Changed my sparkplugs over the weekend...except the plug in cylinder 3 got stuck after a couple of slow turns. Since I didn't want to screw up the head, I left the cylinder 3 plug the way it was until I could read up more about what to do. I was able to finally get it out today after spraying it with some PB Blaster. All was OK and the new plug went in without a hitch.

Prior to getting it out, I had driven the car to work. The car started up fine after having the battery disconnected. Halfway to work, the CEL came on and the car started to sputter as if it was misfiring. I figured that since the #3 plug was not screwed all the way in, that cylinder 3 was not combusting properly. I figured the computer finally figured out what was going wrong and started throwing the blinking CEL.

Got the car home and checked the code and it showed cylinder 1 was misfiring. That seemed bizarre, since 3 was the one that I expected to have problems. Anyways, changed out 3 and thought the computer would need some time to adjust to the new condition. Drove it around for 15 min and still had the blinking CEL and the car sputtered at idle. When I got home, the CEL had stopped blinking and had turned off, but the car still sputtered. Didn't have time to do some more checks. I'll test drive it some more tomorrow and try swapping coilpacks to see if the misfire moves. In the meantime, can anyone answer the following:

1. Did I not run it long enough after installing the new plug for the ECU to clear itself up?
2. Other than the coilpack going bad, is there any other reason cylinder 1 would start misfiring based on the condition of cylinder 3?

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

I changed mine over the weekend and when I started it up I got a misfire on cylinder 6. Turns out I just didnt get the connector plugged in all the way. Rookie mistake but easy fix. Did you at least check that its fully clicked into position?

 

Didn't have a chance yet...but will tonite.

Thing is, I didn't get the misfire right away, as it sounds like you got the misfire upon startup.

Wondering if something happened after driving it for awhile with plug #3 not screwed in all the way. Could cylinder #1 be affected by #3?

Prior to changing the sparkplugs...never had any problems.

 

So it turned out that the #1 connector to the coil pack was not on completely. Upon inspection, there was a piece of the connector's wire sticking out at the end of it. ??? I have no idea how the wire got dislodged to the front of the connector. It was sticking out enough to prevent the connector from clicking together with the coil pack. I pushed the wire back into the connector as much as I could and connected it all back together.

Started up fine, with no more misfire.

 

Cool, glad you got it figured out.