Mystery Miss
#1
07-05-2002 | 07:34 PM
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Joined: Jul 2002
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Mystery Miss
Howdy all,
About 6 months ago I jumped in my 98 F150 5.4L and it ran rough and smelled of sulfur dioxide. I thought it was a bad 02 sensor so I went to the local smog place and they ran the engine codes - misfire on one cylinder. They weren't able to fix it and cleared the code. Engine ran fine but it happened again later that day. I took it to my regular mechanic and he detected a 301 error, misfire #1 cylinder. He cleared the code and the engine ran fine again! Waited till it happened again as the fix was pretty pricey (over $500 as I recall) and the check engine light came on about a week later. The mechanic cleared the code again, the engine ran fine as before and it's been that way for about 6 months. Talk about intermittent failure.
Well ... I washed the engine yesterday, first time ever. Water hose, 409, warmish engine, and the miss came back. Borrowing a buddy's OBDII diagnostic computer I get the 301 error again but clearing the code and disconnecting the battery for 30+ seconds didn't help.
Any idea of what the problem might be and how to fix it?
Any idea where the #1 cylinder is located? (I'm guessing the cylinder closest to the right front headlight)
cheers
Bob
bob@aeroconsystems.com
About 6 months ago I jumped in my 98 F150 5.4L and it ran rough and smelled of sulfur dioxide. I thought it was a bad 02 sensor so I went to the local smog place and they ran the engine codes - misfire on one cylinder. They weren't able to fix it and cleared the code. Engine ran fine but it happened again later that day. I took it to my regular mechanic and he detected a 301 error, misfire #1 cylinder. He cleared the code and the engine ran fine again! Waited till it happened again as the fix was pretty pricey (over $500 as I recall) and the check engine light came on about a week later. The mechanic cleared the code again, the engine ran fine as before and it's been that way for about 6 months. Talk about intermittent failure.
Well ... I washed the engine yesterday, first time ever. Water hose, 409, warmish engine, and the miss came back. Borrowing a buddy's OBDII diagnostic computer I get the 301 error again but clearing the code and disconnecting the battery for 30+ seconds didn't help.
Any idea of what the problem might be and how to fix it?
Any idea where the #1 cylinder is located? (I'm guessing the cylinder closest to the right front headlight)
cheers
Bob
bob@aeroconsystems.com
#3
07-05-2002 | 10:01 PM
Member
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 48
Likes: 0
Misfires
I just had a similar problem. Had a mis that came and went. Heater hose was leaking into the number 4 cylinder spark plug well (the one against the fire wall on the passenger side). I saw that the heater hose was coming loose when I was changing the plugs, pushed it back on, tightened the hose clamp, changed all the spark plugs, reused the wires and, drove it and started misfiring. Thougt I most likely pulled a wire loose after yanking and tugging on the stupid things trying to gt them loose. Next day put a new set of MSD wires on. Ran fine for about 5 minutes and developed the misfire. Had to get the mechanic to come and put his high dollar computer on it to isolate the problem. ran it down to the cylinder that was misfiring, swapped out the coil packs, still the same cylinder. Pulled the boot to swap out plugs and noticed it was full of water and antifreeze. Come to find out the hose clamp was egg shaped and not clamping the hose. Fixed it and it runs fine now.