Changed Spark plugs - now hesitation

Oct 10, 2003 12 Replies

Ok got a 306 1.6 TU5JP (I think that the code) Went to Halfords today to get some new spark plugs and get oil and filter for the service. Changed everything, except i brought some fancy exspensive spark plugs(champion Xeon?? Ion??? ZON?? something along those lines cant remeber)



Anyway now when accelerating in third or forth from about 1300RPM theres a hesitation (juddering) that clears after about 2200RPM. Now I know I brought the right plugs for my car, so Why has this hesitation suddenly appeared?? Are these plugs crap? They cost £20 so I thought they might be quite good. Any one had a similar expierience? Or is it going to be a case of buying new spark plugs (the normal cheapo champion ones) I've just given it a bit of a caning to see if it would clear but no its still there.



Any one any ideas??



Thanks



Ben J


Buy NGK, everything else is hype and s**te.

Worked one summer on green goddesses. They had a spark plug tester. I enquired why they bothered testing old plugs and didn't just put new ones in. The reply was they had to test a box of 10 new ones to get one set of 6 good ones and sometimes had to open a second box of 10.

Went to a Champion promo night once, they had just introduced copper core plugs at a premium price. NGK had been copper cored for at least the previous 10 years and I had thought all plugs were made like that. I left thinking - what sort of cheap crap have you been selling people for the last 10 years?

The film on ski mobiles crossing water 10 up and a pair of go karts with apollo command module thruster rockets doing the 1/4 mile in 3 secs was quite good.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

You didn't drop one or more did you? I once dropped a plug, then fitted it without checking it, the car ran as you describe. I took the plugs out and immediately spotted that the one I had dropped had a closed gap, I reset it and the car ran perfectly again. The chances of a faulty plug of a good make are almost zero.

MrCheerful

The message from "MrCheerful" contains these words:

You're me, you are! I did just that on a Morris 1100...and got very upset triny to find out why.

Had leads 2 and 3 swapped once, too. That takes a while to fathom, particularly if you're not aware that the leads have been disurbed.

Might be worth checking the plug leads in case you've damaged them when removing. A DVM will check them.

Back in the dim and distant past I did a bit of fettling on a mate's Datsun

120Y. For some obscure reason I assumed his dizzy rotated the same way as my Renault. Well I had a 50/50 chance I suppose. So instead of 1342 I got 1243. Blimey he didn't half panic, I realised what I'd done almost immediately but it was worth it for the look on his face.

-- Malc Likewise it is interesting to consider the ecology of the artifactual world, especially the phylogeny and taxonomy of bookbinding structures.

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Some plugs still have a small screw-on top - where these are present, I usually just nip them up a bit with a pair of pliers, they can come loose and cause misfires. Dothis before putting the plugs in.

Were the areas around the plug holes clean when you put the plugs in? - A bit of dirt might stop the plug sealing properly. Also make sure they are in tight enough - with modern allow heads I always use a toruqe wrench - without one I usually err on the side of caution, leave one or more plugs loose - and get misfires after a few days or weeks!

Also - just make sure you have pushed the plug leads fully home, both onto the plugs and at the dizzy end.

To sort any small chance of corrosion, I usually squirt a bit of WD40 into the end of the plug lead, shake out the excess, and then fit them.

So which manufacturer/supplier was getting away with supplying the MOD with spark plugs with a 40% plus reject rate?

I worked on Bedford RLs in the REME, and we never had a reject plug once as I recall.

Steve

Home office, Supply and transport - CHAMPION.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'm gonna have a look at it this afternoon hopefully.

Thanks

Ben

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