I cleaned engine, now missing (2.2L Legacy)

[95LEGOBW]

Here's my sad story:

 

I sprayied down my engine with Simple Green, let it sit for awhile, then rinsed it with a garden hose. Lots of accumulated gunk dissolved away. Nice.

 

A few hours later I drive 5 minutes to the store, and she's missing a bit. The Check Engine light comes on. That's to be expected, I figure, and whatever connection is wet will soon dry.

 

I come out of the store after an hour, and now it's missing so badly it will barely run. I pull the plug caps. Yes, there's some water down by the plugs. I use twisted paper towels to soak up the water down in the holes. It starts right up and runs better, but still with a little miss.

 

I don't drive it for a couple days, then same routine: Runs fine on the short drive to the store, then when I get back to the car an hour later it's missing badly.

 

So I take it up a level. I get the engine up to operating temps, pulled off the plug caps, & left the hood up, with the engine in full sun. I figure any H2O should be long gone, but no, it's still missing.

 

What should I try next? Where else should I look?

[porcupine73]

Probably needs new OEM plug wires. Coil pack might also have cracks or carbon traces. One test can be with it idling, mist down the coil pack and plug wires with a spray bottle in a dimly lit area and look for any arcing.

 

Also if you can read the codes that might be helpful. Based on your description it is probably the P0301-03 series of cylinder misfire codes.

[Virrdog]

Sounds like you don't drive much. Get the car up to operating temperature and really drive it. Do some pulls on the highway, get everything nice and hot to evaporate any water.

 

And you can start spraying WD-40 on some of the underhood connections, it will displace the water.

[95LEGOBW]

Porcupine73, thanks for the advice. I want to make sure I understand your suggestion. She was running fine before I washed the engine, and the plugs & wires are only a few years old. Are you saying that the washing caused the plug wires to fail or caused the coil pack to have cracks or carbon traces?

 

 

Probably needs new OEM plug wires. Coil pack might also have cracks or carbon traces. One test can be with it idling, mist down the coil pack and plug wires with a spray bottle in a dimly lit area and look for any arcing.

 

Also if you can read the codes that might be helpful. Based on your description it is probably the P0301-03 series of cylinder misfire codes.

[porcupine73]

The washing probably didn't cause the damage. But it may have washed off dirt and grease which may have been acting as an insulator and/or sometimes when things are borderline working the slightest disturbance will make them start acting up.

[95LEGOBW]

Virrdog, you are right, I don't drive this car much. Maybe more time at operating temperature would help, but it's already been there for hours, and the problem persists.

 

On your WD-40 suggestion: What connections should I go after with the Water Dispersing 40? The inside of the caps and the spark plugs are totally dry. The coil end of the plug wires is totally dry as well. What are the other suspects?

 

 

Sounds like you don't drive much. Get the car up to operating temperature and really drive it. Do some pulls on the highway, get everything nice and hot to evaporate any water.

 

And you can start spraying WD-40 on some of the underhood connections, it will displace the water.

[porcupine73]

If you want to try the wd40, coat the plug wires themselves from end to end, like wipe it on with a cloth, and saturate the coil pack with it. I don't know if whatever is in wd40 has enough dielectric strength to stop the arcing. Silicone spray works good, but you don't want that getting into your intake as it can damage the oxygen sensor.

[1995SubaruImpreza]

You can also use that wire dry stuff, I used it on my spark plug wires that were badly worn and sparking, I sprayed it on once and they were good until I changed them out about a week later...

[Jimmyowensfan20]

pb blaster carries current better and has a higher flash point.

[86BRATMAN]

Why would we want to spray something that conducts electricity good on our arcing spark plug wires?

[itzik93]

All u had to do is to dry off the ingition components with compressed air and you'r car should've run like new.

 

I cleaned my engine 2 monthes ago with no misfires problems at all.

 

Itzik

 

[porcupine73]

Also pull the plug wires off the coil pack and look for any cracking on the towers or anything or any corrosion between the connections there.

 

We want something with insulating properties/good dielectric strength that can handle whatever the spark plugs are fired at, several kV I would imagine. Silicone grease is good to pack in the spark plug boots and such to keep moisture out of there and help insulate.

 

Woah that is one clean engine bay! What is that coating on the belt cover over the ps pump and alternator pulleys? It looks like some sort of granite powder coat?

 

Say also what is that black box on the firewall to the left of the brake booster? Haven't seen that before....

[95LEGOBW]

Thanks for all the input, Subaru experts.

 

Interesting discussions. It's cool how a question posted here leads to all sorts of conversations. It's an organic network.

 

I digress.

 

Back to the problem of engine missing after engine wash:

 

1) With caps, plugs, and coil ends all dry, and engine run for several hours, is it possible that some of those connections are still wet somehow?

 

2) Where else should I look for a source of water-induced missing?

[tcspeer]

It may not be a moisture problem, check your fuel inj. plugs and see if you may have knocked one loose with the water pressure.

Thanks for all the input, Subaru experts.

 

Interesting discussions. It's cool how a question posted here leads to all sorts of conversations. It's an organic network.

 

I digress.

 

Back to the problem of engine missing after engine wash:

 

1) With caps, plugs, and coil ends all dry, and engine run for several hours, is it possible that some of those connections are still wet somehow?

 

2) Where else should I look for a source of water-induced missing?

[ericem]

Ya i had the same problem. Just blew out the ignition system with compressed air as mensioned. Worked perfectly.

[95LEGOBW]

All, thanks for all your input. It looks like my engine missing problem is solved, after installing new plugs & wires, from Jason, and known-good ignitor and coil pack, from eBay.

 

I installed these new parts one at a time, starting with plugs, then coil, then ignitor, then plug wires, one cylinder at a time. I tested it between each step, and the problem continued until the very LAST STEP: the plug wire on the #4 cylinder. (My oem plugs & wires had <10K on them, BTW.)

 

Although I don't know the root cause of the missing, my suspicion is that one or more of the existing plug connectors was not fully seated. The introduction of moisture caused misfiring on several cylinders, and the weak plug connections got worse under the stress. This resulted in spark failures on several cyclinders under different engine load situations, complicating diagnosis.

 

It's likely that simply replacing the plugs, and re-seating the existing plug wires, would have fixed the problem.

 

An intersting side note: When the problem first started, I read the OBD codes. I found misfiring on all but one cylinder, and also a fuel injection error on #1 & #3. The plugs for #1 & #3 were black, while 2 & 4 looked fine. I think 1 & 3 had the most water on the plugs, which triggered a FI problem. Now, after changing all these parts, the check engine light is off, and it runs well. I'll check the codes aagain fter I've driven it awhile.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

Here's my sad story:

 

I sprayied down my engine with Simple Green, let it sit for awhile, then rinsed it with a garden hose. Lots of accumulated gunk dissolved away. Nice.

 

A few hours later I drive 5 minutes to the store, and she's missing a bit. The Check Engine light comes on. That's to be expected, I figure, and whatever connection is wet will soon dry.

 

I come out of the store after an hour, and now it's missing so badly it will barely run. I pull the plug caps. Yes, there's some water down by the plugs. I use twisted paper towels to soak up the water down in the holes. It starts right up and runs better, but still with a little miss.

 

I don't drive it for a couple days, then same routine: Runs fine on the short drive to the store, then when I get back to the car an hour later it's missing badly.

 

So I take it up a level. I get the engine up to operating temps, pulled off the plug caps, & left the hood up, with the engine in full sun. I figure any H2O should be long gone, but no, it's still missing.

 

What should I try next? Where else should I look?