1996 Saturn SW2, 214,000 miles. Yesterday the car began to idle roughly. By trial last night, determined the second cylinder from the drivers side is not firing. There is a spark when I pull the plug and crank the engine with the plug grounded. Also, the plug is wet with gas when I pull it. If I pull the plug wire off while running, the engine idle does not change. If I do it to the other plugs, it will die.
I have not performed any major work or maintenance to the engine aside from oil changes. The car still gets the typical 30 mpg but has burned a quart of oil every 3 gas fill ups for the last 6 years.
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Posted on Jan 02, 2017
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Exhaust color is white but has been that way for a long time. Since the problem came around, I have not noticed a change in color.
When holding a steady speed, there is no visible smoke. Upon acceleration, there will be a puff however.
The problem seems to go away while accelerating but is apparent once a steady speed is re-established.
Hmm, must be a forest for the trees thing as I completely missed that. And yes, I have worried about it for a while.
Anyway, a compression test gives me 120 psi on 3 of the cylinders and ~58 psi on the non-firing cylinder.
Thanks for the help.
My '94 SC2 runs rough during city driving unless I'm accelerating. Every time I take it to the dealer, I tell them it is running rough and they do something and the problem still remains. I know he's an old car, but...
did you realize you probably had a blown head gasket or crack in the block for ummmm lets say the last 6 years ?
Robert
what colour is the exhaust smoke ?
Robert
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