Jbier

Good evening all,

Ever since I pursched my 06 Boxster Base, it would always throw a CEL whever the engine was under extreme load (flooring it). The light read a misfire in cylinder 3 (passenger side, rear most cylinder) but there was no misfire accompanying it. Meanwhile I nursed the engine with high mileage synthetic and upper cylinder cleaner. I then proceeded to replace the spark plugs and coil packs (coil packs were all cracked and needed replacement). After this, no luck so I replaced all of the 02 sensors (which had the same color as the exhaust so they appeared original but were extremely easy to remove with PB blaster). Still, Ferdenand Porsche did not accept my offering and the CEL was still there.Recently, I had forgone putting the injector cleaner through my system and just filled up at an Exxon near my house. The day after filling up at the gas station (mind you I did not drive the vehicle long between filling up and the following events) the engine began to misfire on one cylinder randomly whilst I was slowing down at a light. The vehicle has a loss of power and it is easy to tell that it is cylinder 3 misfiring. Along with the misfire, I notice that my headlights and interior lighting slightly dim (almost unnoticeable) when the misfire occurs at idle. I would really appreciate any help on this before I get it looked at since itll be until Monday when that can happen.


EDIT: I removed the variable cam timing solenoid to see it's condition and it appears to be working because when supplied w/ a 12v source, I could tell something inside was actuating.I have uploaded a video of the misfire to youtube ( ) the cylinder misfires twice around the :10 to :11 second mark, denoted by an audible click, and I have no idea what it is origination from. The misfires are random, when I first started the car after putting it back together, it was misfiring quite a bit every so often, but when I got my phone and came back it was misfiring less often, still randomized.

thank you in advance!

billwot

The most common cause of a misfire fault is a failing coil pak. (and it IS pretty common)

Jbier

okay, I'll try switching some coil packs around tomorrow.

ChicagoSpeed996

Jbier

After some diagnosing my alternator seems to be functioning properly. Whenever the misfire occurs on that one cylinder, I can hear an audible click which I believe is the spark plug going off (but obviously not igniting anything). I'm beginning to assume that I filled up w/ bad gas and that it has clogged the fuel injector. Specifically on cylinder 3, it is the furthermost cylinder from the main fuel line that comes from the tank (fuel has to travel the furthest to that cylinder because the fuel line pops up right next to cylinder 4 then divides off to the two fuel rails, but in order to get the cyl 1,2,3 bank there is a longer hose to that fuel rail). So, I'm assuming that a scenario of a old fuel pump and old fuel injectors, combined with any bad gas/dirty gas, could easily hinder cylinder 3s fuel injector. I currently have a strong dosage of injector cleaner in my tank but it'll be a while before it works into the system. I further believe this to be true because the only other time I filled up at that gas station was before a hour long drive in which the same cylinder began to misfire (but odly went away after turning the car off, waiting, and turning ti back on). The mystery of my engine woes continues, but hopefully my Indy can determine the actual cause. Thank you for your input!

EDIT: Also, how much did it cost to fix your intake lifter?

ChicagoSpeed996

Jbier

What all did they actually do to fix the issue, do you know? And about how long was the vehicle out for?

Jbier

Around the :10 to :11 second mark, two misfires occur from cylinder 3, denoted by an audible clicking noise.

ChicagoSpeed996

Jbier

Okay, and what price do you believe would be average or decent for this job?

ChicagoSpeed996

Since they like to not listen to me and try all kinds of other things that I know wouldn't work, I paid that price. If they did what I said to do initially, it would have cost probably $600.

Jbier

That sucks, hopefully my indy wont do the same! I've pretty much narrowed it down to the lifters at this point. We'll see though! Also, I'm assuming all lifters would be replaced, correct? Or just that bank?

Zach L

Come back after you have swapped out or replaced the coil pack on the affected cylinder. Until that's been ruled out, it's crazy to talk about internal engine work or pretty much anything else.

Jbier

I completely agree with you. Around 3 months ago I replaced all coil packs and spark plugs (mind you, the vehicle was not actively misfiring prior to this point but the CEL for a misfire was illuminated). I do intend to swap cylinder 3 and cylinder 6 coil packs and spark plugs around this weekend incase I recieved a faulty product if the misfire follows the coil packs/spark plug.

Jbier

Just switched the coil pack and spark plugs this morning. The misfire (the clicking noise in the above video) moved to the other bank. I switched cylinder 3's and cylinder 6's spark plugs and coil packs around and the misfire moved to cylinder 6. Ordering a new spark plug and coil pack, hopefully this will solve the issue.