Flashing CEL and Engine stumbling

[zbrocket]

Hi Everyone.

I just drove my explorer yesterday, I felt something weird going on. It was fine when I drove to the place I supposed to be, but the problem appeared on the way back. At idle, I could feel some kind of misfiring. I counted 1-2-3-4-5-6. and I felt engine vibration at 3-4. WHen I got on highway, the check engine light showed up and began flashing for 4~5 secs and the CEL remained on. It happend the cycle between flashing CEL and steady CEL on happend four ~ five times during 20 miles drive.

I went to autozone to get a code and it said P0302 (misfire cylinder2). the symptom of misfiring at cynlinder 2 happened 4 months ago and I erased a code back then. It didn't appear at all till yesterday. I replaced all spark plugs, but spark wire and coil pack.

Do you think I should replace a coil pack and wire?
Although there are no code present at this moment, I can still feel that an engine is vibrating or stumbbling.

Thanks

 

[section525]

Are you saying you replaced the wires when you did the plugs, or no? If you didn't, I would reccommend doing it! You could also pull the plug on #2 and see what it looks like. But chances are it's a shot wire.

 

[zbrocket]

I haven't replaced my wire yet.. is cylinder #2 is on passenger side? I mean the one at the center on passenger side.

 

[section525]

Yup.

 

[zbrocket]

Should I replace all wires at once? I haven't changed my wire before. Is this the same process as changing spark plug right?

 

[aldive]

Should I replace all wires at once? I haven't changed my wire before. Is this the same process as changing spark plug right?

I would definately replace all of the wires at once.

 

[zbrocket]

Thank you for your writing,, HOw should I replace 2 wires on the passenger side.. It seems nearly impossible?

 

[zbrocket]

ok.. I just checked my wire. #4,#1, and #2. #4 and #2 seems very clean. I can see the metal circle inside of the boot. But #2 seems pretty dirty plus the the boot seems distorted some what.. Does this indicate something?

I just re-pluged all the wires back. The car seems less vibrating but still the engine moves left and right slightly. My mechanic says it is normal for aged cars to have some vibration. So I guess I have to live up to his words.

I do have two quick questions before closing this thread. What is the indication of the time to change coil pack and Can the sea-form thing people talks about fixing my problem or improving the engine performance?

 

[ExplorerDMB]

sea-foam and any type of engine deposit cleaner can help.

Coil packs - the are usually only diagnoised by misfiring. They really don't execute any other issues besides misfiring...because that's all they are used for. Hope that helps.

Any car will have a slight vibration to it - that's just the nature of the beast. However, if you get in a car with a v8, v10, v12, etc the more cylinders the more balanced the engine will rotate. However, with age comes wear and tear on engine mounts, tranny mounts, etc - which will cause a little play and cause a vibration. I think you'll be ok

-Drew