My baby's playing up.

[burkey22]

Hello all.

Tonight I went to take my Stag for a good run as I'm about to go away for a month.

When I put my foot down though things went pear shaped. It started what felt to me like it was missing a bit. The power wasn't smooth at all. And the exhaust was spluttering like it does when it changes gears if I'm fanging it.

I hope someone can understand what I'm talking about and tell me it's nothing major. I haven't checked anything yet as it's dark outside. Not real sure where to look either.

Sorry about the vagueness of ther message. Any help or info would be awesome.

Thanks guys.

Zane.

[Terminal]

sounds like it could be coils or fuel pump, but remember, always start at the cheapes thing first. Clean AFM, check spark plugs fuel filter etc, then work up to more expensive things

[Jay95R33]

Sounds like a miss (ignition).

Have you wound the boost up a bit? Do you know what sort of spark plugs your running?

J

[burkey22]

The spark plugs did indeed fix the problem. Thanks for your help guys.

[Sydneykid]

Similar experience......ours started playing up a bit after the long run (400 k's straight). It would miss occasionally under load and drop a cylinder at idle sometimes. As usual, first guess would be plugs. It was my undertanding that it had new plugs put in during the compliance process, but I figured I might as well check them anyway.

The plugs sure looked new but they were Autolites, APP 3924-11's. Now I have never had much luck with Autolites, and 1.1 mm is way too big a gap. So in went a set of the usual NGK BCPR6ES's gapped to 0.8 mm. Bingo no miss, runs perfectly and I am sure makes more power.

I don't know whether anyone else has checked their plugs since compliance, but it might be worthwhile as both burkey22 and I have had similar problems.

[burkey22]

Gary2 had the same problem aswell.

[Brazen]

Same problem first week for me - first thing I did was get them changed and gapped (but to 0.9mm)... and the weird thing was - they pulled out a really shocking discouloured set of NGK iridiums! So just had some normal NGKs put in.

[Jay95R33]

When I checked mine they were the factory ones (only had 57k). I didn't bother waiting for it to play up. I scored a set of Iridiums from a mate that used them for about 2 months for nothing . Already gapped to .8mm in the right heat range too, and chucked them straight in

[Terminal]

Mine had done 120,000km and were completed buggered. i didn't have any missing problems, but i'm fairly certain they would have started quite soon.

[Lone]

I had bloody autolites as well!!

Hopefully my slight miss has been fixed by now, but i only felt it at around 120 on the racetrack, will be on the m1 this weekend so ill see how it goes

[tigerleo62]

I had the spark plugs replaced - the originals were still in the car. Had injectors cleaned, transmission and diff oil replaced...

Car still misses and does strange things with the g box swapping gears while cruising and not changing down when cornering...

Apparently no cracks in the coils. Been told it might be air flow meter or fuel flow sensor thing - as the car does not exhibit the problems consistently, the auto electrician/mechanic couldn't find any faults, so have to wait until the car misbehaves consistently

[Jay95R33]

Sounds a bit strange. Have you run the auto box diags ??

[tigerleo62]

Sounds a bit strange.  Have you run the auto box diags ??

Yes it is strange (i.e., damn annoying), and no, I haven't tried the box diagnostics - now I know I read that somewhere here on how to do that, so I guess I better use the search feature and find that post...

[tigerleo62]

Well, just tried the auto box diagnostics, however my Power light globe is dead, so no readings for me...

[Jay95R33]

Ahhh, you'll have to get a globe in there so you can see what's going on. Could be a faulty sensor or blocked valve etc..

[tigerleo62]

Just looked at the part number of plugs that were installed - NGK BKR5EIX-11 - now would these plugs have too large a gap and be too 'hot' for a standard stag engine with out mods apart from a panel filter?

Would the larger gap also make the car feel a little sluggish apart from the possibility of mis-firing? I am wondering whether the problems I am still experiencing with the odd running of my car is now also due to incorrect spark plugs... any comments?

[SafT]

you set the gap yourself man, before you put them in normally

[Sydneykid]

Just looked at the part number of plugs that were installed - NGK BKR5EIX-11 - now would these plugs have too large a gap and be too 'hot' for a standard stag engine with out mods apart from a panel filter?

Would the larger gap also make the car feel a little sluggish apart from the possibility of mis-firing? I am wondering whether the problems I am still experiencing with the odd running of my car is now also due to incorrect spark plugs... any comments?

The -11 = 1.1 mm and from my experience that's too big, particularly at more than standard boost. I used 0.8mm on the NGK BCPR6ES, actually they came as -8, but I still checked the gaps. I use BCPR7ES in the race car, but they are too cold for lots of traffic driving. Hence the 6's are the go.

My suggestion would be to gap them down to 0.8mm, the heat range shouldn't cause the missfiring.

[tigerleo62]

Thanks guys - I rang the guy who put the plugs in but he is away for a few days - I want to find out whether he did set the gap to 0.8 or just whacked them in as is. Also want to find out why he chose BKR5EIX-11 plugs as opposed to something like BCPR6EIX.