Carbon Buildup Question
 

Hi there,

This site use to have another name right? Because I just found it and my old username and password still work, so I'm happy about that :)

Anyway, I have an '02 ES with a sweet 124,000 miles on it, running nice and purty. Anyway, a few months ago I, stupidly, put huge spark plug wires on it (think Ebay special). Everything was fine until recently, when I started getting misfires, which the check engine lights (P0300s and P0301s) confirmed. I swapped out the wires immediately for OEM specs, and plugs to be safe, and everything runs strong and great again.

The only thing I noticed was the there was a nasty carbon build up in #2, but not in any of the other chambers. The plugs were all clean and reddish brown on the tips, so I assume I was running fine until I went ghetto on the ignition, but since none of the other cylinders had build up, I was wondering if there's something I should check? Thanks!

That was probably the 'bad' wire.

I would do the SeaFoam treatment to be sure.

All else is good - no worries, eh?

Everything else is running fine. SeaFoam treatment?

If the misfiring is only happening with one or two of the cylinders it is probably a bad coilpack. I had some misfiring a couple weeks ago with a CEL. Turns out my left coilpack was bad. So check the two coil packs on your valve cover. You might also want to do an EGR valve clean up to get rid of some of that carbon. Here is a link on the how to for the EGR clean up: http:

//protege323.com/content/40_faq/index.php?PHPSESSID=a10fefb6e32a3d9143b23452bc8ff8 43

Go to this link and scroll down to the DIY/How To section, then go to the engine catagory and click on the arrow to the right of the "EGR removal and cleaning, fixing erratic idle" topic. Good luck

Sea Foam (search for more) is a solvent in a can (~$7). You pour 1/3 in the gas tank (cleans injectors), 1/3 in the oil (right before oil change to clean the passages/gunk) and the last 1/3 you suck in through a vacuum hose to clean carbon on the inside of the engine.