Misfire in cylinder #4 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Misfire in cylinder #4

sidvail

Member
Joined
March 29, 2014
Messages
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City, State
Sacramento, CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
1999 Explorer
I was out tinkering with my explorer today when my neighbor came over and said his check engine light was on in his 96 XLT. I offered my ez-scan to see if could find anything. Sure enough - trouble code P-304 showed up. Engine sounded great though.

Reading up on it shows anything from faulty plug/wire to O2 sensor to poor compression. Is any of those more common than most? Again, the engine sounds great - no stutter or starting problems. We did smell gas when he first started it up - but nothing afterwards.

I reset the code - but the check engine light came back on within the hour. Anything more likely than others?
 



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Is the motor using coolant? If it is, I'm betting the spark plug porcelain is cracked.
 






Okay, we tracked it down. The spark plug wire was laying across the manifold - melted through. Probably shorting out at times. Replaced the wire, cleared the code and took it for a test. No trouble code anymore, no check engine light. Whoop!
 






Excellent!
I have a bad habit of assuming the worst when I hear 'misfire cylinder 4'.

Glad the fix was easy.
 












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