Tuesday, September 06, 2011 - 09:02 pm, by: Ross Pesina(Ross79)
My parent's 1997 UZZ31 has developed a bad misfire. The car is completely stock.
It seams fine under full load but cruising around town and idling it misfires badly.
Installed a new set of OEM plugs (told my dad off for wasting 200 on spark plugs!!) and the problem continues.
Condensation keeps occurring on the two rear spark plugs which is causing the misfire.
The car has around 140k on the clock. Has run flawlessly since the day they bought it (about a couple years ago) but recently it has started to play up.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011 - 01:43 am, by: Jamie Richards(Nwb40gt)
yeah could be head gasket is engine running hot?, but when you say condensation on spark plugs your speaking of condensation on tip of plugs or where leads mate with plugs? I had a issue like that once & water would get where leads mate with plugs, it was weather seal strip @ rear of engine was not sealing with hood & water would drain on rear plugs of engine
Wednesday, September 07, 2011 - 08:30 pm, by: Ross Pesina(Ross79)
As far as I know oil isn't milky. Engine doesn't run hot. Condensation is on the spark plug under the lead. When you take the two rear plugs out and dry them, it's back the next day.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011 - 11:37 pm, by: Nathan Richardson(Richtheblack)
Jamie & Dave might be onto something.
I ruled out water on the outside of the plug as you said they were changed.
Pull the leads and hit everything with some high pressure air. If you don't have the ability to do that, get some cans of "Air Duster" from Bunnungs and blow everything out.
Might be just the last few times the car was washed that has made the problem.
Thursday, September 08, 2011 - 10:55 am, by: Ross Pesina(Ross79)
Thanks guys, I'll pass the info on and get him to dry it out properly. The engine bay is so clean you can eat off it so wouldn't suprise me if he got a bit carried away with cleaning the car lol.
Ross Pesina DieHard Vic Soarer T, Soarer TT, Supra TT,
Thursday, September 15, 2011 - 01:41 pm, by: Ross Pesina(Ross79)
Problem solved. Looks like water got in there somehow (most likely when he washed the car) and was causing it to missfire. Now that it's all nicely dry, the car runs well. He just installed a new set of spark plug leads to be on the safe side.