Hey everyone! I've mentioned this before already, but it's probably a good idea to do it again since I'm still relatively new on the board.
I purchased a '00 Protege LX with a 1.6L (automatic) from my mother-in-law back in July of this year. The car had seen better days, but fortuneately the engine was still in good shape. When I bought it, the car had 103,000 miles on it, and had been kept in good shape, all except for the exterior. After getting it home, I took the car to the car wash and washed the engine bay down, avoiding overly wetting key areas such as around the alternator and such. I also flushed the engine and put in some Mobil 1 synthetic oil. I swapped out air filter and put in a K&N panel filter, and thoroughly cleaned all the intake tubing. In all this, I decided to also replace the spark plugs. Whenever I do oil changes, I make it a habit to pour in some Techron fuel system cleaner and top off with gas. I've done this on every vehicle that I've owned and have never had a problem. When all was said and done, the car ran beautifully! The car now has about 108,000 miles and as of this past Friday, I replaced both belts on the car as one of them was squealing on startup and when the A/C was engaged. Didn't do it all the time, but when it did, it was some what embarrassing, especially with a bunch of people around. After replacing them, the squealing went away. (drive)
Fast forward to yesterday. I went to wash the car and decided to wash the engine down again (might have been a mistake). Again, I avoided wetting key areas. When I was done, I dried up the outside of the car and drove home (about 5 miles). Car ran fine! In the evening my wife and I went to her office party in the Pro. We drove home with no problems, up until about a mile away from my house. I slowed to yield for oncoming traffic so that I could turn right at an intersection. As I acclerated to merge, the car felt like it was sputtering and then lurched forward as if nothing happened. It wasn't a violent action or anything, but something that I immediately noticed. After this happened, right about the time I got to the next light, I noticed my CEL came on. I continued to drive home with light still on. Everytime I would accelerate, I would notice the sputtering. I got home and cracked out my pocket OBD2 scanner and checked for codes. Right away I figured a had a misfire; the scanner gave me a code of P0301. Referenced the code and indeed it was a misfire on Cyl. 1. I cleared the code and left it at that for the evening. I was hoping the issue was just isolated to that evening and would not come back, but in the morning on my way to work, the CEL came on again.
At this point, I am not quite sure what might have caused the problem. Was it washing the engine? Maybe I got some water around the coil packs? Was it just coincidence? When I get home, I am going to inspect around to see if there is any water around the plugs, and will pull out each plug and inspect them carefully. I don't think I would have ingested any water, but I'll look down each cylinder to verify. Worse comes worse, I may have to replace the plugs again, and will likely replace the coil packs and wires to be safe. Can anybody think of any other issues that might have caused this matter? Is there something else I should look into? As far as plugs, wires, coils, etc. can anybody recommend a good setup. The car is my daily driver, but I wouldn't mind installing some aftermarket performance goodies if I had a reason to.
Please help!
(help)
I purchased a '00 Protege LX with a 1.6L (automatic) from my mother-in-law back in July of this year. The car had seen better days, but fortuneately the engine was still in good shape. When I bought it, the car had 103,000 miles on it, and had been kept in good shape, all except for the exterior. After getting it home, I took the car to the car wash and washed the engine bay down, avoiding overly wetting key areas such as around the alternator and such. I also flushed the engine and put in some Mobil 1 synthetic oil. I swapped out air filter and put in a K&N panel filter, and thoroughly cleaned all the intake tubing. In all this, I decided to also replace the spark plugs. Whenever I do oil changes, I make it a habit to pour in some Techron fuel system cleaner and top off with gas. I've done this on every vehicle that I've owned and have never had a problem. When all was said and done, the car ran beautifully! The car now has about 108,000 miles and as of this past Friday, I replaced both belts on the car as one of them was squealing on startup and when the A/C was engaged. Didn't do it all the time, but when it did, it was some what embarrassing, especially with a bunch of people around. After replacing them, the squealing went away. (drive)
Fast forward to yesterday. I went to wash the car and decided to wash the engine down again (might have been a mistake). Again, I avoided wetting key areas. When I was done, I dried up the outside of the car and drove home (about 5 miles). Car ran fine! In the evening my wife and I went to her office party in the Pro. We drove home with no problems, up until about a mile away from my house. I slowed to yield for oncoming traffic so that I could turn right at an intersection. As I acclerated to merge, the car felt like it was sputtering and then lurched forward as if nothing happened. It wasn't a violent action or anything, but something that I immediately noticed. After this happened, right about the time I got to the next light, I noticed my CEL came on. I continued to drive home with light still on. Everytime I would accelerate, I would notice the sputtering. I got home and cracked out my pocket OBD2 scanner and checked for codes. Right away I figured a had a misfire; the scanner gave me a code of P0301. Referenced the code and indeed it was a misfire on Cyl. 1. I cleared the code and left it at that for the evening. I was hoping the issue was just isolated to that evening and would not come back, but in the morning on my way to work, the CEL came on again.
At this point, I am not quite sure what might have caused the problem. Was it washing the engine? Maybe I got some water around the coil packs? Was it just coincidence? When I get home, I am going to inspect around to see if there is any water around the plugs, and will pull out each plug and inspect them carefully. I don't think I would have ingested any water, but I'll look down each cylinder to verify. Worse comes worse, I may have to replace the plugs again, and will likely replace the coil packs and wires to be safe. Can anybody think of any other issues that might have caused this matter? Is there something else I should look into? As far as plugs, wires, coils, etc. can anybody recommend a good setup. The car is my daily driver, but I wouldn't mind installing some aftermarket performance goodies if I had a reason to.
Please help!
(help)
