Greeting from Aus, For the last year my car hesitates when I put the pedal to the metal, particularly when changing up to fourth gear (Auto) at lower speeds 50-60km/h. A month ago we got a bump in the rear end from a van, with no apparent damage. That same day the car progressively lost power until the engine stoped. After half an hour the car started and ran smoothly enough for me to drive it home. Ever since it runs ok until it reaches operating temp (closed loops fuel management) and then starts to miss and loose power.
I was fairly sure the coil packs are responsible so I unattached each lead, in turn, from its respective plug with the intent of placing a screwdriver in its end to check the quality of spark between the screwdriver and the the engine exterior (earth). What actually happened was that the lead end sparked from the rubber insulation (no screwdriver) to the engine frame (nice blue healthy spark arcing out to approx 1-2 inches). This occurred on the leads for pistons 2 and 3 (coil pack 2). The leads for 1 and 4 (coil pack 1) did not spark from the lead end insulation.
So my question is this, should there be a spark from the lead end insulation? I though the whole idea of the insulation was to ensure that the spark only occurred at the spark plug tip. Is this indicative of my leads being cactus? Or does the healthy spark from leads 2 and 3 and none from 1 and 4 indicate that coil pack 1 is cactus? I have attached a photos as a memory jogger below. The lead end is circled in red.
Any advice is appreciated. Mick.
