I'm the original owner of a 2000 Eclipse(2/4L 4cyl). A few months back while making a short drive around town my engine began to misfire and threw SES code. The read the code and it turned out to be a misfire on the 2nd cylinder. So I checked the plug and the electrode broke off of the spark plug. At the time I had NGK Iridium Plugs in. I decided to replace them with some NGK Platnum plugs (all properly gapped) to see if the problem would reoccur. Well everything turned out to be fine until today.
This time I was on the way to work between 10-15 miles away from my house and the engine started to misfire again. Pulled the code again and sure enough same cylinder misfired. Pulled the plug out and the electrode broke off again. Any ideas was causing this? Both times it looks as if the electrode was broken off, not burned off.
I was thinking the connecting rod got stretched and is causing the top of the piston to hit the electrode, but if this was the case it would happen almost immediately and I would hear an obvious tick. I don't have any ticks or knocking sounds. I'd also like to mention there were some black spots on the end of the plug as if it's pre-igniting. Maybe a bad electric coil or spark plug wire is causing this?? Or maybe clogged fuel injector??
Again any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated as I am really scratching my head over this. Especially since it's happening on the same cylinder at random intervals months apart. :scratch:
...I forgot to add, the car has around 117,000 miles. The only upgrades that would affect fuel/air/timing would be the magnacore wire upgrade, but they've been on the car since she had around 50,000 miles. She also has AEM Cold Air Intake. which may lean it out a slight bit.
This time I was on the way to work between 10-15 miles away from my house and the engine started to misfire again. Pulled the code again and sure enough same cylinder misfired. Pulled the plug out and the electrode broke off again. Any ideas was causing this? Both times it looks as if the electrode was broken off, not burned off.
I was thinking the connecting rod got stretched and is causing the top of the piston to hit the electrode, but if this was the case it would happen almost immediately and I would hear an obvious tick. I don't have any ticks or knocking sounds. I'd also like to mention there were some black spots on the end of the plug as if it's pre-igniting. Maybe a bad electric coil or spark plug wire is causing this?? Or maybe clogged fuel injector??
Again any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated as I am really scratching my head over this. Especially since it's happening on the same cylinder at random intervals months apart. :scratch:
...I forgot to add, the car has around 117,000 miles. The only upgrades that would affect fuel/air/timing would be the magnacore wire upgrade, but they've been on the car since she had around 50,000 miles. She also has AEM Cold Air Intake. which may lean it out a slight bit.
