(05-03-2024, 11:12 AM)My 2 cents Wrote: Any progress on either of these vehicles?
Competing priorities meant that it took a lot longer than I ever imagined but I finally got around to working on it again. To recap, the engine was running rough and the computer was spitting out a code for cylinder #1 misfire among other things. I had narrowed down the likely culprits to spark plug, spark plug wire, ignition coil, fuel injector, or "something else". The first 3 were things I thought I could do myself so I started there.
Because engineers hate people, the only official way to access 3 of the spark plugs (including #1) is to disengage the engine mounts and use a ratchet or a tow strap, or some other method, and rotate the engine forward. Alternatively, the spark plugs can barely be accessed (though never seen) by removing some stuff to expose the ignition coil pack, and then remove that. Then by feeling only and a bunch of trial and error with hands crammed into an area with no visibility and not much ability to move, the plugs and wires can be removed and replaced. I decided to go with the "going in blind" technique mostly because a bunch of youtube videos and comments suggested it was the the lesser of two evils.
Since I had to remove the ignition coil pack anyway, it made sense that even if the spark plug or wire was a culprit, to replace it. And since I was doing that, why stop at one plug and wire? The wires are sold as a set anyways so if I was replacing 6 plus the coil pack it made sense that I would replace all the spark plugs "while I was there".
Long story short (too late, I know) it didn't take as long as I thought it would, and because of youtube videos with creative camera angles, I was able to see how and where shit went without being able to actually see it. Not that it was easy, imagine being blindfolded and cramming your hands into a space they can barely fit and trying to figure out where in that space all the shit is. Snapping on one of the spark plug wires must have taken me 10 minutes, a procedure that normally takes about 2 seconds. Easy to find and remove, but difficult to find the end of a terminal a few mm across inside a larger hole, right next to another larger hole and a bunch of other stuff that can't be seen and never felt before.
The 3 plugs on the front facing side of the engine, all exposed and accessible, collectively took less than 10 minutes to remove, install, and replace wires.
Then the moment of truth. Will it start? Will it continue to run rough? Did I hook everything back up correctly? I rewatched one of the youtube videos and sure enough realized I had forgotten to reconnect a vacuum hose. With that remedied, I gave it a crank.
