Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance Missfire in cyl. #3

I drove the car today, as soon as I pull out of my spot it's got a terrible miss and runs like shyte. I drove it down to my mechanic and heard a small pop outta the exhaust when driving. Scanner pulled up a cyl #3 missfire. The cyl is getting good spark. Spark plugs are fairly new (dbl plat Motorcrafts) and recent 9mm FR wires. The coil was replaced as well. I'm gonna put the Motorcraft coil back on and see if it makes a diffence. BTW car has 130k mi on it. Fuel filter was also replaced within the last 5mo. Any other suggestions appreciated.

Pull out the spark plug boot. Water got down inside the wells on mine and created a random misfire code from cylinder 2.

Have you pulled the #3 plug to check it out? I recently had a misfire caused by a crack in the plug's ceramic insulator, and that was with plugs that were less than 3 months old. If it looks ok, at least check/reset the gap before you reinstall it.

Also you could try moving that plug to another cylinder and see if the code follows.

I had the same problem with Autolite DBL plat...

Bought new plugs and problem solved. I now have Motorcraft dbl plat.

Also, coil pack, a little rubber boot in the connecting harness might be causing a loose connection. Mine did and I had removed it, problem solved.

Update: The plug looked fine when I pulled it. I swapped the #4 and #3 plugs and put back on the stock Motorcraft coil, then reset the ECU. I drove the car last night to the Nets game and it felt better. Although I didn't after the Nets lost

Well, it seems the miss is back. Very noticable between 1500-2000 RPM's. Also I've noticed the car pinging when I'm going up a steep incline under load. Plugs/wires are good, fuel filter new, and my last tank of gas I've dropped in a can of B12. Should I check/clean the EGR system?? Any ideas appreciated.