IukekiniProtege
05-16-2007, 12:01 AM
***OPTIONAL READ, A FUN STORY*** Please read below this though to my question
ok, so i had an issue about 3 weeks ago. I was in the middle of a nice long road trip in NH, just driving around as much of an area as possible with 250miles planned out. I stopped at a store and bought a drink. Started up the car, it idled rough, like it kept dropping rpms but when i reved it it seemed normal, so i passed it off as a vacuum leak. There was no CEL at this time. Continued on. Drove about 30 miles down the road and BOOM!!!! my car made a loud noise and then started to sound really bad, i drove to the next town with this bad noise and now a flashing CEL this drive took me about 15miles down the road. I then pulled into a 7-11 and parked under a street lamp. Popped the hood and started the car. the most horrible sound was coming from the cylinder second in from the left under the coil. I luckily keep all the common sockets and a ratchet screw driver in my car all the time. so i took the cooil pack off to find out it was torn on both side(well the rubber boot is) the spark plug also came half way up and then fell back down!!! this isnt rright it shouldnt have come up with the coil!!. so i popped off the plug wire on the next cylinder and attached it to the end of the plug and pulled it up. all four prongs on the BOSCH Platinum +4 were gone and the hole for the plug was damaged. Looks like it broke loose or something and went flying up ripping the coil boot. So i just screwed the plug down the best way possible with the plug wire and it stayed. the horribl noise was mainly gone(it had been the exhaust comign up through the plug hole and past the coil. )i unplugged the injector for that cylinder and drove the rest of the way back to my school(about 75more miles). The next day i walked to autozone bought a new plug and the tools required to change it and tighten it in the right way. drove fine except it was still mis-firing. So i pulled the coil out again and noticed white powder looking stuff around a pin hole on the boot. I have seen this with other electrical grounding problems. So i bought some electrical tape and wrapped it up. I was good to go. However, when i replaced the plug it didnt screw in like the others. it only turns like twice.
***END OF OPTIONAL STORY***
now after all that. I bought some NGK plugs now and got rid of the bosch crap. Went to install them. Found that the other plug on the other coil was missing the four prongs too, but hadn't busted through the threads yet. However it was the cause of a LOUD ticking noise i was hearing. Anyways i get to the damaged threads and the NGK plugs wont screw in at all, they wont even catch the first thread like the bosch can atleast do. So I have a question.
what size are our plugs? i have found a thread tap for 14mm and 18mm plugs. does anyone know which size to get? or an easy way to not remove the head and to fix it myself? i figure if i can get the tap i can do it on my own. Any information would be great.
ALSO!! NEVER BUY BOSCH PLATINUM +4 Plugs for the Protege EWWW!!!
ok, so i had an issue about 3 weeks ago. I was in the middle of a nice long road trip in NH, just driving around as much of an area as possible with 250miles planned out. I stopped at a store and bought a drink. Started up the car, it idled rough, like it kept dropping rpms but when i reved it it seemed normal, so i passed it off as a vacuum leak. There was no CEL at this time. Continued on. Drove about 30 miles down the road and BOOM!!!! my car made a loud noise and then started to sound really bad, i drove to the next town with this bad noise and now a flashing CEL this drive took me about 15miles down the road. I then pulled into a 7-11 and parked under a street lamp. Popped the hood and started the car. the most horrible sound was coming from the cylinder second in from the left under the coil. I luckily keep all the common sockets and a ratchet screw driver in my car all the time. so i took the cooil pack off to find out it was torn on both side(well the rubber boot is) the spark plug also came half way up and then fell back down!!! this isnt rright it shouldnt have come up with the coil!!. so i popped off the plug wire on the next cylinder and attached it to the end of the plug and pulled it up. all four prongs on the BOSCH Platinum +4 were gone and the hole for the plug was damaged. Looks like it broke loose or something and went flying up ripping the coil boot. So i just screwed the plug down the best way possible with the plug wire and it stayed. the horribl noise was mainly gone(it had been the exhaust comign up through the plug hole and past the coil. )i unplugged the injector for that cylinder and drove the rest of the way back to my school(about 75more miles). The next day i walked to autozone bought a new plug and the tools required to change it and tighten it in the right way. drove fine except it was still mis-firing. So i pulled the coil out again and noticed white powder looking stuff around a pin hole on the boot. I have seen this with other electrical grounding problems. So i bought some electrical tape and wrapped it up. I was good to go. However, when i replaced the plug it didnt screw in like the others. it only turns like twice.
***END OF OPTIONAL STORY***
now after all that. I bought some NGK plugs now and got rid of the bosch crap. Went to install them. Found that the other plug on the other coil was missing the four prongs too, but hadn't busted through the threads yet. However it was the cause of a LOUD ticking noise i was hearing. Anyways i get to the damaged threads and the NGK plugs wont screw in at all, they wont even catch the first thread like the bosch can atleast do. So I have a question.
what size are our plugs? i have found a thread tap for 14mm and 18mm plugs. does anyone know which size to get? or an easy way to not remove the head and to fix it myself? i figure if i can get the tap i can do it on my own. Any information would be great.
ALSO!! NEVER BUY BOSCH PLATINUM +4 Plugs for the Protege EWWW!!!