Change plugs before Misfire?

[duck833]

Have anyone done a preemptive strike on the misfire and changed to the hotter plugs before having problem. I am seriously thinking about it, cost of four sparking plugs is not very much if it prevents a misfire and having to make a special trip to the sky hospital.

[MidniteBlues]

IMHO, since I have been watching and reading all these R/L 'misfiring" issues, it might not hurt. HOWEVER, if you look at several cases, one in particular comes to mind, and that is mbvette case, he replaced the plugs and still the mis-firings continue to occur. To me, (and this is speculation on my part) the problem is NOT the plugs. There is something else happening for which GM has not really yet determined "exactly" what is wrong. Makes you wonder why they all of the sudden stopped shipping R/L's last year from the plant. (a few threads on that on the forum from late last year). I think there were 'other" issues besides the water being sucked into the engine/turbo or whatever that problem was. Perhaps, this mis-firing issue is still related to that problem. I think they put a band aid on it, started shipping the cars, while they continues to look for a "real" fix, I donno. However, the mis-firing issues with these cars are now piling up sorta speak, to a point that they are being held for days at the dealers while they try to figure exactly WTF is happening to cause this problem--

[SKYMAN-CT]

duck833,

I had my plugs changed back before Memorial Day weekend just before heading to Virginia Beach

I got a misfire code and the car went into limp mode (ie.. felt like it was running on two cylinders), but it could have been because of bad gas?

I had to put Regular (87) gas in while we were up at Seneca Lake, was on empty and it was the only thing they had, however I ran a full tank of Shell Super (93) and was on my second tank before the problem started.

Haven't had the problem again however if I wash the car while the engine is warm and then head back out again after it tends to run a little rough.

I'm betting it could be standing water getting sucked into turbo after spraying under the the wheel wells, but the hotter plugs seemed to have eliminated it going into a misfire condition.

Just my

[MidniteBlues]

You know, I'll throw this out there for all the R/L owners as food for thought--Are you guys using premium fuel 100% of the time ALWAYS? on the R/L's---ARE YOU SURE you did not pump REGULAR at LEAST once?? hmmmm I wonder if you guys are bringing this problem upon yourselves on a high performance engine by being cheap on da gas on something where the OEM states "USE PREMIUM FUEL" -- Oh my, perhaps self inflicting wounds?? How can this be proved?--I know take a sample from the gas tank and have it tested & check if its 91-93 octane--

[SKYMAN-CT]

MidnightBlues,

As I stated, for me it was a one time low octane fill up as I was nearly on empty and the only station I came across had 87 octane only. I do use 93 octane normally.

The Saturn manual states "Premium recommended" however they state 87 octane is doable, I took my chances.

The thing that confused me is my Sky ran fine after that fill up and I was running on my second tank of 93 octane when the misfire occured?

I haven't had any more problems after the plugs were change, 5500 miles on my baby now, but to be safe I run fuel injector cleaner once every month now.

[mbeardsley]

Since I don't read the Solstice forum, I don't know, but are GXPs having the same misfire problems as well ?

Also, the statement was made above that "these problems are piling up". Is that really true ? Five or six people on this forum does not make a pile.

I realize that it seems bad, but it also seems that the majority of the people here do not have a problem (or if they did, it went away with the new plugs).

Maybe a poll is in order...

[MidniteBlues]

Originally Posted by mbeardsley

Since I don't read the Solstice forum, I don't know, but are GXPs having the same misfire problems as well ?

Also, the statement was made above that "these problems are piling up". Is that really true ? Five or six people on this forum does not make a pile.

I realize that it seems bad, but it also seems that the majority of the people here do not have a problem (or if they did, it went away with the new plugs).

Maybe a poll is in order...

Good idea, go ahead and start a poll--

My concern for the R/L owners is 2 fold. From the very beginning many complained about the xhaust pipes sooting up, (carbon) then there were a couple where it wouldn't even start (those guys never came back and posted the fix), so never did hear those solutions. Then many reports of the mis-firing issues started and the supposedly the fix with the new plugs. Then even with the new plugs, continue reports of mis-firings (mbvette comes to mind). Then 2 weeks ago Johnd's car is found with a blown piston #1 after it started mis-firing initially.

The thing is, that there have been NO reports, not one that I have read with any such issues with the 2.4L engines mis-firing or blown pistons (even with the Hahn turbo installed), but yet many many with the 2.0L engine. Those are the ones that have been reported by our members. How many are there that we do not know about from non-members? AND, don't you by now think that perhaps that there is something wrong? At least suspect it? AND, that sooner or later the other R/L and GXP owners will eventually experience "some type of engine problem"? (which of course I truly hope not). BUT, then the question is, why are some dying and others not (yet)?

[MBVette]

I will jump in here..

I always put in premium fuel, sometimes the station only had 92 octane but I tried to always keep 93 octane fuel in the car. They even tested my gas at one point and it came up within the acceptable range.

I agree with you MB that this seems to be a very big problem just really showing itself. Remember these cars are all very low mileage and are all having misfiring problems, catalitic converters going bad, blowing soot out the tailpipes. With these issues the engines will not make it to 100k miles unless GM comes up with a fix.