In part 1 I walked you through the diagnostics and repair of an Impala with a bad starter. I still had the other two cars to work with. The Buick with potential battery drain still needed to sit so I could be sure the computers were timed out. I hadn't been able to get a misfire from the Mazda but a scan for codes showed it had been missing on cylinder #1. The car had 130,000 miles and it wouldn't be a crazy idea to check the spark plugs. An easy way to see if a car needs spark plugs is to pull one out and look at it. Well, sometimes easy.
It wouldn't be easy to remove the actual #1 cylinder spark plug. It's buried pretty well under the upper intake or plenum.
You know what though? All I really needed to do at this point was find out if the car needed spark plugs. The front bank ignition coils were not hidden. I said I like to go for easy if the car lets me.
Pulled one of the spark plugs from the front bank and yes it had worn spark plugs. Original plugs with 130,000 miles.
The customer gave the go-ahead and I went after even those hard to reach spark plugs. The car got new plugs and a new coil on #1 cylinder. I know #1 was misfiring even if I couldn't re-create the problem. Driving with worn spark plugs causes damage to ignition coils and you really don't want to put that same coil from a misfiring cylinder back in that hole.
Tools to diagnose:
Tools to repair:
Thanks!
G&G Auto Repair
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