Well, I found out last night that my 02 S with 201k has pretty much seen the day. I have had problems with losing power, feeling like I'm suddenly hitting on 3 cylinders. Turning it off and on would rectify it for maybe a week. Couldn't find the issue. Yesterday it did this and would not clear up until the 3rd attempt. At that point I drove 30 miles back to my mechanic at 55 and it was fine. Just before getting off the hwy I brought it up to about 75 and sure enough, started missing. Limped to the mechanic and just before I pulled in, it started running fine.

I had just put in new plugs (at the dealer) at 198k. I had changed the coil and wires (original) at 200k attempting to address this problem. So the electrical is good. The code was "misfire on 4". But after pulling the plugs we found #2 totally fouled. They did a compression test and found that all were good with the exception of 2, it was 65.

The book on this is ~4-6k at KBB. So I figure in this condition I can probably get 2 on a very good day. Any ideas who to market something like that too? I've never really been in this position.

One other thought. The #2 cylinder blew a plug out about 20k ago and the dealer put a heli coil in it to fix it. Seems very coincidental. I haven't done compression tests on anything beyond my Austin Healey and other 60's era cars, could this coil affect the results?

-Jim (who is in the market for a nice low mileage S)

 

Need to have them do a leak down test to know why you lost compression. You only have part of the story right now- good luck

 

It's very possible that #2 is losing pressure due to the heli coil.

 

Unless you have a scored cylinder, a good mechanic (other than the dealer) should be able to resolve any low compression issue for less than $1000. It's either valves, rings, or heli-coil. If rings, just do one piston (in-car).

 

Would this also explain the fouled plug? While I appreciate the input, I just have a hard time sinking another $1000 into the car (just did close to 2k of other work) when it has 201k on it. I drive ~700 miles per week and really need something dependable so I can't see throwing more money into it. Book is ~4-6k so I guess I'll just sell it and tell them what the story is.

But I am going to have my mechanic double check the heli coil thing first. No it is not the dealer.

-Jim

 

All was good. Turned out it was the heli coil. But the uncertainty was enough to drive me to get a new one...

-Jim

 

All was good. Turned out it was the heli coil. But the uncertainty was enough to drive me to get a new one...

-Jim