BruceBruce Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 So yesterday on my way to the tire shop to get an alignment and rear tires replaced+balance all tires my car started idling and running like ISH. Very rough idle, but not stalling out. Never heard any bad grinding/breaking/bad noises. Just real rough idle and rough running. Car went in limp mode im pretty sure cause i couldnt feel/hear the turbo and had no power. Felt like a misfire which im guessing what it is. threw code P0303 (with p0420 and p0171 pending. Whats that about?). While the mechanic was tryin to diagnose it the code went away, so he checked an easy plug to get to and told me they looked bad and needed replacement. Said over the phone that might not be the problem but that it also could be and he recommend to replace them. Said the computer called for 2.5 hrs but only charged me 1.5hrs and half a diagnostic fee since the code went away in the middle of him tryin to figure it out. So after the plugs being changed the car runs fine and 242 dollars(better than the dealers 500 lol) later. The spark plugs were 64 of that. Yah i could of gotten them for about half that price but i would of had to wait and i wanted the car fixed asap. Anyway so the 60k mile interval on the spark plugs i think is kinda bs. Should probably changed around 30k. ill post some pics of the plugs after i get home from class tonight. there nasty. Blah all these little things messing up better stop or im going to run out of reserve money after buying the car lol. GOod thing i borrowed from the parents after paying cash for the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devobuzz Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Sounds to me like he only fixed the symptom and not the problem. Why are the plugs nasty? The P0420 code is an O2 sensor code. Maybe that is going bad. Well you find out soon enough. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slickvic Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Sounds to me like he only fixed the symptom and not the problem. Why are the plugs nasty? The P0420 code is an O2 sensor code. Maybe that is going bad. Well you find out soon enough. Good luck! I concur. P0303 Code - Cylinder #3 Misfire Detected Symptoms: the engine may be harder to start. The engine may stumble / stumble, and/or hesitate. Other symptoms may also be present Causes: Faulty spark plug or wire Faulty coil (pack) Faulty oxygen sensor(s) Faulty fuel injector Burned exhaust valve Faulty catalytic converter(s) Running out of fuel Poor compression Defective computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesuby Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 My plugs were changed at 60,000 and looked ok, however the car is stock and is not modified or tuned which could have an effect on plug life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackfang Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Sounds to me like he only fixed the symptom and not the problem. Why are the plugs nasty? The P0420 code is an O2 sensor code. Maybe that is going bad. Well you find out soon enough. Good luck! A P0420 is a catalyst efficiency below threshold code for the cat converter. Yes an A/F sensor could be bad which may in turn cause the cat to go bad. [SIZE=1][URL="http://public.fotki.com/blackfang/"]Pics[/URL] [B]08 KawasakiZZR 600- exhaust and other mods 98 Camaro Z/28 HT- some mods......street/strip car 07 Legacy 2.5i- SPT exhaust...daily driver[/B][/SIZE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBruce Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 I concur. P0303 Code - Cylinder #3 Misfire Detected Symptoms: the engine may be harder to start. The engine may stumble / stumble, and/or hesitate. Other symptoms may also be present Causes: Faulty spark plug or wire Faulty coil (pack) Faulty oxygen sensor(s) Faulty fuel injector Burned exhaust valve Faulty catalytic converter(s) Running out of fuel Poor compression Defective computer SO why couldn't the plugs be the problem? You even say so yourself in the possible causes. Im guessing they were in there for the whole 60k miles. IDK for sure though since i just picked the car up. My car is stock as far as i know. I have an sti up pipe and and an extra stock downpipe to gut in my closet waiting for me to get around to having them installed since i dont have the necessary tools to do the job. How many o2 sensors are there on this car(my toyota truck had two) and is it easy to get to? i remember one being by the DP if im not mistaken when we fixed a leak weeks ago at my friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBruce Posted February 11, 2010 Author Share Posted February 11, 2010 and 3 pics of the plugs. the fibers on it are from the carpet/cats/or the cloth i used to wipe em http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/2437/img0558h.jpghttp://img11.imageshack.us/img11/507/img0560vv.jpghttp://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2179/img0561ep.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBruce Posted February 11, 2010 Author Share Posted February 11, 2010 ps bought an o2 code reader also from costco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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