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This isn’t my car, Dave. The owners let me drive while they are on vacation. It’s a luxury car with alot of life left so I thought I’d be nice and detail the car for them and fix minor issues here and there. There was a large rear bumper dent that was there for over a year that I managed to remove with a heat gun. Looks 90% better lol. But while I was driving it, the oil was very low. So I changed it. The passenger headlight was also going out due to a bad ballast. I replaced that also. Then, a few days later I got the check engine light. Which scared the beejeebus out of me. But the owner said that it had came on before. But this time its not going off. So I had replaced the sparks, messed around with the coils, etc. I want to fix the check engine light for them before they get home in a couple of days. But it seems I just don’t have what it takes in the timeframe I have and the tools that I have.
I have learned one thing though from all of this – better to understand how things work because the upside is so much greater.
There is a definite leak on the valve cover gasket. At first I thought it was just oil from where you refill but it looks like its coming exactly from the gasket seal. Then there is oil on some of the spark plugs. There’s also alot of oil in the exhaust manifold.
If the new valve and spark gaskets doesn’t fix, Ill look into the your suggestions. Since the intake mani is off I’ll have a chance to check the injectors with a multimeter. Also I shouldve known that it wasn’t the spark coils because I tested them all with a multimeter and nothing out of the ordinary.
I think if one takes better care of their engine, diagnosing wouldve alot easier! This isn’t my car as its someone elses car. But the dirt and grime made me overlook the root causes. This has made me really stay on top of cleaning the engine because I’m someone who will wash their car every other day in the summer but totally ignore the engine bay lol
Wow, diagnosing the misfire and check engine light was a huge nightmare lol.
First I replaced the sparks with OEM parts because they looked really worn out. Didn’t fix. Then I replaced the coil which had the P0302 code. Didn’t fix. Then I kept moving the coils around. Didn’t fix. Cleaned the throttle body. Didn’t fix. This took alot of time and labor because I kept having to remove the parts and putting it back together.
But I think I found the issue. I think my valve cover gasket need to be replaced. Some of the old spark plugs had oil on them when I pulled it out and there was an oil leak on the front engine. The engine was also really low on oil. If this doesn’t turn the check engine light off, I’m definitely going to throw in the towels.
All in all, diagnosing is a huge pain! But the signs were all there from the beginning(oil leaks) but I over looked it. These challenges has really forced me to learn how the car works though. And I’ve gotten much better at finding a problem with the car.
I actually found a set of new NGK spark plugs for a Honda TL. Is it safe to use in my Lexus that says I need Iridium? I want to save a bit of money if I can do it. I don’t mind a shorter life for the plugs, as long as its safe for the engine.
Hey Dave I think I’ll replace the OEM coil packs along with the spark plugs. Do you think I should replace the one bad one or replace them all? I used a multimeter to test it and it had a 32 Ohm reading.
I was reading about a post in MR2 forum and the guy said replacing all his coils made his car buttery smooth lol.
I think Ill change the spark plug first and see if the code goes away because the ignition coil is pretty expensive($100).I had changed out the sparks on my other vehicle when it had the check engine light and it worked. But if it is the coil, is a used one safe to use?
Also the amount of inaccurate information on the internet is staggering. I googled if it is safe to drive with a vsc/check engine light and they said it was safe. Lol. I did drive from like 50 miles with the check engine light on. Hopefully nothing is destroyed.
Thanks Dave!
Aw thanks Dave! I was worried sick using a smaller battery. So besides from the cold cranking, this won’t have any negative effect on the engine whatsoever as long as the car is running? Because I’ve been reading and the other sources say it may affect the alternators and stuff like that.
I have some major important questions I’ve been waiting to ask you. Im taking my time preparing it because there’s so many stuff to soak up.
Hope you been well.
So would you say that it’s worth it for engineers to get involved in motorsports, aside from the promotional aspect? In other words, if you had it your way, would you do without it?
Wouldn’t most engineers already know most of the racing physics based on their engineering knowledge?
Ohh thanks Dave. I actually made a prediction that it was the tooling cost that was the most expensive in development of new vehicles.
Oh I haven’t done the extra flush yet. I was just asking you what you thought of it.
I remember that you said to change oil often if you do short trips because of water building up in the oil. Would it just be safer than to do 5000 instead of the 10k interval then because of this?
Also a bit off topic, you said that you own a Mazda 3 and Hyundai Ioniq. Why did you pick those cars?
