Misfire Cylinder#3 (Help!)

Now remove the third cylinder spark plug put your nose down in that hole You smell coolant You know what coolant smells like? There are test kits you can get the screw something in the spark plug hole and all of that make the cylinder go up and down a few times and it'll turn green or yellow or whatever but just the smell being present in the cylinder should give you enough of a idea and then you can look in the cylinder with a small inspection camera maybe see the droplets usually you can see microfine droplets on the plug when you remove it.

 

Drop the oil pan and look to see if there are any piston skirt pieces there.

 

First, before I started tearing things up, I'd verify I actually replaced #3 spark plug, not #2. Depends based on which side of the engine you started counting from. Sounds crazy, but it happens......#1 is the passenger side. What plugs are you using?

The inverter coolant loop is isolated from the engine coolant loop. It's very unlikely to be related.

Have you actually verified whether #3 spark plug is sparking?

Keep it basic. It takes air, fuel and correctly timed ignition to make it happen. One of those is not right.

 

I bet if you run through a tank of gas or two like this that mileage will go down substantially If not then you have a very mild misfire I have this going on in an '09 and I can't even detect it It's telling me cylinder 1 is misfiring obviously intermittently. But yes it sounds like the fire is getting put out look down there with a small inspection camera or when you pull the plug if you're looking carefully with a magnifying glass and you see a lot of little droplets on the part of the plug that is sitting in the cylinder and that's a good indication take your finger touch those droplets touch them to your tongue they taste like ethylene glycol and there you go this is kind of rare in the one NZ. But any engine can have a head gasket leak that is a fact.

 

Why not put Denso SK16R11s in it? Those are the OEM recommended Denso model. They've cleared up misfire problems on some of the Gen 2s I've purchased. They're available from Rock auto for about $6 each.

The plug you're using is a heat range 5 the SK is a 16.

From NGK website:
A hotter heat range spark plug has an insulator design with a longer heat flow path to the metal shell of the plug. As a result, more heat stays in the ceramic firing end and less is dissipated to the engine. A colder heat range spark plug has an insulator design with a shorter heat flow path to the metal shell of the plug. As a result, less heat stays in the ceramic firing end and more is dissipated to the engine. For a spark plug to function properly, it must have a tip temperature high enough to burn off carbon deposits (self-cleaning) and avoid fouling, while remaining low enough to avoid overheating the ceramic firing end and pre-ignition.

 

Yes, that is what I meant.

You could just drain the oil and look for sparkly pieces of debris that could pass through the drain hole. If you see such, you could drop the pan to investigate further. With the pan off you can get a proper look at the pistons and connecting rods.

I guess you could use a borescope through the drain hole rather than drop the pan.

 

So I guess now can you see the axle causing the problem if you jack up the car on the side that has the bad axle with that wheel off the ground you should be able to wiggle the wheel assembly while it's bolted to the car and here's some clanking and clunking and carrying on or they showed you this damage while it was up in the air and they moved the wheel around and you saw the clunk clunk? If that's the case usually just replace the axle shaft they're cheap enough now there's no reason it has to be a factory one from the Toyota dealer that's absolutely ridiculous half shafts now I've been around 40-50 years so there's nothing nothing special about it there's a place in most towns that redo half shafts and CV joints and all that or your next town over or what have you nothing special need to be applied here for that get a shaft put the whole shaft in it's much easier on your life cost is about the same believe me

 

Just pull the spark plug out and that number 3 cylinder and smell Do you smell coolant coming out of that spark plug hole have your buddy use a large ratchet and turn the crankshaft round and round just by hand that'll push enough air out of that cylinder you'll smell it immediately if it's there and if it is well you found your problem I don't care what voltage is your injectors have or any of that If you smell that cooling in that cylinder some coolant is getting in there trying to put out the fire and that's not good eventually that will lead to a bent rod and a cracked center section I have them sitting here in the yard to show people but anyway that's what I would do at this point because I can immediately know in my yard with a spark plug wrench.

 

Is the injector 3 o ring installed correctly? Have you checked valve clearance on cylinder 3? Is injector wiring harness intact?

I think it is time to do a leak down test and troubleshoot for engine mechanical damage.

 

Yes I've often thought about the injectors on the 2013 persona but they look reasonable they're the blue colored ones and I have no reason to believe that anything's wrong with them because the engine up until failure was running beautifully You know no missing no funny business then all of a sudden missing and funny business and quickly after that broken rod failed rod whatever I had no shaking and none of that business the car drove straight as an arrow handled like a dream no problems no breaks no drive axles nothing a boring car actually like it should be a generation two is so boring to drive because nothing ever happens generally speaking when the red triangle or a set of lights comes on it's like you're going to the circus something's happening finally you know with the generation 3 it seems like you're going to the circus once a week That's always something It seems to never end for the car that the Prius is based on which is the most popular selling car on the planet the Toyota Corolla etc The generation 3 is a complete letdown basically where the two was an equal to the Corolla or possibly a step up depending upon how you look at things in life but the generation 3 to us has been a complete and utter failure if you will. But that's just to us If other people are enjoying life and having a good time well then so be it.