Misfire (Coilpack?)

[richdraper]

As some of you may have seen I've 'developed' a misfire.  

Saturday i bled my brakes and obviously, i elbowed the bottle of brake fluid off the front of the engine bay! A good effort i must admit, if a little clumsy. I hosed (NOT presure washed) the liquid from wherever it landed.. some on my battery box cover, some on the wiring looms and hoses above the gearbox  mostly down the front of the bumper though. Ever since then shes suffering a misfire. diagnostics report P0300, P0301, P0303, P1313 & P1316 all stored at ign on.  So theres a 'random/multiple misfire', 'Cyl. 1' and 'Cyl. 3 misfire', respectively P1313 and P1316 relate to incorrect emissons caused by misfire.

wiring harness (the one with the service bulletin) is now dry and no amount of manipulation makes the misfire any better when the engine is running. so im thinking a may have a) got water in the multiplugs, b) got water down the plug holes somehow?? c) goosed 1 or more coilpacks.

will be attempting to strip out 1 and 3 this weekend, ill check the wiring that runs over the rocker covers. do i need to worry about inlet manifold seals or can i reuse?

 

as a final note, whats the significance of a flashing EML, (we all know by now what a static one means)

 

any and all ideas/input warmly received, as usual.

[Martian999]

Rich,

I am presuming that she was running fine before your little 'mishap'?

Rightly, (or wrongly), I occasionally 'jet wash' my engines, (2.5 V6 X-Type, SLK and my trusty Volvo V40), but I always do it with the engine running as it is the only way to remove 'road grime'.

I have experienced coil pack issues on an S-Type Jaguar, (several years ago), and, more recently, on one of my motorcycles.

The S-Type issue was caused by rain water running through the wiper mechanism drain and the water then ran into a couple of the spark plug recesses, (which house the Coil packs), and upon removal the coli packs, (and the top of the plugs), showed signs of rust.

Once cleaned and dried the engine ran perfectly once again and I added clear bathroom sealant to the top rubber seals.

The motorcycle problem was a little more complex - but may be relevant. 

My bike developed a misfire and it became totally random as the bike would always start ok but would then lose a cylinder once on the move.

Upon examination,  (after about an hours labour removing the fairing and air ducts), I found a similar sight - rust evident on the Coil packs which indicated water ingress due to poor seals.

But even after cleaning the misfire remained and I decided to replace all of the Coil packs as they were hollow, (somewhat silly design), allowing the water to enter the coils themselves and, presumably, corrode the wiring from within!

If the engine was fine before you washed it and you have yet to remove/clean the Coil packs then I am  reasonably confident this action will resolve your issue, (you could be very unlucky and have a very dirty plug - due to it getting contaminated with soot from a partially burned charge - in which case new plugs may be required - but they should be fine).

Good luck with your investigation - these days it is the access that is more of a problem than the fix!!

Martin.

[richdraper]

10 hours ago, Martian999 said:

Rich,

I am presuming that she was running fine before your little 'mishap'?

The S-Type issue was caused by rain water running through the wiper mechanism drain and the water then ran into a couple of the spark plug recesses, (which house the Coil packs), and upon removal the coli packs, (and the top of the plugs), showed signs of rust.

Once cleaned and dried the engine ran perfectly once again and I added clear bathroom sealant to the top rubber seals.

...

Good luck with your investigation - these days it is the access that is more of a problem than the fix!!

Martin.

Hi Martin,

Yep, ran perfectly before hose usage. i too have never had a problem with hosing down/jet washing engines and bays, until this.

Today is the day of reckoning, as soon as this rain shifts ill be making a start, ill probably try to document it and put together a 'how to' for others.

 

Plan is to replace all plugs (because i dont know their history, and its a PITA to do it at a later date considering how much i have to take off to get to the packs) shift the 2 suspect coils to the front bank of cylinders, hopefully will just be a 'bit of wet' and will dry out nicely, worst case it will cost me a couple of coil packs. but being on the front bank makes replacement a hell of a lot easier. 

[richdraper]

Fixed... 

Relatively cheap too. I managed to find 6x NGK Platinums shipped on Next Day Special Delivery with change from £30. I'd scoured the interwebs for coilpacks and found nothing i could afford just yet... OEM Denso are no longer manufactured by the looks of it, there was plenty of lesser quality parts, but i'm of the school of 'buy cheap, buy twice'... NGK coil packs are on my radar a) to match the plugs, b) because they're a 'premium brand' at middle of the road money (around £50 per unit)

Luckily, no coil packs were needed, just a set of plugs... On my initial test drive (nearly 10miles round trip on a mixture of roads) she hasn't faulted at all.

(Bear in mind that before plug replacement she was missing at idle, I'm happy for now but there'll always be that niggle in the back of my mind and the NGK Coilpack number on a post it note somewhere in my tool box.)

if anyone wants a guide for this let me know ill put one together as a PDF and post

 

The plugs i took out were tatty, really tatty. I was lead to believe they had been changed around Aug/Sept last year, hence why i instantly suspected coilpacks, these look like they've been in for about 3 years. Plug gap looks excessive from this picture but side by side with new plugs and there's not a lot of difference to the eye.

 

[Martian999]

Rich,

Excellent news!

The plugs do look rather 'tired' and the gaps look a tad large too, (but I am probably incorrect in my assumption)!

From my last 'adventure', (checking plugs and packs on the S Type V8), I do recall that a couple of the plugs were very difficult to access!

I have just ordered an upstream O2 Sensor for my X Type, (as I am getting the 1646 error), and I am sure that I will have fun and games accessing, (and removing), the suspect sensor, ('upstream' rear bank), so I have also ordered an offset removal socket for £5!!

Will now be making a fuss of my knuckles as I suspect there won't be much left of them after this job!!

I will start a new post in the X Type section for this particular task.

Martin.

[richdraper]

new plugs come 'pre-gapped', so i know they're good, and they were almost indistinguishable by eye from the old ones.

ive driven a little more today and in high gears and low revs (5th picking up from 25-30mph)  there's the odd misfire. like 1 or 2... not enough to cause any lack of power or an EML. if it worsens im probably gonna throw a coil pack on her. 

[JOE-DOT-COM]

hi

try SNG BARRATT for you coil packs

they offer genuine ones and after market ones and are good value

https://www.sngbarratt.com/uk/#!/English/FindParts/Families/S-Type and X-Type/12

cheers

Joe

 

[richdraper]

thanks joe they are good prices if they are, infact, genuine. both look like 'FoMoCo' from the pics. Might be worth sending an email

[Jagnumpty]

I know I'm late to this thread, but " thanks joe they are good prices" is so far off the mark that i don't understand some people!

Those prices are totally insane! As is anyone who pays them.

Half a grand for a plastic fan surround? One an a half for a transfer box? Seventy odd quid for a single coil pack when they should be replaced in sets of six?

Four hundred & fifty freakin' hundred semolians? I didn't pay that much for my '04, 2.5 X-Type AWD (Sports Package) estate.

Now I know why I prefer the older technology. Most of the time I can repair it with a screwdriver and a half inch spanner!

I need a decent sized estate car, but I'm afraid that Jaguar is going to have be crossed off the list of possibilities in future!

Back to Volvo? 🤔