Hello Robertw12
Welcome to 2carpros and appreciate to have you with us
Misfire is a common driveability problem that may or may not be easy to diagnose, depending on the cause. A misfiring cylinder in a four-cylinder engine is hard to miss. The loss of 25% of the engine's power output is the equivalent of a horse trying to run on three legs. The engine may shake so badly at idle that it causes vibrations that can be felt in the steering wheel and throughout the vehicle. The engine also may be hard to start and may even stall at idle, depending on the accessory load (air conditioning, headlights and electric rear defroster, for example).
When misfire occurs, performance suffers along with fuel economy, emissions and idle quality. And, when a misfiring vehicle is subjected to an emissions test, it will usually fail because of the unusually high levels of hydrocarbons (HC) in the exhaust.
What causes a cylinder to misfire? Basically, it's one of three things: loss of spark; the air/fuel mixture is too far out of balance to ignite; or loss of compression. Loss of spark includes anything that prevents coil voltage from jumping the electrode gap at the end of the spark plug. Causes include worn, fouled or damaged spark plugs, bad spark plug wires.
To do the repair you must know what system is causing the misfire. You should start with pulling the code(s) out and get back to me.
Thermostat will never causes misfire, but you're right on spark plugs/ wires.
Thank you
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010 AT 1:10 AM
