Hey up guys,

Just got back from a job interview, drove a total of 23miles - mostly on bumpy back roads from bradford to sawerby bridge and the car didnt like it all, neither did I, stupid sat nav took me that way and it scared the **** out of me!.

Anyhow - i got round the corner from my house and she started spluttering like mad, from what i can remember - its like a miss fire, poor power and sounds like a three cylinder.

I did a full service (plugs, oil, filters etc) in november 2014 at around 81k.
Its on 89k now and its had one oil change about 5 months ago when it had a new gearbox, clutch and sump (as they damaged the sump removing the box)...

Im thinking that if its missfire, its most likely down to old spark plugs as they should of been changed by now again? am i right? done about 8k since they where last changed.

Im going to strip them down and clean them, will also make a video of the engine noise.

Any advice guys?? I darent drive it.

Youtube link here [ame="https://youtu.be/M7oNMeeseSI"]https://youtu.be/M7oNMeeseSI[/ame]

Video is currently processing, should be visible soon.
Any advice would be great, off to strip her apart now.

Have noticed some oil coming from the rocker cover hose to the air pipe, could it be too tight? i did tighten it as it has a crack where it connects to the air pipe (air box to tb) using a small jubilee clip - was never any oil there previous (when i last changed plugs).

Also, the wires to the coils - well, can see the plastic casing that protects the insulated wires has perished - you can see in the pics, is this an issue?

Anyhow, going to clean the plugs - but can anyone advise if they look ok?

Cleaned the plugs down, put them all back in the same cylinders they where in.
Put everything back, rotated filter in airbox.

Started fine, got me about 30 yards up the street and then it started missfiring again, got to the top, turning it round and revving it high with the clutch half engaged and the missfire went away, as soon as put under load again it started missing again.

Im hoping its just the spark plugs as they have done around 8 or 9k miles now.
Can anyone advise on the wiring going to the spark plug coils? are they ok, the protective plastic casing has perished very close to where they are in clips literally a 1mm away from the rocker cover.

Also, I have cleaned up the oil on the right hand side near the breather pipe, see if it comes back? do the rocker cover gaskets go on these often as that might be an issue if the oil comes back around the gasket and not that pipe...

Checked oil level too, just touching max after its been sat for 5mins, also doesnt appear to use much oil at all, i put half a litre in about 3 weeks ago, first top up in 5 months.

As above, any help would be great.

Have you checked the coils.

leeroy1988 said:

Have you checked the coils.

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Coils look fine, is there anything in particular i should be looking at on the coils?.

thanks in advance

If you have spark tester use that alternatively. Star your engine unplug the coils in turn. If the engine running is unaffected then you have your potential offending coil. If you remove one and the engine cuts out then it may be the other spark in the pair of the cylinders.

leeroy1988 said:

If you have spark tester use that alternatively. Star your engine unplug the coils in turn. If the engine running is unaffected then you have your potential offending coil. If you remove one and the engine cuts out then it may be the other spark in the pair of the cylinders.

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Oh bummer, just been reading that plugs should last around 18k, these have done around half of that, getting worried now as i've recently been made redundant and scraping funds now...

Another question... is it safe to grab the coil and pull it out with the car started or unplug the connector off the top of the coil plug whilst the engine is running?

I ask because I once pulled a H.T lead off a plug on an older car when it was running as it had a similar to problem to mine and i got a right belt!!... really dont fancy yanking one out when its running, over 30,000v run through them!.

Can you elaborate on the above please, i really dont think its a good idea based on my past experiences.

One idea springs to mind, unplug one connector at a time on a single coil then start it up, maybe check it that way?

Thanks for you advise so far.

Use plastic or insulated pliers to pull the coils out. Stick a glove on if your a woose but that is how i check for buggered coils or HT wires on older cars/bikes.

GPz750 said:

Use plastic or insulated pliers to pull the coils out. Stick a glove on if your a woose but that is how i check for buggered coils or HT wires on older cars/bikes.

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Not that much of a woose in them terms pal but i kid you not! the belt i got nearly glued me to the HT lead and my whole body was numb, followed by pins an needles everywhere for some time after! not an experience i want again!.

see how it goes tomorrow, too dark to work on it now.

dtimmins1985 said:

Not that much of a woose in them terms pal but i kid you not! the belt i got nearly glued me to the HT lead and my whole body was numb, followed by pins an needles everywhere for some time after! not an experience i want again!.

see how it goes tomorrow, too dark to work on it now.

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Years ago (Mid 80's) my step brother and me went down to work in Bradford for just over a year. We got a non running 125 to play about with. Getting it running i got him to hold the HT while i kicked it over.... BBBBBBZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz........AAAHHHhhhhh. Few hours later did i not get him again

Diddy is not much brighter today

Lol thats funny Think my mate is going to bring over his foxwell nt600 over the weekend so will see what it says, local moto save has offered to read it on there kit for free too but don't really want to drive it and cause anymore damage

Took the risk this morning, drove round the corner to Wilco Moto Save.
Very nice chap in the garage read the faults for me.

MIL Status: ON (but strange becuase no light on dashboard and the engine management LED does work on IGN).

1 Fault: Engine Coolant Temp Sensor - I knew about this, it brought the MIL light on a few months back and then went off after a couple of cranks of the engine.

Cleared this code... then 2 more came up.

Multiple Cylinder Missfire Detected
Missfire on Cylinder 2

Multiple Cylinder Missfire Detected
Missfire on Cylinder 4

The guy in the garage said it was most likely the coil packs on cyl 2 and 4.
Quoted me £35 each.

Checked EuroCarParts - they have two prices:

£15 each, made by HAAS
£30 each, made by Magnelli Marelli

Checked for comparisons online and cant find any, most i can find is that both manufacturers also make F1 car parts.... can anyone advise?

Update:

The Stilo lives on till another day
Replaced two coils this morning and it's purring like a kitten (for how long i dont know).

Did a bit of messing prior to changing them out this morning, disconnected each connector on top of each coil one by one, they all made a difference when disconnecting one at a time but cylinder 1 and 3 made more of a difference than 2 and 4 when disconnecting.

Also, disconnected each injector one by one to see if that caused anything - it did, nearly cut out and threw up the MIL light.

Replaced coil 2 and 4 with some cheap ones from Euro car parts (haas branded) and they are not as cheap as first thought, the list price for these parts is around £80 a pop, they are premium just as magnelli ones are, you will find that magnelli ones are twice the price but the list price is cheaper... they must be clearing off the HAAS ones then.

Anyhow, put in the new coils and she started up and ticked over just like before, when putting the engine under load - it no longer misses a beat so the old two coils where working but just about dead!

So then, will order another two next week to replace 1 and 3 so they are all new then and less risk of them burning out like 2 and 4.

Also, nipped back round to Wilco Moto Save and the guy read the new fault (injector circuit fault) which i had caused, cleared them all off and no more faults.

So all in all, job done and car is running fine again.

Thanks for reading and helping