cliftyhanger
|
| posted on 16/7/12 at 07:41 AM |
|
|
misfire, plug?
Our trusty family bus (03 Zafira) has now clocked up 110,000 miles with nothing but service items, an oxygen sensor and a thermostat. I was singing
its praises just the other day. Which was a mistake.
Friday eve it started misfiring on one cylinder. Number 4 according to the ecu.
Just pulled the plugs, and no4 is very white, looks lean, all the others seem fine. I have replaced the plug with one of the old ones I took out
60,000 miles ago (oops, think it is a 50,000 mile service item) and all seems well. I will pop up to halfords for a new set as soon as possible of
course. Especially as we are off on our hols in it on friday.
My thoughts are that the plug may just have died, but the whiteness worries me. Should I be fretting? Anything I can check while I am playing? Plus I
believe the management light will go off after 40 starts or something, unless there is a trick for resetting it?
Cheers
Clive
|
|
|
|
|
britishtrident
|
| posted on 16/7/12 at 10:47 AM |
|
|
If the misfire went away with simply changing the plug then you have won a watch.
Usually best to change the plugs earlier than the service schedule as it could save you the cost of a coil pack (on a Vauxhall this can be
anywhere from £80 to nearly £300). But don't be too surprised if you have too change a coil pack at some point, coil packs have a finite
life as they are exposed to very rough operating conditions.
As for clearing the fault codes any cheap OBD scanner or dongle will do the job and cost less than £20.
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
|
|
|
cliftyhanger
|
| posted on 16/7/12 at 01:04 PM |
|
|
Arse, wife has been out and mis-fire is back
Coil pack ordered, we will see and cross fingers. My worry is the white plug is a symptom of a lean mixture or worse
saying that a lean mixture on one cylinder is probably a bad bad thing.
|
|
|
britishtrident
|
| posted on 16/7/12 at 02:54 PM |
|
|
It is possible it is wiring or connector issue something of Achilles heel on Vauxhalls as they get older but by money is still on plugs/coil
pack as misfire plays havoc with the mixture when running closed loop. A duff fuel injector is also possible.
It would be good if you could look at live data from the ecu but if you don't have the gear .......
[Edited on 16/7/12 by britishtrident]
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
|
|
|
