1.8VVT Don't neglect spark plug change!

[peter_]

Hi,

New to Vectra, new to Forum: hope I might save somebody some trouble and expense...

My car is a '57 plate with 63K (warranted) bought at auction last week, with service stamps at 24K and 45K, so I was planning a service very soon.

Third day I was driving it, started to misfire and the ECU warning light came on. A friendly neighbour hooked up the TECH2, which showed 'misfire on cylinder 1'.

I'm sure the plugs were the ORIGINAL ones! Virtually no centre electrode left and hence a gap of about 2.0mm instead of 0.8. Sadly, replacing the plugs did not solve it - I had to replace the COIL PACK too!!

This makes sense because the excessive gap would put a greater 'strain' (ie more than double the voltage) on the coils which seems to have caused the internal insulation on one or more to break down.

So - if only I'd changed the plugs a day earlier, I could have saved £90.

All part of life's rich pageant
Peter