No spark on one cylinder when car is warm

Tiny
ANTHONY DE BARROS
  • MEMBER
  • 1998 HYUNDAI ACCENT
  • 1.3L
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 100,000 MILES
My car starts fine and runs fine until the engine is hot. There is no spark on one of the plugs. I have changed the coil, leads, plugs, rotor and distributor cap and pick up unit in the distributor. I do not see an electronic unit anywhere.
Sunday, June 17th, 2018 AT 11:42 AM

4 Replies

Tiny
KHLOW2008
  • MECHANIC
  • 41,815 POSTS
Hi,

Have you confirmed that sparks is missing or just that the cylinder is misfiring? An engine equipped with a distributor is not likely to have missing sparks on one particular cylinder only after heating up.
If it is misfiring at operating temperature, it could be due to issues related to the compression. Engine compression are affected by valves clearances, either too much or insufficient clearance.
Try testing the engine compression and check the valve clearances too.
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Monday, June 18th, 2018 AT 6:44 AM
Tiny
ANTHONY DE BARROS
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
The car runs fine for twenty minutes. I then removed the lead from the one plug and the idling did not change. I then checked for spark on that lead and there was no spark. There is spark on all the other leads.
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2018 AT 1:41 AM
Tiny
ANTHONY DE BARROS
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
After letting the car idle until the fan came on it was fine. Only when I drove the car for ten minutes did it start misfiring. When I checked for spark there was no spark on the one plug lead and intermittent spark on the second lead. The other two leads had constant spark. Now I am totally confused.
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2018 AT 4:14 AM
Tiny
KHLOW2008
  • MECHANIC
  • 41,815 POSTS
Seems like you have a fault with the distributor itself. Check the distributor shaft for excessive side play. The bearing of the center shaft could be bad resulting in the shaft moving too far away from the pickup causing the misfiring.
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2018 AT 7:29 AM

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