Misfire & Fuel Smell That's Seems To Have Gone

[R.I.B.]

Anyones thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

Started the car up this afternoon after it had sat still since friday and started to make my way down the road when it started misfiring & I noticed the smell of fuel.

Thinking back I thought I could smell a faint smell of fuel before I got into the car, but didn't take any notice and thought it wasn't anything to do with my car.

 

So I stopped the car and had a good look around all the fuel injectors the fuel rail and the fuel pipes and couldn't notice any leak and the smell didn't seem to be coming from there, although I could still smell it around the engine bay. I also checked the fuel filler cap which had a lot of pressure released as I opened it.

 

Started the engine back up to see if I could see/smell any fuel leaks but the smell had almost disappeared and the engine was running fine again.

Made a short journey and it seems to be completely fine again, so i'm wondering if sitting in the sun all day had maybe pressurised the fuel tank or something? Is that something that can happen?

I don't want to take any risks when it comes to possible life threatening situations.

 

Thanks in advance

Phil

[JonS21]

You will get a wiff of fuel if the car is misfiring as it's not burning the petrol on that particular cylinder. If the misfire has gone I wouldn't worry about it unless it returns.

[R.I.B.]

You will get a wiff of fuel if the car is misfiring as it's not burning the petrol on that particular cylinder. If the misfire has gone I wouldn't worry about it unless it returns.

 

Thanks for the reply, it hasn't made a repeat of what happened before, but it seems to very slightly misfire if I very lightly tap the throttle, like a stutter as the throttle is opened. Also the exhaust / manifold seems to sound a bit rattly when I go to the throttle only in the low rpm as if it's blowing a little.

Maybe it's all related?

 

Cheers

Phil

[JonS]

Whe is the car booked in for the clutch at TGA Phil? Mention it to them and they can have a poke around maybe?

[R.I.B.]

Whe is the car booked in for the clutch at TGA Phil? Mention it to them and they can have a poke around maybe?

 

Booked in for next monday , I was thinking about asking them to have a good check over everything ready for my euro trip anyway, so if I haven't got this problem figured out i'll ask them if they can have a look at it too.

 

At first I was thinking it could be another spark plug giving up, but in comparison it runs too well when your acclerating through the rev range, the problem only seems to be in low rpm when initially putting some revs down from idle or when you've backed off in low rpm and you go back to the throttle.

 

Phil

[JonS]

Coil pack playing up? Bit of water in it?

[R.I.B.]

Coil pack playing up? Bit of water in it?

 

Could well be, when I had the spark plug give up (the one nearest to the cam chain, not sure if it's no.1 or no.4) it was because the end spark plug tube had filled full of water thanks to the plastic engine cover not covering enough of the cam cover and the car being parked with the drivers side slightly lower than the passenger side.

So maybe it's damaged the coil pack too, will try and google how you can check if they're working correctly.

Cheers Jon

Phil

[R.I.B.]

and also, i'm absolutely amazed I never had a check engine light when it ran like complete crap and was trying to stall.

Never had a check engine light when I had a spark plug die on me either.

[R.I.B.]

Just pulled the plugs and took a couple of photos.

Don't look that great for 9k miles if they're supposed to be changed every 52k.

 

Looks like NW replaced the RHS plug with a denso plug and the others are all NGK. I thought denso plugs are stock items not NGK?

 

[JonS]

Is that water marks on the 2nd from right?

 

I'm no expert, in fact I'm the other end of the spectrum, but it was water in the spark socket that made my car misfire and then the coil pack went pop.

[R.I.B.]

Is that water marks on the 2nd from right?

I'm no expert, in fact I'm the other end of the spectrum, but it was water in the spark socket that made my car misfire and then the coil pack went pop.

 

Yeap it sure is, that plug was next to the plug that NW replaced, so I guess that plug tube was full of water at some point too.

I'm thinking I might just replace the 3 NGK plugs with densos and see if it makes any difference. If it doesn't i'll get TG to have a look at the coil packs and check for a vacuum / exhaust leak.

Phil