Yes, 2 and 5 are opposite one another in the coil. First check that 2 and 5 are in the correct location on the coil, the coil is on the rear of the DS cyl head. Locate the primary wire connector on the coil, from this connector location wires 2-6-4 are on the head side,5-3-1 are opposite . Before you do anything, confirm the wires are in the correct location, if OK replace the plugs assuming they are oil fouled, they may look OK but that can fool you. Next check the wires with an ohm meter..point, before you start buying anything get the cheap stuff out of the way first.
For clarification 2-5 are opposite, 3-6 opposite and 1-4 opposite on the coil. Hope this helps. From your note, I think you still have a plug problem.?
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Originally Posted by catman'98  Thanks for responding, Frank.
The car had misfire issues when I bought it. It was very obvious. I limped it home and immediately went to work on it. I didn't check the codes before pulling the plenum and replacing the valve cover gaskets and spark plugs. Most of the spark plug wells had oil in them. The two cylinders misfiring now definitely had oil in the wells. When I pulled the spark plugs, the oil drained down into the cylinder...and got oil all over the spark plug electrodes, so I'm not sure if there was fuel in those cylinders (#2 and #5). The car seemed to run a little bit better after replacing the plugs.
Then, I limped it over to a local oil change / tune-up shop a few days later, and a mechanic checked the codes for me there, after cleaning the fuel injectors. I asked him to try clearing the codes. The cylinder #4 misfire cleared and didn't come back. I suspect that I fixed that one.
I think you make a good point about the spark plug wires. I've been working on my own cars for 20 years, and I've yet to see plug wires just 'quit', without some sort of visible damage. The plug wires look fine, although I did have to clean the oil out of them. I know that visually looking okay is no real test, so I'm thinking about purchasing one of those inline 'spark' checking devices for $15...rather than trying to use a spare spark plug to check the spark. Do you think I could just skip the plug wires and move straight to the distributor/coil pack, if I don't get a good spark? I wish that I had a known good, spare plug wire laying around. I'd check it that way. I'd try swapping a couple of them, but these wires are cut specific lengths, for each cylinder. I don't want to buy a $135 set of plug wires, if I don't have to.
I've seen a bunch of Catera posts describing how this exact same problem (valve covers leaking / oil in the wells) had fried the coil pack. Does the coil pack have anything in common for cylinders #2 and #5?
Also, I've seen other posts here that tell me the entire cause this cascade of events -- the cranckase breather path is plugged -- causing excess pressure to build up. I'm not completely sold on that yet, because it seems that the oil fill tube should start venting before blowing the valve cover gaskets. I've seen instructions on how to clean that vent path. Any thoughts about that?
Brad - |