Hi all, A couple of times recently, we've started up my daughter's '56-plated 1.2 8 valve and it has started missfiring. Today, it just misfired for about 3 miles, periodically. The other day it did similar but the engine management light flashed for a few seconds too. On both occasions, after parking up for half an hour or so, it drove fine on the way home.

I imagine I have an ingition fault, which is being made worse by the damp weather? I guess the heat from the enging while it is parked up is drying out the affected components?

The plugs are fairly new (about 6 months old) NGKs. I guess it could be leads, but I was wondering if failed coil packs were common on these?

Id say it's a coil pack going. they do go eventually causing the car to misfire, the damp weather doesn't help much. you'll get a new set of spark plugs too as they need to be changed for the parts warranty

Check the ht leads

Thanks both. I've got a set of HT leads on order from Eurocarparts. They should arrive today, so I'll give them a try. When we changed the plugs, some of the current ones put up quite a fight against being pulled off the plugs, and I'm wondering if I damaged them with all the heaving.

It would maybe help to use some 11" right angle pliers, to remove the plug caps. This will help you pull from the plug without the risk of damage to the cable.
You can buy the pliers on eBay for about £5.00.
Hope that helps.

Andy Monty said:

Check the ht leads

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

My money would be on HT leads. When coil packs fail they tend to go and stay gone rather than come and go.

Hi sorry about the dislike......was my large thumb pressing the button.....oops!

guacamole said:

It would maybe help to use some 11" right angle pliers, to remove the plug caps. This will help you pull from the plug without the risk of damage to the cable.
You can buy the pliers on eBay for about £5.00.
Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Ta. Yes, I used pliers (not those, but similar). However, it was the boots that had "welded" themselves to the plug porcelain. I tried not to put any strain on the conductor core, but of course, you can never be sure. I know I put a little nick in one of the boots too, so maybe that's the one. Dry and sunny today. Went out in it this lunchtime and it was absolutely fine.

OK, a tentative update. I think we're sorted! I went out in it this morning (grey drizzly day) and there was no hint of a misfire! If anything, it felt like it might have had a smidgen more power, in fact. When we took the old leads off, one of the rubber shrouds split completely leaving its bottom half on the plug porcelain, so I'm hoping that was our problem!

I had a similar problem with my Evo, started it and instantly went into limp mode but it was fine afterwards. Turned out coil pack 1 had failed.