Spark Plug Change
 

Hey all.

My car started to run a bit rough earlier this week. The it was only at idle, and it seemed fine when I was moving. No roughness, or anything. I figured the plugs were going bad, so I decided to change them.

Changed the plugs with NGK Iridium Plugs and some standard 7mm wires from AutoZone.

Everything went smooth, but on start up, the car sounds worse than before and now there is a gas smell at idle. The car itself sounds rough, as if it's only running on 3 cylinders, or atleast that's what it sounds like. Was wondering if anyone had any input on the issue. Should I return the plugs and try new ones? Should I try new wires?

I'll get a video in a moment to try and capture the sound.

Thanks!

Here are the videos.

Did you check for trouble codes? A reader can be your friend.

Are you ABSOLUTELY sure you got all the wires back on the correct plugs? Ask me how I know about mixing up the firing order, LOL.

General consensus on the Ranger forums, (they have been running the 4.0L SOHC for long time now), is to go with Motorcraft Platinum, or the factory recommended replacement double Platinum, they don't seem to like Bosch, or iridium. :)

+1 to that. We always recommend that our customers stick with the OEM recommended spark plugs when doing tune ups. Stick with Motorcraft or Autolite in your Ford, you won't be sorry.

The car isn't throwing any codes. All the lights are off. Wish something would have come on to give me some sort of indication on what was wrong.

I'm 99.9% sure I have the correct wires going to the right plugs. Passenger side from front to back is 1, 2, 3. The driver side is 4, 5, 6. The coil, starting in the upper left side going clockwise is 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5. I double checked that as that was my first guess.

The wires don't need anything special to be put on the coils do they? They just snap into place from what it looked like.


Thanks guys. Didn't know that people had problems with these plugs. I'll go out tomorrow and just buy OEM's and replace them with that and return the other ones.

You can check the wires with an old mechanics trick. start the engine at night when it's dark. Take a spray bottle with plain water and mist the spark plug wires and watch for sparks indicating leaky wires. Just a thought.

Alright guys. Thanks for all the suggestions. Went out, pulled all the plugs and found a horrible problem.

The #6 plug was completely bent. There was no gap. Good thing I didn't drI've the car at all. Unfortunately, I can't get my money back, but it's fine.

Put in new plugs and she runs better. There's still a few odd sounds, but nothing that sounds serious. Took it out for 60-ish miles, let the car cool down, pulled the #6 plug and all was fine.

Going to look deeper into the sounds that I'm hearing. It's only at idle. Going to clean the throttle body really good to see if that helps.

Thanks again! I'll be sure to stay away from NGK from now on.

Did you check the gaps before you installed them? I guess what I'm asking is, was the electrode bent when you installed it?

Yep. Checked the NGK and these new plugs before putting them on. Gapped both sets to .054

I pulled the new plug out of number 6 to see if it did the same thing, but it was totally fine.