My engine started running really rough (worse at lower RPMs) while I was driving (about 3 hrs into a 4hr drive). I stopped the car, shut it off and restarted and it ran fine for a day. It did that several times but after a few days it just runs rough all the time now. It feels like it is missing pretty hard.
I pulled the ICV and cleaned it but I have a question regarding it. When I pulled the part the actual valve inside seemed to be very lightly sprung, it was only under a tiny amount of resistance. In its resting state the valve was basically half opened/half closed; right in the middle of its possible travel. If I turned the part over the valve would basically swing back and forth under its own weight.
Is that normal? Should the valve itself be under more tension than that?
***Edit** Solution...
I had a fuel filter that I hadn't installed yet and I got new spark plugs so I installed those things today and found the problem. BTW, based on the date on it the car was running on the original fuel filter at 155xxx miles.
Turns out the spark plug on the fourth cylinder had all four electrodes broken off.
How does this happen and where do those metal pieces go?
Cylinder 3 plug on left, cylinder 4 plug on right...
Image
I pulled the ICV and cleaned it but I have a question regarding it. When I pulled the part the actual valve inside seemed to be very lightly sprung, it was only under a tiny amount of resistance. In its resting state the valve was basically half opened/half closed; right in the middle of its possible travel. If I turned the part over the valve would basically swing back and forth under its own weight.
Is that normal? Should the valve itself be under more tension than that?
***Edit** Solution...
I had a fuel filter that I hadn't installed yet and I got new spark plugs so I installed those things today and found the problem. BTW, based on the date on it the car was running on the original fuel filter at 155xxx miles.
Turns out the spark plug on the fourth cylinder had all four electrodes broken off.
How does this happen and where do those metal pieces go?
Cylinder 3 plug on left, cylinder 4 plug on right...
Image