I live in Cincinnati, OH and last weekend I take my car to Dale Hollow, Tennessee. When i get back to Cincy and go to parallel park my car, it starts to idling really bad. The next morning while I'm going to class, the CEL comes on. After a friend of mine runs an OBD2 scanner, we find out that the #1 cylinder is missing and that there is oil around the spark plug. We've replaced the V/C gasket, cleaned out where the spark plug goes, and replaced the spark plug. There's spark to the top of all 4 plugs. Unfortunately, its running even sh$ttier than before. Throttle response is shuttery, the car is sluggish and runs really rough. I don't know what else to check for/ replace. Any opinions?
I forgot to mention that my car is a 96 cav, 2.2L, auto with 156,000 mi.
I'm not sure but I'd guess either fuel filter or potentially a catalytic converter type problem? I'm just guessing but this is where I'd start poking - I'm not terribly experienced at diagnosing car problems but know just enough to be a tad dangerous, LOL. Hopefully someone here can give you some definite suggestions.
My thoughts is if you are getting spark to all 4 plugs and it's still running bad then it sounds as if it might be a fuel delivery problem. Just a thought though.
You have oil on a spark plug = BAD. Your piston ring #3 ( the oil one) is shot for sure. You say it is running @!#$ty, no compression or low compression will cause it to run like crap. Sounds like your compression could be shot to, so your #1 and #2 piston rings are shot, resulting in no comrpession, and with 156k I wouldnt be surprised.
Plus this quote
"Throttle response is shuttery, the car is sluggish and runs really rough. "
Sounds like no or very low compression to me if you want my best guess.
My best guess from what you say is you need new piston rings all over.
You need to do a compression test, which will probably just comfirm what I just said.
- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new
I was going to add it isnt uncommom for the problem to just suddenly happen either. Once a compression ring breaks its all over for the rings at least.
- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new
Well, I was wrong. I tried but that's why the other members are here.
Learning new stuff every day on these forums!
Well my question is this (coming from thsi quote):
Quote:
we find out that the #1 cylinder is missing and that there is oil around the spark plug. We've replaced the V/C gasket, cleaned out where the spark plug goes, and replaced the spark plug. There's spark to the top of all 4 plugs.
Was there oil on the electrode of the plug or just at teh top of the plug where the wires go. If there was none on the electrode it self I would skip the bad compression rings. You changed the plugs and checked for spark, the main thing to check now is if there is enogh spark. You could still have a bad wire or coilpack even though you are getting spark. Also make sure you set the gap correctly on all 4 plugs, should be .060
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Hit 200 NA it broke once, Hit 213 it broke again,
Hitting 300 NA is further away than I thought.
the oil was around the base of the plug, not on the top where the wires attach.
Start off with a compression check.. If it's good, replace all the plugs..
Dark blue 2002 Z24, 2.4 Ltr.
yeah if the oil is in the cylinder, check the compression.
It could be bad rings, or a bad valve seal where the oil is coming down along the shaft of the valve and running into the cylinder. Have you noticed any smoke out the exhaust?
-da chinchilla
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Ok, i finally broke down and took it to a shop. compression was fine and the leak was fixed when i replaced the v/c gasket, but it needed all 4 plugs replaced and the engine settings reset. Oh well, $150 later, i have my car back. Thanks for all the input.
All that matters is it fixed and I'm glad it's not a blown engine. Bet it's nice to have it back in nice running order too! I know after the nightmare I had with my car the last month or so and driving it around today it felt like two completely different cars. I had to check at a couple red lights to make sure it hadn't stalled - I couldn't even feel it running at times nor hear it running it was so quiet. Certainly not what you'd expect from a car with over 97,000 miles on it.
