CEL & sluggish driving after wheel rotation~!

[Myrithel]

bought this car not even 2 months ago, so I was starting some routine maintenance schedules... I decided to rotate the wheels yesterday. Put the car on jack stands and swapped the tires like C in this picture. The rear two wheels were REALLY stuck on the hub, so I loosened the rear wheels a bit, sped up to 20~mph and slammed on the brakes until they popped (it actually took a couple times lol). Stopped immediately, tightened the lugs, drove home, and continued swapping the wheels. I don't remember the car feeling different or noticing a CEL...
I finished the rotation and started the car to drive it to the street. Boom; check engine light. Parked it, and the next day I felt a weak throttle response when starting to drive. After a certain speed/rpm you could feel the power go from like 75% to 100%.

What could have caused this? I'm going to AutoZone to get the code scanned. (Also, can anyone suggest a semidecent code scanner as I should probably invest in one?)

 

[Myrithel]

P0301 - Cylinder 1 Misfire

That's the one on the left looking at the engine, right? On the day of the rotation I wiggled off the coil pack connector because when I got the car, it wouldn't budge. I was really gentle though.. could that be the cause of the problem? The car sounds pretty normal to my experience, no rattling or abnormalities.. it hesitates like it's running 60% power when going up hills or starting in gear and about 75% power when driving normally. It felt a lot better yesterday.

I actually ordered some spark plugs prior to the rotation because the old ones were like 40k miles old.. good timing haha. Am I looking at a new coil pack or ignition wire? Anything potentially more serious?
OEM,aftermarket,ebay? What's the best to go for?

edit: the coil pack connector that I disconnected seems to be firmly connected to the spark plug. Is it possible that something inside the wire (not the coil) frayed off?

 

[hornsfan10609]

Are you sure the wire 'snapped' into place on the plug? You may have damaged the wire, it should be replaced with the coils and plugs anyway.

 

[Myrithel]

Diagnosis: mechanic fault?? defect???
????

Just took out all the spark plug connectors.
Here is what I got:

Notice anything..? (uhm)

The plug boot is stuck on the spark plug!! Gah!!!
When I got the car, I tried to look at how deep the plugs were in preparation for spark plug changes/etc. I only tried cylinder #1 plug because it was the easiest plug to access.. and the coil pack wire would NOT budge from the plug. I pulled, wiggled, etc, everything, BUT I think I was pretty gentle with it. It didn't come off, I thought all the other plugs were like that, so I thought it was a "problem" for a future time (I thought I needed some pry tool or something). A little over a month down the line, aka the tire rotation, I was easily able to wiggle the plug off. It looked normal when I took it off and I didn't think much of it. I didn't look into the spark plug socket and I just put the coil wire back in....

Cylinder #1: plug boot on it!!!

Cylinder #2:

Cylinder #3:

Cylinder #4:

Yellow crap on Cylinder #4:

Plug that fits into Cylinder #4:

GLUE!?!?! on Cylinder #2 (I think)

Silicone on Cylinder #3

Is that glue/silicone from the factory? The glue at least, is pretty sloppy, and the silicone seems very cheap and loose. All the other coil plugs come in and out with EASE.

Went through the seller's service records:
Spark Plugs replaced @ 88,800 mi
"STI" Coil Pack & Wireset replaced @ 89,000 mi
Catalytic Converter replaced @ 100500 mi
All done at the same place by the same mechanic. Currently the car is at 121k and I bought it at about 120k...

Is it possible that the mechanic that did the coil pack replacement didn't replace all of them and did some ghetto glue repairs? lol... the charge was 190 for 2 coil packs and 50 for the wireset. 80 for the labor of the check engine light & replacement. Why is C#4 so dirty? Why does C#2 have glue on it? And C#1 looks like it has glue-ish residue on the park that broke off, and the pairing #3 has silicone on the connection.

 

[Myrithel]

Proper course of action...?

(pissed)

 

[rit14623]

Replace the coils and wires, along with the spark plugs. I wouldn't trust the service log of the previous owner.

 

[Myrithel]

I just tried prying out the boot with some bent hanger wire... pushed it in, twisted it.. and got a small ripped shard of rubber boot out. Looks like I'm taking off the valve cover... I think that the person who installed the coil packs let the glue on the coil packs drip down to the spark plug area, adhering them together.

What's the recommended coil pack part swap? Mazda OEM?

both onlinemazdaparts and mazdapartsunlimited don't sell the "ignition coil" (#1). Resort to the dealer? How much am I looking at for a pair?

 

[mp5build2013]

That happned to me too, it wasnt pushed in all the way in and the heat melted the silicone tip right off, when i pulled it out to check it, the bottom piece stayed on the spark plug i swapped out coils and wires and reset the ecu. worked fine after....that yellow stuff looks like gunk to me, probably from not being seated properly. just got dirty

 

[mp5build2013]

Oreilleys began to carry japanese coils a few months back, you can feel the difference between them. the japenese ones spark hard. ive been runing those with no problems

 

[Myrithel]

Which coil specifically is the jap one you recommend? Looks like they have 4 online.

I've been looking at RockAuto and it seems that people recommend BECK/ARNLEY coils (#1788310) and NGK wires (#5659). It would cost $120 for it all, which isn't too bad, but is there really that much of a difference between the cheap $20 coils and the ones that cost $50?

 

[rit14623]

I got my stuff from autopartswarehouse, a pair of ignition coils (a no-name brand, part no. REPM504633) and NGK wires were about $120+, I got those in 2012 and they haven't given me any problems. The ignition coils were $95 for a pair.

 

[mp5la]

This happened on my brother's celica. We didn't have any way to get a valve cover gasket quickly, so we wound up making an "extractor" out of a shop vac, some duct tape, and a piece of fuel hose. Once you break the old boot up in the spark plug hole a little bit, use the vacuum with the fuel hose attached and try to suck it out using that. His came out after a few tries and in several pieces.

I just ordered new coils a few months ago from rock auto. They usually ship out pretty quickly.

 

[P-Funk!]

Or, when it happened to me, at the hardware store there was an extra long needle nose pliers (~14" long) which extracted the bits of rubber...
New coils will have new rubber boot.

 

[thuzil]

Just rip it out. If some stays stuck just jam the socket on it an take out the plug. U would also recommend running a vacuum over the top before you pull out the plugs to keep any crap from falling into the cylinder.

BTW. I have everything you need.