Bill A Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 I rinsed off my engine bay on Sunday. Car ran Ok after. On Monday the thing started missing. Service Engine light came on. Have looked for moisture, no obvious sightings. Car has sat since Mon evening. Started today, the miss still there. Funny thing - On Monday the in town MPG was 22+. Never better in town MPG. Any suggestions from the forum members? Thanks - Bill A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdictas Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 Bill A, Start your car and let it warm up to temperature. Then shut it off and remove the spark plug boots from each plug (use a twisting action to help loosen the boot from the plug). Let the car sit for a awhile, the heat from the engine should help evaporate any trapped moisture in boot and spark plug well. Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhall Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 Bill A, Sure sounds like water got into the ignition somewhere. Pull the control harness plug off the ignition pack and see if any water got past the environmental seal on the connector. If it's dry, you should look under the hood at night to see if you can locate any arcing along the plug wires or at the ignition pack. If nothing shows up there, you might want to carefully pull the wires loose from the pack and make absolutely sure they are dry. Try again and if no improvement, check the wires at the sparkplug end. Note - make absolutely sure you pull on the sparkplug wire boots. Old wires, can be easily damaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill A Posted May 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 Thanks guys for the tips. Upon a second real close look I found a small amount of water in 2 spark plug holes. Barely visible down in there. Used some Q tips and needle nosed pliers to soak it up. Took for a 10 mile drive and it cleared up by the time I got home. Reset the codes and Service Engine Light has not reappeared. Apparently those plug boots are not water tight. Maybe a little hi temp grease around them where they snap in might help that situatiion. Bill A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhall Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 BillA, Great that you nailed it! Regarding the comment about HT grease - don't add anything to the boots or wires. They have a special coating that prevents arcing along the surface of the spark plug insulator. If you add any type of grease (including silicone grease), the plugs will start flashing over and you'll get a nasty misfire. If the problem arises again, replace the plug wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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