My experience with R32 maintainence/plugs etc :)

[Chris32]

Changed the plugs on my car on the weekend. It was running a little ruff, and had been a while since they where changed.

Having never change plugs myself before, I decided to have a go, and discovered a few interesting things -

1) The hoses to and from the carbon cannister where missing clips, and one was disconnected.

2) Hose clamp from intercooler pipe to throttle body was loose enough to slide around by hand

3) Igniter module was mounted upside down, and earth wire loose.

Now all of this would have been removed the last time I had my plugs changed, and was never put back properly. This was done by a well know workshop here in Adelaide, and I was a little dissapointed to find all of this

Upon removing the plug cover, all the coils looked on good health, no wires looked damaged etc.

Took the coils out and changed my plugs, replaced the platinums with a set of NGK BCPR6ES, which are copper. Gaps where checked and set to 0.8mm.

Put back all the coils etc

I decided, just by chance to check how far open the throttle acutally was a full throttle. I had my g/f step on the pedal, and whatched the butterfly, and it was a fair way of fully open! I was amazed, I had always wondered, if it was the case.

10 minutes later, with it adjsuted (if you have ever adjusted brakes on a push-bike, its the same type of adjustemnet) I had my throttle fully open when the pedal was fully depressed

I put all the pipes back on, connected all the hoses up,including the ones that where not correctly put back last time. Made sure everything was done up tight, including all the vacuum lines that where previously dodgy

It fired first time, and I was stoked!! After a quick drive to get it all warmed up, the combination of new plugs and a throttle that is open FULLY, the car feels awesome, like its never felt before. It comes on boost much faster now, and seems to pull much harder through the mid-range, where before it felt quite laggy. Also idles much better, although it misses a little, I think this is becuase of the plug gaps more than anything, as once a tad of throttle is applied, it goes

So anyone else thinking of changing your plugs, it isn't hard, and also check all your fittings for loose/missing hose clamps etc

Very happy with the results, feels like a new car

Chris

[JimX]

Good stuff. Rough idle could also be slightly blocked injectors, when was the last time you had them cleaned?

[Chris32]

Don't think its injectors, as it idled fine with larger plug gaps

All the old plugs where the same red/brown colour, so no cylinder running rich or lean, so I a pretty sure the injectors are ok. I ran some injector cleaner about a month ago, and the fuel filter has only done minial kms

Runs really good now!

[Abo Bob]

I thought red/brown was lean. Could be wrong though.

[Chris32]

red/brown - normal with good AFR's

black - rich AFR's

white - lean/hot - not good

[JimX]

Don't think its injectors, as it idled fine with larger plug gaps

Well why would mine idle fine with a 0.8 gap? And lots of other people's that also have 0.8. Just because it runs fine above idle doesn't mean the injectors are 100% clear. If you cbf'd cleaning them that's your prerogative, I was just giving you suggestions.

[Cubes]

I found when I slapped in a set of BCPR6EY's with a .8mm gap over the origional plats mine also idled with the od pop or not quite a miss but only a slightly little bit of roughness every so often.

I do think my injectors are playing up a little though.

[mindflux]

hmm interesting .. im going to do my plugs in the next few days

im going to run stock gaps (1.1?) as my car seems to be totally stock

i have no idea about what im doing so wish me luck

[Chris32]

Well why would mine idle fine with a 0.8 gap? And lots of other people's that also have 0.8. Just because it runs fine above idle doesn't mean the injectors are 100% clear. If you cbf'd cleaning them that's your prerogative, I was just giving you suggestions.

I am pretty sure the reason for the odd pop while it idles is due to the car having a re-chipped computer more than anything, as it runs quite rich at idle, always has ever since it was done, rather than the injectors being clogged up. Funnily enough, now that the car has a few km's on the new plugs (about 250kms so far) it seems to be coming good.

Anyone have a digital camera pic of the idle control valve? Maybe it needs adjsuting since that it has all the hoses connected properly now with no leaks?

Granted, it might be worth cleaning them, but they are being replaced shortly so your right, I cbf'd cleaning the stockies

[timbar32]

Mindflux, my car is totally stock too, except for a pod filter. I had the stock plug gap of 1.1 in it, and as soon as the real cold weather hit down here (cold, as in 0 degrees) it started to miss at high revs. Don't know if it was the pod taking in more air or what, but regapping the plugs at 0.8 stopped it. I'd recommend 0.8 gaps even if your car is stock. If you mod it even slightly later, you may get some missing. Just my experience....

[Cubes]

Another thing that affected my idle was I removed the mesh from the afm.

It now also appears to fuel cut a lot earlier.

[Chris32]

Hmmm, I have never bothered removing the mesh, I figure that Nissan put it there for a reason, so it can stay there for now

I think Steve had trouble with idle, and put the mesh back and it sorted itself out