rmbosler

Already had the head gaskets replaced at 113,000. Havn't noticed any white smoke from the exhaust so I'm hoping the head gaskets aren't the problem. Ive had the sparkplug wires on and off a couple times now so I think I can rule that out also. But thanks for the ideas. RMB

The Cast: 99 Outback Wagon, 169,000 miles:slobber: (I know, it's a lot), 2.5L DOHC, standard trans. The Plot: My CEL came on with a P0303 (misfire in Cylinder 3). So I replaced the plugs and wires. Still getting the P0303. Checked the resistance on the ingition coils last night and was a little perplexed. According to the Tech bulleton I was referencing for the resistance test http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/DirectIgnition.pdf the primary resistance should be .70 ohms +- 0.3 ohms and the secondary should be 21 KOhms +- 3 kOhms. My primary resistance was 1 ohm for both terminals, within spec but barely. My secondary resistance was 13.9 Kohms, out of spec but both coils were exactly the same. Since the tech bulleton doesn't specify a model year I was wondering if there is a different spec for 99 2.5L DOHC. It seems unlikely that both coils would deteriorate simultaneously at the same rate and cause the exact same out of spec reading. Especially since the misfire is always reported in Cylinder 3 (8 consecutive PO303 codes). The coils have never been replaced. Do they eventually just go bad? Weird, still, is that the car seems to be running just fine other than a sporadically rough idle and sometimes a knocking noise when it idles. At speed, the car runs perfectly. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks