Three weeks ago I was washing my car and knowing that I had seen some rodent droppings, decided to give my engine a liberal washing. Like many of you, I was screaming NOOOOOO!!!! internally, but the overwhelming need to get rid of the rodent droppings over rode any sensibility I had.
Upon starting the car, it was quite clear I was missing a number of cylinders. I popped the distributor cap off the right bank and while everything looked fine, the rotor looks a little corroded in the middle so I took it off and cleaned it up with some sand paper. Car still ran rough. Pulled out the spark plug light and sure enough the right bank was way dimmer than the left bank. So, without checking the EZL, I ordered a replacement Bosch ignition coil from RockAuto (despite some criticisms, they do carry bosch products, cheaper than almost everyone else and more importantly, from warehouses in GA, RMEuropean being the only other one that I am aware of that ships from GA. Headlight came out, new coil went in (and sadly the old one went in the trash).
Car still ran rough, so I checked the EZL with a good spare. It seemed to run better so I ordered some thermal paste. Thermal paste applied today, new used EZL went in and... Still ran rough. A cylinder was definitely missing. So I started pulling plugs off the engine and sure enough #4 had no spark. When I pulled the boot all the way out it was... smoking? Nay steaming. Sure enough, water was sitting in the spark plug hole and had yet to burn off entirely.
Of course while all of this was going on, my fuel pump decided to start leaking from the pump it self. Totally unrelated but also the timing and seeming location of the fuel puddle had me initially thinking I was pouring that much gas out of the tailpipe!
Upon starting the car, it was quite clear I was missing a number of cylinders. I popped the distributor cap off the right bank and while everything looked fine, the rotor looks a little corroded in the middle so I took it off and cleaned it up with some sand paper. Car still ran rough. Pulled out the spark plug light and sure enough the right bank was way dimmer than the left bank. So, without checking the EZL, I ordered a replacement Bosch ignition coil from RockAuto (despite some criticisms, they do carry bosch products, cheaper than almost everyone else and more importantly, from warehouses in GA, RMEuropean being the only other one that I am aware of that ships from GA. Headlight came out, new coil went in (and sadly the old one went in the trash).
Car still ran rough, so I checked the EZL with a good spare. It seemed to run better so I ordered some thermal paste. Thermal paste applied today, new used EZL went in and... Still ran rough. A cylinder was definitely missing. So I started pulling plugs off the engine and sure enough #4 had no spark. When I pulled the boot all the way out it was... smoking? Nay steaming. Sure enough, water was sitting in the spark plug hole and had yet to burn off entirely.
Of course while all of this was going on, my fuel pump decided to start leaking from the pump it self. Totally unrelated but also the timing and seeming location of the fuel puddle had me initially thinking I was pouring that much gas out of the tailpipe!
