RPM (blue) and Cyl2Misfires (pink). We start to make correlations to the peaks and valleys. We also pulled in the Cyl1, 3 and 4 misfires just to check, they were clean, only a very few recorded. Not at all to be worried about. From the data we narrowed the diagnostics to possibly a plug or injector. A plan is formulated to swap the #2 and 3 injector and see if the misfire follows. Also take a look at the plugs. Since I have a GP I/C getting to the plugs involves pulling the I/C off before we can get to anything. The injectors are swapped toot sweet and the #2 plug is pulled. Looking at the tip we see the porcelain in the tip looks odd, touch it with the tip of a small screwdriver and it moves. Thats not supposed to happen. Pop in a new plug, button it up, clear the code and take it out for a short test drive. No CEL. Pay, drive home and still no CEL. Take it back out for bit, drive it like a rented mule and no CEL. Whew...
Whew is right.............nice when it works out that way.....heres to a CEL free existence with 4 cylinders working in harmony
mutters under breath....damn foriegn cars......mutter, mutter...... You driving the MINI to Columbus or hauling it on a trailer behind the U-Haul? I brought my Jag to KC from Sandy Eggo on a trailer - worked just fine and I hardly knew it was back there with the sized truck I used. It was less expensive too- trailer was only about $70 IIRC....less than the gas to drive it.
Driving...all the stuff is going in a pod type thing. So much easier than a truck/trailer and less expensive too.
Glad it was an easy fix for you. Sorry it scared the carp outta you first. Yikes! Because you are going to be my new neighbor I'll swap you my stock intercooler for that troublesome GP one. Do you think detonation could have cause the plug to go tango uniform?
oh man Nathan, i was about to cry as i know all the stuff you have gone through. Glad everything is ok
NGK Iridium and yes. Thanks for that very generous offer but I have a stock I/C in my parts bins already. It's possible detonation could have caused the failure. I will will be monitoring the situation. The long term adaption had pulled 6% of the fueling across the board. This has been reset and will watched as well. Then again, it could of just been a bad plug.
Wow, that is fantastic news! You had Royce and I pretty worried the other night, knowing there was a possibilty you were about to have to repeat a costly pattern. Moral; always check the plugs first, and it sure is awesome to have datalogging software. Sent from my Droid
I think an HPDE is in order so you quit missing those gears. Glad it was nothing major, although the pucker factor may take a day or two to get over...
The family has barred me from DE's until after the move. They are afraid I am going to break something and run into a time crunch in getting it fixed before the move.
Smart family. Glad you resolved the CEL without to much trouble other then wasting time and having to pay someone else to do the work.
Run the JCW NGK 4 prongers Nathan. I've never had a problem with them other than losing a few cubic mm of chamber volume. :aureola: Jeremy
Yep that could be it, but keeping an eye & ear on it is a good idea. 2 stock intercoolers would be killer on your car. My offer still stands if you change your mind. :smile5: