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Driving on a bad cylinder
taurusowner:
Is driving a car with 1 cylinder misfiring bad for the car?
On St. Patties day, my car(2000 Honda Accord V6) stalled a few times at my house and the check engine light came on. The next day I took it to the shop and the diagnostic said 4 out of the 6 cylinders were misfiring. I replaced the spark plugs and it cleared the issue up. Now 2 days ago, the check engine light comes back on, and my car feels like it's about to stall if I leave it idling for a while (10+ minutes). I went to an autozone and their diagnostic said that cylinder 6 was misfiring. So I'm guessing that one of the new plugs is either bad or put in wrong. I don't have the time/money to get it fixed until next week, and so far it's driven fine around town. But my question is, is driving on a misfiring cylinder bad for the car, and how long can I do it before it becomes a serious problem. I have to drive a lot this weekend, as in about 4 hours total driving in 2 days. Will I fark my car up big time or risk stalling somewhere far away if I drive on the bad cylinder?
AZRedhawk44:
Pull the new plugs and check the gap, and also be sure they are tightened to the specified torque. Not too much or too little.
Change the plug wires. They wear out after awhile, and you're at 8 or 9 years at this point. Probably time.
alex_trebek:
To answer your question, yes it can be bad to drive with one cyl miss firing. The gas that isn't being burned can dissolve the oil in the cylinder and cause it to seize. But I say that it will probably be ok, this is usually only in extreme cases.
What kind (brand and type) of fuel do you use?
coppertales:
When is the last time you changed your distributor cap and rotor, if your car has one? Are your plug wires the original ones? I change my dist cap and rotor every year, the Texas heat beats them up, and my plug wires every 5 years......It sounds like you have a spark issue. It might help to run a can of injector cleaner through the fuel system too......chris3
taurusowner:
It's distributorless. I checked Google, and found a few other people having the same issue, so I think it may be a bad injector. I'm still glad I replaced the plugs cause they were nearly gone, but I think the source of this problem is still out there. When I get done this weekend, I'll check the coil/injector and see where that takes me. In the mean time, some more oil and maybe injector cleaner seems to be in order.
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