V6 Misfire: Any Ideas?

[ledad42]

Hi there. I'm new to this so hope this works.

My '97 V6 just had its 90K service at a local (non-ford) garage. Had a misfire when it went in so got him to change plugs and ignition leads during service. Its come back worse! He's scarin' the sh*t out of me as he says there is a slight water leak out of the head gasket above the water pump and says head gasket failure could be causin' it!

 

Any ideas of anything (cheaper) I can look at first?

Thanks,

Peter.

[johnb80]

Coil packs spring to mind, I don't have a V6 myself :unsure: but I know they suffer from coil pack problems, 3 are fitted to the v6, buy one and then try it in the various locations and see if the missfire goes.

 

Regards - John

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Mk1's have a single coil pack on the end on the engine near the battery

 

http://i21.ebayimg.com/02/i/03/ac/22/1c_1_b.JPG

 

the insulation cracks up, allowing dirt and moisture in and can cause tracking between the plug lead posts! wait till its dark and see if you can see any stray sparks floating around the leads or coil pack? you could encourage this occur by spraying a little water around the area! use one of the wifes plant misters :unsure:

[ledad42]

Thanks very much for your ideas. I'm dead chuffed that anyone bothered to answer. I'll give it a go over the weekend.

Cheers,

Peter

[ledad42]

Hello again,

I followed your advice and looked in the dark and lo-and-behold there is a fat glowing path of electricity on the coil pack as you suspected.

 

The bad news is that my local Ford dealer has to special order a coil pack in, and wants

[Guest vr6galaxy]

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Finally found the link, it's American but you should be able gt the idea of how to fix your coil pack

[ledad42]

Hi there again,

My V6 Galaxy has now been serviced, had the plugs changed, plug leads changed and I've changed the coil pack. Good advice on that as the old one that came out was stamped VW, and German and Swedish did a new one for

[Guest MATT]

the appeal of a trade in for a Fiat Panda grows...please save me!

 

Cheers,

Peter

...your having a laugh arn't you? fiats (FIX IT AGAIN TOMORROW)

 

as for the missfire, i can only think of timing/battery/or something else with the ignition system.

 

another reason might also be the valves (timing/or pitting) or the fuel supply (eg, blocked injector)

 

as it has done 90,000 miles, i would take a guess at the valves,

 

matt

[dipsomaniac]

The clear signs of a failed headgasket are:

 

Mayonnaise around oil filler cap/dipstick

White smoke from exhaust

Sludge in expansion tank

Coolant loss with no visible signs of an external leak

 

If you can't see any evidence of these, and as you have changed the leads, plugs and coil pack - the next step is to see if the ECU has logged and fault codes.

 

You should find that there are plenty of independant electrical engineers in you area that can hook up the software for around

[ledad42]

Hi there again, At last I'm a happy bunny with a fully working V6, so I'll just let you know the full story:

When I posted originally, I had a misfire and the suggestion was coil pack....bang on! However, what happened was I put the car into a non-Ford (cheaper) garage for a service and to have the plugs and leads changed as well. They put cheap leads on it (

[johnb80]

This fella reckons that the ECU adjusts itself to try and compensate for the rough running, but that still leaves you with a problem when you fix 'the problem' as the ECU is not clever enough to return to the original settings so your car still may not run well.

Mmmmm the word bullshit springs to mind. The ECU is constantly adjusting fuelling and therefore will try and adjust parameters to keep it running but will also ammend them when other faults are cleared. I suppose it could go into certain limp home conditions that may need resetting under exceptional circumstances.

 

Glad you got it sorted.

 

Regards - JB