I have a 2004 X-type 3.0L and my check engine light came on last week and the codes are “random misfire” and 5 other codes telling me that cylinders 1,2,3,5,& 6 are misfiring (I should have recorded the exact code numbers and can do that if necessary). I am also getting a mass air flow sensor code intermittently, but just replaced the MAF a few weeks ago. The car runs rough at cold start for about a minute. It drives well after it is warm, but do notice there is a slight loss of power when accelerating.

The car has 55,000 miles (was stored for several years and now my son drives it – very little). I have a hard time believing it is spark plugs and ignition coils with so little miles? The first thing I plan on doing is swapping the ignition coil from cylinder 4 to misfiring cylinder 2 to see if the code switches from cylinder 2 to 4. If that happens I will proceed to replace all of the coils. I will also remove the spark plugs from the front bank and inspect. I will replace those anyways. I am a little afraid to do the rear bank of plugs due to the fact that you need to remove the intake.

Does this sound like a plug/coil issue to anyone since 5 of 6 cylinders are misfiring? Does it sound more like an injector or cam position sensor? I am going to use some Seafoam in the gas tonight with low gas level. I have replaced the mass airflow sensor and cleaned the throttle body.

Any advice would be welcomed. I may have to take it to a shop to have it properly diagnosed.

 

JaguarJimmy, not to ask a silly question, but did someone feel the need to clean the engine bay with a garden hose? What you are describing sounds like someone was cleaning the car and power washed the engine bay. This forced a lot of water into the spark plug wells, leading to the misfire condition.

If that is not the case, has someone recently did some electrical work on the car near the ABS module/passenger front wheel? If so, they may have affected the ground for hte coils, leading to the random misfire.

 

Thermo,

No - no cleaning under hood. I will know more when I replace the front plugs and ignition coils this Saturday. I know, it does seem strange that 5 of 6 cylinders are misfiring and believe that the work I plan on doing will make no difference. L was sitting in the car at lunch today with it idling and it sputtered a bit every couple of minutes, but drove smooth for the most part.

I plan on clearing the codes after my work to see if the misfire codes go away. Hope I don't have to drive 200 miles before the codes for cylinders 1,3 & 5 come back!

You have helped me in the past with other issues, so glad to see you chime in!

I have a feeling I will need to take to my mechanic to do some diagnostics - compression tests, check for vacuum leaks, etc...

 

I would bet a valve cover vacuum leak.

 

How long from being stored "several years" has it started being driven. Reason I ask is as Thermo has mentioned tons of times, the insulation on the wires in our Kitties is vegetable based and critters love chewing on it. Might just be a "short".

 

The car was owned by an older gentleman that passed away and his wife couldn't part with it as it was his baby. My brother in law bought it , made some upgrades and sold it to my 16 year old son 5 years ago with 34,500 miles. Have had many issues over the 5 years, but the misfire issue just appeared over last couple of weeks.

I struggled over the last couple of weeks to get the car inspected (was 2 months over due) - couldn't get the check engine light to clear. Replaced both O2 sensors, MAF, cleaned throttle body, both rear abs sensors, rear brakes, 1 rear caliper, frt passenger bearing, new tires, 1 front head light, Check engine light was off for 2 weeks and now the cylinder misfire issue. I have so much money in this car I could never sell it!!!!!

 

I had the exact same problem, It was a vacuum leak, valve covers. Notice the car runs rough at start up? Do a cold smoke test on the air intake system.

 

Yes, run rough at start up and then runs smooth (shutters once in awhile).

What did you have to do to fix it?

 

I had random misfires on multiple cylinders and replaced spark plugs and coils and misfires kept coming back. In the end it was all a bad fuel pump occasionally not delivering enough fuel.

Have you changed the fuel filter? I imagine the car sitting for so long could have gummed that up pretty good. Yours doesn't seem to have enough miles on it for a fuel pump issue.

 

From the OBD code manual for Model Year 2002 these are the things to check for a random misfire. Could be different for different model years, this is just the only one I have downloaded for some reason.

 

Thanks for the input guys! Another code has popped up - P0172 - System to rich bank 1.

I replaced the spark plugs for cyl's 2, 4 & 6 because they were easy to get to, but they looked good. I checked the 3 ignition coils with a multi meter and they were good. Replaced the air filter. I erased the codes and will see what pops up again. It cold started fine and seems to be running normally, but I think that is wishful thinking. Will need to drive it this upcoming week to put it to the test!

 

You can't check coils are good that way, sorry. You can tell if they're bad but beyond that you need a COP tester.

 

ok, good to know. Was going off a you tube video on how to verify coils were bad.

I did swap what I think is a good coil on cyl #4 with a possible bad coil on cyl #2. I am assuming cyl #4 coil is good because it is the only cylinder I am not getting a misfire code. Should be confirmed when my check engine light comes on again.

Since I replaced front spark plugs (which didn't seem bad) and air filter (which wasn't that dirty) it seems to be running much better, The only issue is at cold start up. It stutters for 30 seconds and then is fine,

My son goes back to school at the end of the week. May send him back with car in this condition as it seems ok and he is only 1.5 hrs away.

 

just had a similar issue out of the blue after a 1500 mile road trip. it was a loose gas cap.