Done! Replaced plugs and coils; and installed the air/oil separator. Check engine light is no more; also reset the maintenance light, which I forgot to do after the last oil change.

 

I had a few plugs that had cracks in the porcelain. Are these cracks big enough for the charge to go through and cause a misfire? Other than that, the electrodes looked good; just old.

 

Are you sure those are cracks? Looks more like arcing to me from the plug wire not being fully seated on the plug. IDK, just guessing. But if they are cracks, then yes, that would cause leakage and misfiring.

 

My nail gets caught in them; but I guess is could be arcing. It took a little effort to remove the coils; though it could be that one of the terminals was loosing contact. I still have the old plugs and coils; so I will inspect them a bit more.

My Aunt did call me last night and said that the CEL came back on; but the car is running a lot smoother anyways. I will get the scanner and check for codes the next time she's over.

 

Damn, I thought you had it fixed. Good luck with it, man. I was thinking a loose fit on the plugs might have been the culprit.

 

When I pulled the misfire codes back in January, I was hoping it was just old plugs and coils. If I get the same codes, I will try a smoke test on the intake manifold; that is the only thing I can think of that would cause a multiple misfire.

 

My aunt came over late last night so I was only able to check fluid levels and take a look at the oil/air separator. It has been 2 weeks since this was installed and was pleased to find a tiny amount of oil in the catch basin; so at least I know it's working.

As such, I found a picture on my work phone of the cabin filter that I pulled from the Vue late last year. I forgot how nasty it was. I will check the owner's manual and verify the replacement frequency of the cabin filters.

 

So I just scanned her Vue and I got code P0430; catalyst below threshold bank 2. I Googled it and it said it might be a bad cat. I think I got voltage data from the O2 sensors as well. If I’m reading my scanner correctly, O2S11, O2S12, O2S21, and O2S22 are all 4 of the oxygen sensors? If that is correct, all 4 had erratic voltage readings that ranged from 0.095 to 0.8 volts. Is that normal? I would think that would be a constant value? Is that indicative of a bad cat? I’m not a stranger to exhaust systems, so if that’s the fix, I can get it done.

 

O2S11 and O2S21 control the fuel injection and should swing .2 to .8 rapidly. O2S12 and O2S22 monitor cat efficiency and should have fairly stable voltage readings. If the downstream sensors O2S12 and O2S22 mirror the upstream sensors O2S11 and O2S21 then the cats are not working properly.

 

Thank you 02 LW300

I hope this is the last annoying question; since P0430 indicated a Bank 2 inefficiency; should I replace just that catalytic converter; or should I replace both at the same time? I know they're expensive as a pair; but I can see the labor for installing them being a good bit higher in $$$$$$; being that I'm in Jersey.