Code P0302

Tiny
MOOV_ME_BRIGHTLY
  • MEMBER
  • 2012 KIA SOUL
  • 2.0L
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 100,000 MILES
Bought the car 2 years ago with 60,000 miles and the odometer recently flipped over to 100,000 miles. This is my 17-year-old nieces' daily driver. (That may or may not be important, but I felt the need to inform). Two weeks ago, she ran completely out of fuel and the engine stalled, naturally. As an alternative to gasoline, which she did not have on hand, her boyfriend poured a bottle of STP gas treatment into the fuel tank and off they went. They were able to get closer to the gas station, but the engine stalled again. Another bottle of STP gas treatment was added to the fuel tank and they were able to get even closer to the gas station but to no avail and the engine stalled a third time. They called for backup, and I arrived with fuel that got them to the gas station. At that time, they filled the gas tank and then drove two miles home. Upon pulling into the driveway the car was noticeably stuttering and the check engine light came on with a p0302 misfire on cylinder two code. Since that time, I have run the following tests and/or inspections to try and verify the issue without having to pull the cylinder head. (Note: The car has run low on oil once in the past that I know of. I have done all the oil changes and maintenance otherwise)

Swapped ignition coils 2 and 4. Drove the car and it threw codes P0301, P0302, and P0303.

Check resistance on all four ignition coils. All good.

Checked power supply to all four ignition coils. All good.

Checked all spark plugs. Replaced the number 2 spark plug as it had minor carbon buildup and wet oil deposits. All other spark plugs looked okay. All are NGK IR plugs.

Pulled the injectors and supplied 12-volt power on the bench and pulsated fuel and carb cleaner through each injector to verify they all were working and were cleaned.

Check resistance on all four injectors. All good.

Check power supply to all four injectors. All good.

Check the battery voltage. Allgood at 14 volts and 12.5 at idle.

Replaced valve cover gasket and spark plug tube seals.

Performed a compression test on each cylinder and all cylinders had identical compression at 125 PSI.

Performed wet compression test on each cylinder and all cylinders had virtually identical compression at 134 PSI to 136 PSI.

Replaced number 2 ignition coil just to see what would happen and still misfiring.

It's important to note that I am performing all of these tests at the recommended engine temperature and driving the vehicle for at least 15 to 20 minutes after each test to clear codes and listen for misfire. The vehicle only misfires after it is warmed up completely and it is only a low RPMs misfire and it's random. It is not constant.

I replaced the PCV valve as well because it was clogged and disgusting.

Pulled the fuel pump and inspected the filter sock which did not appear to be that dirty.

Since the compression test, I have not been able to get the check engine light to come back on, but it is still misfiring significantly. I've driven it about sixty miles and at least ten drive cycles but still no check engine light so I can't check the codes.

Please help if you can. Thank you for your time.
Thursday, April 14th, 2022 AT 8:15 AM

3 Replies

Tiny
AL514
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,692 POSTS
Hello, since you have done all that already and you seem to know what you are doing. Because you have covered most bases I would do a smoke test of the Intake, with the exhaust blocked, the throttle body blocked, and block off the brake booster, or go into the booster hose with the smoke machine.

With the fuel treatment having been added multiple times I would be concerned the most with the Fuel injector seals, I know you took them out and tested them, But the seals may be causing a vacuum leak. With fuel treatment that strong and not being mixed with gasoline, which would be my first concern. Those seals upper and lower should be replaced. But if you do a good smoke test with a little pressure behind it, I think you'll find they may be leaking. You've checked everything else correctly.

Also, if this vehicle has any kind of fuel pressure regulator or dampener on the fuel rail, I would check that too. A Regulator will have rubber components inside that could have been affected by the STP.
The Fuel pressure spec is 48-50PSI if you want to do a fuel pressure test.

A side note, it's interesting about the coil swap, even though those coils resistance tested good, it sounds like there might be a couple bad ones in the bunch. They might have been stressed too much on the drive to the gas station. STP is strong stuff, I'm surprised it didn't do more damage.
Seeing you did a static compression test, I would also do a cylinder leak down test, just to verify no valves got burned.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-misfires-or-runs-rough
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Thursday, April 14th, 2022 AT 12:31 PM
Tiny
MOOV_ME_BRIGHTLY
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Thank you for your response. I'll report back and let you know what I find out. Something else I want to mention that may or may not be directly related to the misfire issue: when I had the valve cover off it gave me access to the top of the timing chain and I noticed the tension on the timing chain was extremely loose and drooping down between the two camshaft gears. It was loose enough that I could've easily lifted the chain up and off either of the gears.

The misfire is no longer only present once the motor warms up and at low idle. It misses now on cold start and once it's warm. It is still intermittent. No hard start. No MIL either. Last night I had it idling for quite a while and removed the oil filler cap from the valve cover and there was an extremely strong flow of compressed air blowing out of the hole. It was almost as if the car routed the exhaust from the tailpipe up through the valve cover. The airflow was coming out in a very rapid strong consistent flow. Lots of oil spatter was present. Lots of air. I'm taking lots of air.

This is where I don't have the experience to move forward. I can go through the motions and checklists of what needs to be looked at but I lack the knowledge of what is to be expected under normal operating conditions. Basically, I'm a "neck down" mechanic and I'm not as experienced as I may appear to be. Thanks again for your time and I welcome all recommendations.
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Friday, April 15th, 2022 AT 6:17 AM
Tiny
AL514
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,692 POSTS
Okay. Good thing you mentioned the timing chain, that absolutely should not be that loose. That is causing the valve timing to be off and is dangerous. If that chain jumps off and this engine is an interference engine, the piston will smash the valves. So first, with the timing chain being that far off, I would not run the engine at all anymore until that is fixed. Either the timing chain tensioner has failed, the chain guides have failed or something else under the timing cover has let go. But that needs to be your first priority. The loose chain is throwing off the variable valve timing and literally everything. I'm very surprised you don't have codes for crank/cam correlation yet. But definitely don't run the vehicle anymore.
Now to the pressure coming out of the oil fill cap. That is extreme positive crankcase pressure. Since you replaced the PCV valve I would inspect the rest of the PCV system, the hose is most likely clogged up too if the valve was that bad. The positive pressure is caused by blow-by gases that escape past the piston rings. The PCV system is there to allow that pressure out of the crankcase. If it didn't have that system, that pressure would push out every seal it possibly could. The front main, the rear main. Etc. Any seal that was below the piston rings would be leaking oil like crazy. So, first check would be to make sure the passage is clear through the whole tube all the way to the crankcase. All the pressure right now is coming out of the oil passages in the cylinder head to the valve cover area. If the PCV system is clear and you're really getting that much pressure, the piston rings would be at fault.
The STP in the tank as a fuel substitute was a really bad idea. Those cylinders were probably running extremely hot. Every engine has some blow-by gases, that's normal, No cylinder seals perfectly. But if anything, you should actually be feeling a little bit of vacuum and not pressure. This engines days might be limited now.
But everything is going to be off at this point with the timing chain being that loose. So, if it's just the timing chain tensioner that went bad, you can try replacing that, get the valve timing where it should be. Do an oil change, because the oil is definitely contaminated badly now. Fill the tank with fresh gas and see how it runs. Thats the best you can do at this point. If the piston rings were heated to a point where they are not sealing anymore, you know where that leaves you unfortunately.
It's hard to say exactly how much damage this did, but it sounds like it might be bad.
I'm looking at the specs for compression right now and I'm sorry to say that the Standard spec is 200-250 PSI, with a minimum of 156 PSI. But again, the valve timing is off, so the compression reading is going to be off as well.
So, I wouldn't go doing an entire timing chain kit, I would just do a tensioner or whatever it needs to just tighten up the chain. And go from there. It's very low on compression, you can see by the wet compression test you gained 10-15 PSI, but still, that doesn't even bring it close to minimum spec. So do your best with the chain issue first. I don't know how it's not throwing more codes, possibly from not driving through certain drive cycles, but I am sorry for the bad news.
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Friday, April 15th, 2022 AT 9:52 AM

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