i was an ******* idiot and i had my leading and trailing spark plugs switched so my car was running like ****. do you think this hurt my engine? i drove it and babied it for about 40 miles today not knowing what was wrong. just kinda limping it around.

i just went out to check my spark plugs and realized i had the leading leading hooked up to the trailing spark plugs and vice versa. so needless to say i switched them back. did this hurt my engine? i figure it was just running like -25 degrees of timing.

has anyone ever done this? i feel like a worthless *******

 

I was in a hurry and not paying attention one time when I was changing spark plugs. I did what you did, but I did not drive. Paranoia kicked in when it did not sound right, so I just shut it off. I switched them back and nothing bad has happened yet. Been at least several months.

 

OMG!

 

dude the weird thing is it was idling and driving decently

 

Well, theoretically speaking, it could run that way. And someone as dense as you wouldnt know the difference...

 

yeah its kind of hard to concentrate when you have a 3" downpipe dumping right under your shifter and you dont have a shift boot. driving with the window down in 15* weather not being able to feel or hear anything

 

Huh? No exhaust on the car? This is a very amusing thread.

 

yes i wont have exhaust until friday afternoon. so i am running open downpipe. quite interesting.. infact, this entire turboII swap has been quite interesting.

 

I wasn't sure mine were on right when I got the car so I switched them, it wouldn't start then it started with them switched, ran a little rich but ran pretty good actually. Killed it and switched them back, no problems here either.

 

I started it with the trailing wires switched before. It ran poorly and sounded like hell so I turned around 1/2 mile down the road, came back, and realized I was an idiot.

That was 10k miles ago, it still runs just fine.

 

i drove all the way from WA to TX with my leading and trailing spark plugs in the wrong spot... had the wires hooked up right, just wrong plugs in the wrong holes...i didn't know it mattered lol... and i wondered why it didn't like to maintain 80 very well... seems fine now that i got the 3rd gen plugs and put em in the right spot

 

I switched the leading and trailing on my rear rotor in my fc and now theres a knock (after i switched them bakc!!!) could i have blown a seal? fucked up my ping sensor? blown an ignition coil?
anyone?

 

When troubleshooting starting my car I had accidently switched to leading on one rotor and trailing on the other. It would not cranked so I used starter fluid and when turning it over all I could hear was PING PING PING PING PING. Needless to say I checked compression after my mistake. Car still runs fine to this day (aside from my failing coolant seal).

 

Everything is back to normal, and my car is cherry, running great befor this incdent. th ping cant really be heard holding the engine constant at like 3k. I only notice significant hesitation/knocking when i gun the accelorator in neuurtral, and the car seems like its stalling without an inordinate amount of gas, but once in gear and over say 3k it seems to run smoothly, although i was too afraid to drive it fast enough to shift to second.

anyways GURUS please hlp. I need my Daily driver and the shops are all booked till tues!!!

 

So you were running some negative split...big deal.
I doubt you did anything bad to the engine.

If you had swapped the trailings - front versus rear - that's a different story.


-Ted

 

I've done it before also and never had any residual effects, that I noticed anyway.

At least you've got a dp on it, try driving it with no manifold . That's good stuff.

 

no I KNOW i did alot of searching befor i asked, I know it should be no big deal but why the terrible knocking and bogging when i try to drive, my car ran perfectly before?

 

i did take the platic cover off the screw onther end of the throttle and turn my car up to 1k, but hen turned it back, but all i can think of is the plugs, and all the shops are saying "oh ya well you probly did something horribble give me all your money" but i didnt really change much, i just need to figure out what it is, i am fairly versed in engines, just not rotaries, i tested everything i could, i even got out a voltmeter and tested my ping sensor.
SO WHAT COULD BE SO WRONG??
SERiously i wont drive my car, it almost dies unless i give it way too much gas, but runs fine, very smootly in neutral unles i gunn it and then theres a terrible knocking/hesititation.metalick clicking nnoise untill it revs up and then if i hold it at any rpm its pretty smooth (not sounding as good as before i fucked it uptho),
i mean it feels like i have a super clutch in there when i try to put it in grae tho and the engine just cant handle it?????????????

 

you sure you have the right spark plugs in it?

 

c'mon c-mill! I bet you boosted too.

 

This is jake's thread from 2 years ago.

 

and he's still a newbie!

 

We just like to make him look bad.


-Ted

 

ya im sure their the right plugs.
i have the ngk
its like the bur7eq or whatever for the leading and 9 for th trailing, and i had the plugs inverted on the rear rotor not wires. SORRY to dig up this old thread, but theres a serious probem with my car, but i really didnt do that much to it, so what could e wrong, because like i said it was running great right before the plug swap. its only got 90k on the engine,
everything is hooked up correctly now,
its just the really loud metallic sounding knocking/clicking when under hard accelleration until the car is moving or th engine gets abve like 3k.
the only other wierd thing i noticed that definately wasnt there before is right bbefore mu car turns over it sounds almost like i let off the key at the last second, and the car sounds like it almost is going to die, bu then starts just fine every time

 

drain the engine oil into a drain pan and inspect it for metal particles with a magnet or by simply shining a flashlight in it. if it looks metallic then i would bet your bearings took a beating and it will soon need a rebuild. only other thing that there is that can make noise is the accessories which can be isolated by removing the belts and see if the noise is still present or there could be an issue with the clutch or transmission which should be able to isolate by simply pressing in or letting out the clutch and see if the noise goes away or not.