I have a 2004 MC Cvt with 70k. About two weeks ago I had to floor it when pulling out in traffic and I got a check engine light and my car was running pretty rough. Soon as I restarted the car the engine was running fine. I had the code read and it was "cylinder 3 misfired." I decided to change the plugs, and wires in hopes to fix the issue, however I still have the problem. It only appears when the throttle is pushed past the kickdown point. My next thought is to replace the ignition coil, however any ideas are appreciated on what could be causing this. Thanks

 

It's the ignition coil. I had this problem on my car a while back. Replacing the coil fixed it.

 

thx for the reply. I was hoping thats what it was. I'm thinking about upgrading to the MSD ignition coil, is it worth the extra cash?

 

Why? You have no mods, and if you did your CVT would go south as it is the weak link in your drive train. Save your money and get an OEM coil from RealOEM.com.

 

The coil tends to fail because it has to work too hard to push a spark through a spark gap that is too wide.

Worn spark plugs will eventually kill your coil!

Even though the recommendation is to replace the plugs at 100k I found my plugs to be worn at 50k, I used an ignition oscilloscope to read the firing voltage; it was about 9 - 10 KV well above the upper limit of 7KV.

Always torque the spark plugs and replace them with the original 4 prong plug.

The MINI uses a waste spark system; two plugs are fired at the same time.

One plug fires from the center electrode to the ground prongs and the other fires from the ground prong to the center electrode.

Once the plugs are removed you will be able to tell which pair fires backwards because that pair will be worn more than the other two.

Having four prongs helps to alleviate the situation.

 

Would using an MSD coil more stressful to the CVT? Currently I'm having an issue locating someone with the OEM coil in stock, however there seems to be no problem finding someone with the msd instock. Its also roughly the same price.

 

The MSD will realistically only make you an extra 1 or 2 hp which isnt going to make your CVT die any sooner then it already will. Nevermind the other problems that the MSD has occasionally been associated with (fried ECU).

 

I'm not really looking to gain any extra hp out of it. Realisticly would I be better off waiting on the oem?

 

I always wondered why mine did this too, but it only misfires when i floor it in 5th or 6th? same issue you think? I have a whole bunch of mods on the engine though including a shark program?

 

The first two times it happened to me is only when I floored it. However it has done it twice while driving on the interstate at apx 70-80mph around 3k rpm. I went ahead and ordered the MSD coil because its about a 2 week backorder on the oem.

 

Yeah they are only $70 here: I think i might upgrade too:
http://altaperformance.com/products/...n-Coil-Upgrade

 

I ordered some stuff last night and Alta has a Valentine's day Code that will get you 14% off the order. I don't know when it ends.

 

I replaced the oem coil today with the msd. Took it for a test drive and it seems to have fixed the issue.

 

How do you like the MSD so far? Did you also upgrade the wires too? I'm having very bad hesitation between 2k-3k RPM. It seems to get worse in hotter weather. I'm not sure if I should go back to OEM coil pack & wires, or just go forward with an upgrade. Any advice would help. Thanks.

 

I haven't had any problems since I've changed the coil. At the time I would have probably went with the oem, but since they were backordered and I really needed my car back I went ahead and ordered the MSD. I did change the plugs and the wires too.

 

my car backfires/misfires while flooring it too.
why do you say not to get msd? should i go with msd or screamin demon?. i do like the red though.

 

we tested the resistance rating on each wire and one of them was significantly lower than the rest so im buying new wires friday hopefully it fixes it.!