What do these sparkplugs tell you?

[DanielJames]

First off, the story.

I was overtaking this afternoon when I lost all power from the 1.8T engine in my Seat Cupra.

I managed to limp the car home (about a mile) and found that an intercooler pipe had come loose. I reconnected the piping but now find that my car has a misfire/flatspot.

First thing I checked tonight was the plugs, and one of them was <i>slightly</i> loose. Why was it loose and could this have caused the misfire?

The plugs were all a bit white, a bit lean? (going from my 2 stroke days!)




I cleaned them all a bit and torqued them up and now the idle is fine, haven't had chance to take the car out yet but I hope I've been successful.

Might be a bit of a pointless thread but I haven't posted in a while! lol

Any thoughts?

Dan

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

I've seen much worse!
They look fine to me.

[Rubin215]

Jeez mate, your car's goosed.

I'll give you £100 for it.

[Raize]

A loose plug wouldn't be doing the compression any favors.

[Matthen]

Plugs look fine... You on the other... You look Jaundiced :S

(that may just be my monitor)

[poing]

Stop bitting your nails.

[interloper]

Lick the end, if it tastes like chicken, all is well......

[Dogwatch]

Plugs - OK

Nails - Oh

[DanielJames]

Am I on fking mumsnet here or PH? (I cut them short cos of the amount of crud that gets in them when working on cars)

thanks for the replies

hope it runs okay in the morning!

[007 VXR]

Buy some new plugs you T*** A*** M***** F*****

[Liquid Knight]

She's running a little rich possibly due an air filter, apart from that the plugs are fine.

[Pig Skill]

I thought those VAG engines had a particular issue with coil packs

Thats what I'd be looking at

[DanielJames]

007 VXR said:

Buy some new plugs you T*** A*** M***** F*****

I was going to today!

[DanielJames]

Liquid Knight said:

She's running a little rich possibly due an air filter, apart from that the plugs are fine.

It had an air filter on when i bought it, that went in the bin and i now have the OEM airbox with a green cotton panel filter

[DanielJames]

Pig Skill said:

I thought those VAG engines had a particular issue with coil packs

Thats what I'd be looking at

They do yes, but VAG COM picked up on nothing? Off out in it now so will report back

[Welshbeef]

Rubin215 said:

Jeez mate, your car's goosed.

I'll give you £100 for it.

Wow that is a low bow offer. Rude infact. Imagine if you offered someone £5k for a lotus Carlton with little to no history and not run in years. Then I get flamed your going to be Hung for this offer ...

[007 VXR]

DanielJames said:

007 VXR said:

Buy some new plugs you T*** A*** M***** F*****

I was going to today!

Had the same thing on my car last week (flat spot)
Gap had opened up on all 8 plugs.
Gap should have been 1mm, but had opened up to 3mm
New set of plugs and good as new
Plugs had only done 15K miles since last replaced ?

[p4cks]

DanielJames said:

What do these sparkplugs tell you?

Sparkplugs = maybe the coil pack
Reg plate = illegal
Nails = you worry too much

[Locke]

The loose plug could have caused a miss fire / loss of compression.

[Welshbeef]

Locke said:

The loose plug could have caused a miss fire / loss of compression.

Almost certainly.

Why they are loose... Well they were not put in correctly when last changed. I'm guessing just beyond finger tight and worked loose with vibration.

Do not ever over tighten spark plugs else you may have to have them drilled out of the head...