Smashed Electrode

I hate to have the dealer monkeys wrenching on my car too. I'm at the age however where I'll take my chances and make them do it over and over till they get it right. ;) I don't have the time or the energy to be doing stuff that the dealer will do for free.


i12drivemyMP5 said:
The only sure fire thing to kill the worrying is to just pull off the manifold & red loctite them yourself. I'm worried & in the recall but worry more about lame dealership action so it won't be going there. They won't remove vtcs while in there or clean egr or do coolant bypass on throttle body so when I can squeeze it into the schedule I'll be doing it myself. Already have the stuff to do it.
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Jack Daniels said:
I hate to have the dealer monkeys wrenching on my car too. I'm at the age however where I'll take my chances and make them do it over and over till they get it right. ;) I don't have the time or the energy to be doing stuff that the dealer will do for free.
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But over & over wastes time & browbeating the dealer to fix something satisfactory may cause other problems to mysteriously occur so it is likely not free even if money doesn't change hands. I hear ya tho, there are usually other things I would prefer to be doing instead but just reading a post or two here about dealer experiences gets me back on track then I feel way better about doing it myself when all done. But that's just me, everybody has their own set of priorities. Hopefully you'll roll a 7 & receive the blessings of the auto repair gods & all will be right.
 
Dealer called yesterday. Car is ready. They replaced the intake manifold, inspected the cylinders and ran a leakdown test. They swear no screws went through the engine. I'm going to pick it up today.


Of course they couldn't get the clutch chatter to manifest itself. :rolleyes:
 
Hopefully it runs better now. Check the 1st cat to see if there is a screw in it. If so, take it in and let them know they suck, and see if they have any idea where the screw came from, hint hint.
 
RaiderMP5 said:
Hopefully it runs better now. Check the 1st cat to see if there is a screw in it. If so, take it in and let them know they suck, and see if they have any idea where the screw came from, hint hint.
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For the record, it was running fine when I brought it in. The only symptom I had was an occasional miss at idle. Once I regapped the plug, everything was ok in that regard.
 
OK. Hopefully it runs as good as it did when you brought it in.

What was their explanation of the smashed electode?
 
RaiderMP5 said:
OK. Hopefully it runs as good as it did when you brought it in.

What was their explanation of the smashed electode?
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(hahaspit)That's what I was thinking....

Regarding the smashed electrode, hey had no explanation. (boom07)
 
It is the high compression of the combustion chamber. It was too much for the little electrode, and it was forced shut by the shear power of the motor. You have piston #4 from a top fuel dragster.

If the screw shot out the exhaust valve, it is probably resting on the filament of the 1st cat.
 
RaiderMP5 said:
It is the high compression of the combustion chamber. It was too much for the little electrode, and it was forced shut by the shear power of the motor. You have piston #4 from a top fuel dragster.
If the screw shot out the exhaust valve, it is probably resting on the filament of the 1st cat.
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I'd be willing to bet it's sitting there. :yup:
 
zverg said:
If you have the time definitely unbolt the top section of the exhaust manifold to check it out.
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Where exactly is the "filament of the first cat" and what pieces have to come off to look and see if there is a screw there? Are any special tools needed beyond a socket set and a torque wrench?
 
the filament is the honeycomb material thatis the catalytic convertor. I just used filament because after a minute of trying to think of the description to use, I settled with filament.

Take off the heat shield, then the bolts to the top of the 1st cat, then remove the ERG pipe bolt, unplug the o2 sensor, and remove the nuts and bolts for the manifold at the head. Do all this with the engine cold, and maybe spray them with some PB Blaster an hour before removing.
 
Maybe screen would be a better description? But yeah you should be fine with the tools you mentioned. I don't remember the exact bolt sizes but they are most likely 12 and 14 since that's what most stuff under our hood is.
 
screen will work, I thought of that. But it is not a thin screen like on a window, it is thick.

Maybe I am looking too much into this than I should!
 
Picked it up this afternoon. It's running like a raped ape. ;) I'm going to simply document everything that's transpired and if I have a problem in the future I'll have some ammunition.

BTW, looked a a MS6 in the showroom..... Schweet!
 
I wouldn't put too much faith in the recall dates information. I lost almot half of my screws from the Mani and I am outside of the recall dates as well.
 
RaiderMP5 said:
screen will work, I thought of that. But it is not a thin screen like on a window, it is thick.

Maybe I am looking too much into this than I should!
Click to expand...

Catalyst element

Also, those elements are pretty fragile, no? Could the screw have done any damage?
 
ELEMENT! YES. I can sleep now. That is the word I wanted.

It might have. We will know when the he checks it out.
 
I just opened my air intake to find two butterflys dropped into the manifold. One Butterfly had a huge chunk missing that went into my cylinder and closed the gap on my plug. The butterfly actually wore the screw hole by vibrating, and the hole got so big that it popped off over the screw head (or was pryed off when it hung up on side wall during actuating?)

Ugly!

I can't order new butterflys either!

Mine was made in 02/03 just outside of the "recall".
 
The dealers claim they don't know about this - even when confronted they mis quote and babble- I was told to drive it by the dealer after I explained I had metal in the cylinder - it will be fine-- I opened it up today to find two loose screws waiting to find their way into the cylinder, and two butterflys dropped off, one with a huge chunk missing from it! I brought it in to the dealer to show him what the hell I was talking about the last time - they had nothing to say - couldn't even get me the butterfly part I need. Useless dealers
 
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