Spark plug change gone bad

AquamanCHS

New Member
Sep 17, 2003
122
0
0
N. VA
Okay, so I figure my plugs are do for a changing so I bought some new ones and started popping the wires out. To get to the plugs on the left hand side I had to remove the big ugly pipe going from the filter to the throttle body. I undo all the wires from the plugs and remove and replace the spark plugs on the right hand side. I ran out of daylight and figured I'd finish up tomorrow.

So I put everything back like I had it (or so I think) and fire it up. The car sounded different, like it had a deeper rumble or something. So I back out of my driveway and put it in first and as I begin to accelerate the car nearly stalls. So I put the clutch in real fast to get back to idle then I slowly rev the engine up and let out the clutch.. feels fine. I go down the road to a stop light and I do it again, only this time while accelerating I hear a pop from the engine (detonation?) and as I shift into second the car shutters at low RPMs until I let in the clutch and rev the engine up and let it out again.

I make it to my girlfriend's house and rev the engine a few times in the driveway to find that when I punch it, the car will hesitate and burble, then rev up, but when I rev slowly it'll go up fine. I inspected everything and it looks like everything is where it should be. So I drive to the movies and idle is rough and I'm having to keep it in higher RPMs or else the car will start shuddering again. Five minutes from home the Check Engine light pops on, but it had not been there before.

What's wrong with my baby? Did I get :owned: by a vacuum hose or something?
 
  • Sponsors (?)


1....are the wires on the right plugs?

2....are the hoses that run from the intake pipe to the upper plenum connected?

3....i beleive there is a sensor that plugs into the intake pipe right after the MAF on the passenger side of the pipe, make sure that is pluged in

4...make sure the MAF is pluged in all the way

5...if none of that works, get the code pulled and that will tell you what is wrong.
 
SPKMustang said:
you realllllyyyy need to check your wires...
make sure the right wires are going to the right cylinder.
It sounds like you are causing some major mis-fire conditions and are definitly risking damaging your engine!

Then could someone please direct me to a diagram that will show me which wires lead to which cylinders?
 
also check the torque specs on the plugs. mine ran like ass because i didnt torque them down enough because i was afraid i'd strip them. make sure the torque is around 14 ftlb's. as stated, check all connections. im pretty sure the plugs are labeled

4 8
3 7
2 6
1 5
(front)
 
Here I come to save the day! :D

I'm taking a pic of the page in my Haynes manual. :nice: Just a couple minutes.

attachment.php


Lighting provided by my computer's cold cathode lights. :nice:
 
Thanks.. that's how I thought it was arranged, and the wires were in fact in the right positions. I brought the car in to a mechanic tonight to get looked at tomorrow. Thanks for your help all, I'll tell you what it was when I get the car back.

(p.s. - if I had mixed up a few cylinders in the wiring, wouldn't it mess with the firing order, thus giving me constant detonation? I only heard the pops when I got on it really hard from idle.. does anyone else have any ideas as to what it could possibly be?)