I had the strangest problem lately, btw I have an 02' Protege ES 2.0
I was getting a loss of power in the lower end of gears, or when I would let the rpms did, like for example going into 4rth gear at 35mph and letting off the clutch without getting up to past 40. Normally it never did that, it had a kind of sputtering feeling but would crank back up when it got up in the rpms. I feel like a retard now that I figured it out, long story short, it became apparent once the thing totally broke, the spark plug in cylinder 3 broke off. Got it out replaced it, problem gone.
But when I was changing them out, i noticed there was a lot of white oxidization on the prong of the plug. When I first got the car back when it had 150,000 miles on it, I changed the plugs out then, and they were the same. I put a new set in today at 211,000 miles and the ones I had put in were also oxidized. I drove it a few blocks with the new new ones in, (NGK platinums) and when I popped one out, sure enough it was already oxidized. Someone told me that was a sign of burning coolant? What do you guys think? I'm anal about preventative maintenance on this car, I love it, but I always like to know I'm doing the right thing and won't potentially break what doesn't need fixing. Thanks!
**Btw, here is a link to a picture I took of one of the plugs, they all look just like this after only a mile or so of driving, but they do not accumulate any denser.**
<a href="http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o140/Aeridyne/?action=view¤t=HPIM1895sm2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o140/Aeridyne/HPIM1895sm2.jpg" border="0" alt="Spark Plug w/ white oxidation"></a>
I was getting a loss of power in the lower end of gears, or when I would let the rpms did, like for example going into 4rth gear at 35mph and letting off the clutch without getting up to past 40. Normally it never did that, it had a kind of sputtering feeling but would crank back up when it got up in the rpms. I feel like a retard now that I figured it out, long story short, it became apparent once the thing totally broke, the spark plug in cylinder 3 broke off. Got it out replaced it, problem gone.
But when I was changing them out, i noticed there was a lot of white oxidization on the prong of the plug. When I first got the car back when it had 150,000 miles on it, I changed the plugs out then, and they were the same. I put a new set in today at 211,000 miles and the ones I had put in were also oxidized. I drove it a few blocks with the new new ones in, (NGK platinums) and when I popped one out, sure enough it was already oxidized. Someone told me that was a sign of burning coolant? What do you guys think? I'm anal about preventative maintenance on this car, I love it, but I always like to know I'm doing the right thing and won't potentially break what doesn't need fixing. Thanks!
**Btw, here is a link to a picture I took of one of the plugs, they all look just like this after only a mile or so of driving, but they do not accumulate any denser.**
<a href="http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o140/Aeridyne/?action=view¤t=HPIM1895sm2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o140/Aeridyne/HPIM1895sm2.jpg" border="0" alt="Spark Plug w/ white oxidation"></a>
