Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Here is something new... (BIG problem)

So.. As many people here know, I have had misfire problems for a while... I have reason to believe that my spark plugs (Autolite DP's), arent working well in my zetec engine. So im planning on replaceing them with Motorcraft DP's... So today, I come up to a red light... im still rolling at about 5 miles per hour... and it turns green. so I put it into 2nd because im told as long as the car is rolling I can keep going from 2nd... So I put it into 2nd and let the clutch out I get my usual misfire.. but the engine is at a low rev.. I push the gas down and it clangs 2 or 3 times... it came from slightly to the right of where I was sitting... In the engine bay of corse... The thing about this, is that I have heard I think coming from the same spot a light tapping noise on occasion... Especially when the rev really drops (turn on the A/C and it gets a little louder).... The thing that is scareing me right now... is that its my Cat Converter...

Here is some MORE information prior to this event... Slightly earler I was sitting at a stop sign... It felt like the car was rumbleing arround more then usual... so I turn the CD player off, roll down my window and I notice my engine's idle is going nuts... its going up from idleing fine... to a rough idle and back up to fine.... I let it do this for a minute to see if it would fix itself... but it didnt. I tap the gas pedal, and the idle fixes. When I get to my destination and sit in a parking spot, I tryed to get it to do it, light taps of the gas pedal trying to put it back into the irregular paturn... But I cant do it. I go into the store, come back out and start to head home. I come up next to a REALLY nice Mitusbishi Eclipse TSI (looked like a 98). As Im coming up to the stop light as I push the brakes a little harder I notice my idle gets a little rougher... then I come to a complete stop, and my idle is down to crap again like the first time. Give the engine a little rev... everything is fine again. Then later I get the pinging noise... I have also noticed that my acceleration has been rougher lately... Any suggestions PLEASE would help so very much.

my CEL is NOT on.

maybe ur timing is off? have ur plugs changed by a good shop and see if it gets better. the rough idle may have something to do with ur alternator so how old is it? he brakes and then a/c all use battery power and a failing alternator could disrupt ur idle. when i bought my car the battery in it was very very old and worn out. it was fine for a test drive, but if u drove it for long enough (during a 24hr test drive) the lights would dim and the idle change during long braking and eventually it would stall during breaking and need to be jumped. the dealer replaced the battery and the car is incredible. so glad i overlooked that and bought it

thanks for the info... My battery looks old as hell... But I dont have any idea when it was last replaced... I will hook up a charger to it today and run a 2 amp trickle charge and see if that doesnt help anything... As for the pinging noise I got... I cant get it to come back... I even went down to like 4 MPH in 2nd and pushed the gas down again and it didnt do it... Maybe it was just a different car arround me that did it? or Maybe just a gaurd underneath the car was rattleing?

You've been running around with a bad misfire for quite some time. Your engine is going to get worse until you fix the misfire. If you continue to run too long, you will permanently damage the engine. Change those plugs ASAP to determine if that is the problem, I'd give you my old Motorcrafts from the Zetec if I could...

Hey Jared,
Remember that silver SVT that you saw in the Farmer Jack parking in midland a few weeks ago?! Haha... remember i asked you to race!?

hey man, I ment to tell you about CEG, im glad you came and checked it out.. Excelent site to get info from. What were you doing in midland anyways? Did you just buy the CSVT? I had seen it in town a couple of times but didnt know who owned it.

Well, I finally just said "screw it" and went to buy some Motorcraft spark plugs... at the Autozone website they were listed as 4112... which were 4$ each. bought them, and when I went to put gap the first one.. I looked at it, and the tip was broken So I put the rest of the new ones in, and left an autolite in there, headed back to autozone, replaced the crap one, gapped that one and put it in, went for a drive.... WOW! No more misfires... at all... Heres the stupidness to this whole thing... THe first set of spark plugs I bought were Champion DP's they were like 24$... Put them in, misfires... then I got a set of Autolite DP's 21$... Put them in, misfires, but much less appearant... NOW I put the cheapest motorcraft plugs in which were 15$... and everything is smooth Damn it.. thats angers me that the cheapest part works the best... Oh well, all runs good and im happy with it.