I just replaced the valve cover gasket and tube seals on my GF's 03 Outlander and pulled the plugs while I was at it to find that there was maybe 1/16th of an inch of electrode left. I replaced the plugs with standard NGK plugs (BKR5E, OE plug) as well as new plug boots and plug wires. Started the car up and it ran really rough and smells like gas. I figured one hole just wasn't firing and have narrowed it down to the #1 cylinder. I re-installed the new wire twice and it still didn't work, put on the old plug wire and no difference, then finally pulled a plug out of my Subaru (same plug) and it still doesn't make a difference.

The plug has fuel on it, which would indicate that it is not firing and if I pull the wire off with the engine running it sparks like mad across the opening so the coil is definitely OK, I've tried new and old wires as well as new and old plugs and still nothing. Any ideas for what is wrong with the car? Fortunately she doesn't need the car back until Monday but it sucks to be without your car and I feel bad for it being in worse shape now than when I started.

 

Coil resistance is within spec, new plug wires are well within resistance spec, tried another set of plugs, and it is for sure the #1 cylinder. With the plug unhooked it runs the same, but grounding the plug to the block it is definitely getting spark. At this point the only other thing I can think of is bad compression (borrowing a compression tester later today) or just a fluke thing that the injector got plugged right as I was doing this work to it.

 

Compression is 145-150 across all cylinders and I bought a new coil and I'm still having trouble.

 

You've done way more diagnostics than I would have thought of.

To get combustion you need fuel and air in the correct ratio with a spark - it's obviously getting fuel since the plug is wet but is it too rich? Not sure how to check any of those ideas. Could the fuel injector be dumping in fuel instead of atomizing it?

Could your plug be somehow insulated when it's installed and not grounded to the block? Do you have a thread cleaner or try some dielectric grease? Which end is cylinder 1 on? Could it be starving for air?

Just spewing out ideas. I have no experience with this kind of thing.
I'm interested to hear how this gets solved. Thanks for posting.

CN

 

I though maybe my anti-seize was messing with the ground so I bought another set of plugs and it made no difference. I gave up yesterday and had it towed to a shop, she needs her car and I can't find anything wrong. I will keep you posted with what we find out but it may be a few days before he has time to get to it.

 

Moment of confession: I'm an idiot.

I put the short plug wire on the #3 cylinder where it belongs, but plugged it into the #4 coil, and plugged the #1 cylinder into the #2 coil. Swapped them back around and now it runs like a champ again. *slaps forehead* It's always the simple things...