Running On 5 Cylinders

[ToF]

After I replaced my rocker cover gaskets I started the car and it was on 5 cylinders so I thought I might have accidently knocked off one of the coilpack cables loose. But to my suprise all were on properly but I reseated them anyway but still no luck.

Today I decided to check the coilpacks and it seems the 3rd cylinder doesn't do anything but the actual coilpack sparks when off. So I tried to swap coilpack #3 with #1 (knew was working) and to my suprise the same thing happened. Therefore ALL my coilpacks are WORKING!

The question is if all my coilpacks are working why is it that the 3rd cylinder won't fire?

I took out the spark plug in the 3rd cylinder to check and that was fine. So that leaves the ignitor pack which i just noticed has a crack on the top. Would that crack be affecting it at all??

[wrxhoon]

Check compression on that cil if its fine check to see if you have spark on 3 .

[ToF]

Yer I had the compression tested when I got this car which was only a bit over a month. The thing is it was working fine before I fixed the rocker cover gaskets - but I'm sure I haven't done any damage.

[ToF]

Update: OK I tried to have a look again by pulling out the coilpack, I only had to pull it off a couple off centimetres and the sparks were already flying to the side (very high) :S

So I'm assuming this means the spark was going away from the spark plug. So I tried to put electrical tape around some areas... didn't work. Then I gave up and decided to try WD40 into the coilpack. And now for some reason it works!

Happy, but still angry because I need a permanent fix before I put it all back together and I have no idea where to begin

Would really appreciate it if someone could let me know the exact problem so I can fix it properly. Thanks guys.

[blind_elk]

There is an article in the latest Zoom (or maybe it's HPI) about the tendency of these coil packs to arc to earth when the rubber boots get a bit dirty. Spraying with WD40 maybe increases resistance to the path to earth.

Try giving the boots a good cleanup.

[ToF]

Thanks blind_elk. I guess I'll just clean them all out and spray good'ol WD40 in and see how long it lasts. Don't have money for splitfires at the moment.

I also broke one of the coilpack wire connections because it was so brittle but it seems it is still working even with less plastic insulating inside the plug between the 3 pins.... Oh well.

[SECURITY]

the problem is uve got a build up of gunk on the inside of your coil packs. take them all out and either get a dremil drill and sand the inside of the coils lightly, or get some steel wool with some WD40 and clean the inside of them.

as electricity takes the quickest ("easiest") possible route to earth, because of the build-up inside the coil pack, the route to the spark plug is no longer the "easiest" route.. i used a dremil on mine and this is what they looked like after:

there was a big difference with before and after, now i get a damn good spark with no misfire.