DIY Car Maintenance with function over finesse!!

[bobins]

Every time I've been to Germany it's been inevitable that I pass through an area that's got a local election going on, normally with the candidate placards attached to lamp posts. Almost without exception, at least one of the male candidates possesses a moustache*. See if you come across the same, Mick

*- No! Not that sort of a moustache..... if you have a stereotypical mind, just a healthy 'normal' one.

[mickthemaverick]

I'll keep my eyes open and report on the Hamburg Hop thread

[Gibbo2286]

The ladies or the gentlemen?

[mickthemaverick]

Sadly the misfire returned about 50km before I got to my daughter's house. This morning I stripped out the induction stuff to discover the plug wass loose again. So I retightened it and put everything back together. Took it out as shown elsewhere and it was much improved but not gone!! So anyone ever used threadlock on a spark plug? comments on the idea are welcome. Luckily being at my daughter's I did have the use of the garage with a pit, though not needed for this, and the workshop which is equipped with more kit than Halfords!!

One wall of four which are all similarly adorned!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Sadly the misfire returned about 50km before I got to my daughter's house. This morning I stripped out the induction stuff to discover the plug wass loose again. So I retightened it and put everything back together. Took it out as shown elsewhere and it was much improved but not gone!! So anyone ever used threadlock on a spark plug? comments on the idea are welcome. Luckily being at my daughter's I did have the use of the garage with a pit, though not needed for this, and the workshop which is equipped with more kit than Halfords!!

Looks like a pain in the neck job to sort that out properly if it is stripped threads in the spark plug hole. Definitely not one for your hols. Any sort of retapping, or putting in helicoils is going to drop swarf into the combustion chamber unless you trust hoovering to suck the debris out. Thats if access is good enough to even attempt that approach. I would say that attempting to give it a bit of a better seal with threadlocker is just about your only option. Maybe hire/borrow a car so it doesnt hamper the rest of your trip and pick your car up going back the same way, to get it back home.

I looked into helicoils some 40 odd years ago when I had one spark plug which had been cross threaded and damaged the threads in the spark plug hole on the aluminium head. Never did anything positive about it but it must have sealed well enough without ever being able to tighten it to the correct torque and there was no misfiring problem.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Video on a Subaru Boxer Engine install spark plug thread inserts



Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

We started yesterday by removing the air intake again and cleaning more oil out of the plug tube. The plug felt as tight as I would be prepared to do it, so I fear the issue may be more serious!! Potential hairline crack between oil ways and plug port I fear. Not much I can do about it while away so I cleaned it all away and put it back together. Redid the idle calibration routine and we set off for Hamburg.

Not much to report on the journey other than more observations on the misfire, it is running fine over 2000 rpm but below that the electrical and mechanical loading on the engine affected the misfiring. It will get another clean out today and general checkover ready for the next trip tomorrow.

May also be something straightforward, and a common occurance on Subaru Boxer engines (yes not first hand knowledge but a bloke from the USA on youtube!), these eventually fail causing oil in the spark plug hole and resultant misfires.

Spark plug tube seals (underside of valve cover)

In situ

https://youtu.be/iTKN32Z2Vek?t=1163

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Some potential good news, thanks
Neil!

[mickthemaverick]

An update on the misfire, I went to see the Subaru dealer to discuss the right parts and get them ordered. I was in for a double shock, firstly price and second availability. Having discussed them I left a list of my needs and they agreed to email me the position. They did:

This is a list of the parts you are enquiring about

Spark plugs £21.72 x4 Available from UK stock

HT leads
1 £24.72 NLA
2 £31.68 Available from UK stock
3 £24.96 NLA
4 £31.01 Available mid Oct

Rocker cover gasket £24.02 x2 Available early Aug

Spark plug seal £6.84 x4 Available

3 bond sealant £59.71 Available

PCV assemble £39.00 Special order from Japan 4-6 weeks (Once ordered this cannot be returned or cancelled)

Coil pack £289.00 Available early Aug

All prices are for one unit and do not include VAT or postage costs

Not good news at all!! So I removed the coil pack and sealant (too expensive) as well as the HT leads as just 2 are no good!! I have ordered the rest but clearly they will not be with me in time for my second trip to Germany on 29th July!! So I have now spent some time, having got the part numbers from the dealer, searching for the coil pack and HT leads in the aftermarket world. I have found the coil pack for £69 and ordered it and possibly the HT leads for £51 in all but I'm still awaiting confirmation that they are correct from the supplier!

Meanwhile that situation means I have to find alternative transport for the next trip. I cannot cancel this trip as it suffered that fate at Easter when my car suspension issues cropped up and the girls were very upset so I cannot postpone again!! Hence I have reverted to my former trading status and ransacked the market for an affordable but reliable alternative. Today I achieved that ambition and reconfirmed my eligibility to be a member of the FCF. Watch out for a new thread this evening!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Good luck with sorting it out, Put the word "Misfire" in a thread and many of them turn out to be long sagas of try this, try that, and dont get resolved.

Have you moved away from assuming it was just the one cylinder/one spark plug "loosening" one spark plug hole filling and refilling with oil cause of the problem?

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

No not really Neil, the codes have indicated misfires on cylinder 1 and cylinder 4 which I have not actually looked at. However as they are in opposite heads it makes sense to replace the lot and be sure. The coil pack is not expected to go beyond 120k and this one's done 140k so it is a 'do it while I'm at it' job. The number one plug continued to misfire when tight so I believe it has broken down as a result of the contamination and as the plugs are the 'cheap' parts in the system it makes sense to replace them for the rest of the system being new. As for the HT leads I am concerned that I may have damaged no1 with the number of on and offs and again not unreasonable to renew the lot after 22 years and 140k miles. they are definitely the originals being signwritten with cylinder numbers alongside the almost illegible part numbers and all are showing their age

[mickthemaverick]

Today, in the lull of Subaru work, it was time to deal with the C4's need for a new offside front strut top bearing. As I do not have spring compressors, left behind by accident when I vacated my last workshop, Jim offered to help me do the job at his house so I set off this morning having loaded most of the tools I thought we may need. Jim of course has a full set and it turned out he had a better breaker bar than me but I countered with a more powerful impact gun!!

Anyhow the first part of the job involved removing the wipers, scuttle, scuttle support and some rubber fillets to give access to the strut top. I then had to set the wiper mechanism so the strut nut was sitting nicely in the aperture in the mechanism. We then undid the top nut and left it in position while I set about the lower end. Straightforward stuff, remove ABS sensor cable clip from drop link, release droplink, undo two strut mounting bolts and lever out the strut!!

Taking the strut into the garage we set about applying the spring compressors which was not quite as easy as it might have been. Because the spring has a significant reduction in diameter as it winds upwards we had a bit of playing around to get the compressors on securely but perseverance paid off and we were able to release the clamp nut and remove the top. The bearing was not in great shape at all and the rubber was torn. The car had failed its MOT in May with a broken spring and whoever replaced the spring used the old top and didn't tighten the clamp nut fully we believe. Anyhow cleaned and reassembled and put back onto the car without much difficulty. Jim then said while you have the scuttle apart we may as well do the service and so we then spent an entertaining 10 minutes removing the air box to turbo, diesel primer bulb and air intake hoses to give access to the airbox lid screws. Yes if you just want to change the air filter on this car you have to remove the wipers, scuttle and support bracket as well the diesel primer bulb and hoses, B^%$£^%$£^ ridiculous in my opinion!!!

Anyhow having achieved the air filter I crawled under to remove the sump plug (an inny) without any hassle and drained the oil. With the air intake hose already off the car, access to the oil filter was ok but personally I think these encased filters are a pain in general. A traditional screw off screw on is far simpler in my mind!!! Having changed that and refilled the oil all that remained was to put everything back together and go down the pub for a late lunch!!

Thanks again to Jim for his help and the use of his flat drive which I did manage to leave a small oil stain on to give him something to remember me by!!

[CitroJim]

It was a very enjoyable day Mick Agreed on all the bizarreness needed to swap the air filter Definitely a bit of a 'Friday Afternoon after a very good liquid lunch' piece of design work...

My Picasso is only a little better in that respect and just for fun you have do disconnect a very fiddly pipe...

Pleased the diagnostics returned a clean bill of health The Eolys tank must have ben fairly recently refilled and the DPF looks very happy!

[mickthemaverick]

Remember when car maintenance used to be easy?

BFTW

[bobins]

^^^^^^^
Someone's left a saucepan with a lid on it on the right hand side of that engine bay.