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Troubleshooting Cylinder 3 Misfire

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I have a 96' Legacy Brighton with a 2.2. Reciently we have been having the cylinder 3 misfire code thrown on the CEL. I have seen a lot of people say one of the steps for troubleshooting is to change the coil pack location that feeds the trouble cylinder. Do I just swap the plug wires front to back to test the Coil pack like that? No one realy explains how to do this switch for this particular test

 

Thanks for taking time to look at my question.

Swap plug with any that will reach. Clear code. If code returns to the other cylinder then it is the wire. If not it could be either a coil/injector.

Reistance values for plug wires is 5.12 - 12.34 Kohms. See attached for coil check.

 

O.

Service Procedure Ignition Coil.pdf

Edited by ocei77

Swapping coil packs around is a wrx or svx thing. Your legacy has a single coil pack. Swapping wires around wont work.

 

Consistent misfire is often the first sign of a burnt valve. Do a comp. test and a leakdown test on that cylinder.

Years ago I had a 97 OBW that had an intermittent misfire that wouldn't show up on the scanner as a code. After plug changes, and wire changes, a swap with another coil solved the issue. It might work for you, ...... or not. Good Luck!

When did it last get new spark plugs and wires? If it has been more than 40k miles its time for those.

  • 2 weeks later...

Our 97 impreza 2.2 would wear out spark plugs in 30k miles; once I let it go a little longer and got a misfire code at high rpm and manifold pressure.  Check spark plug gaps first! 

Plugs, NGK

Plug Wires NGK or Subaru

Swap the coil with a known good one

Check the Injector, you can listen to it activate or pull the plug and see if the idle drops.

If you have a spare injector connect it to the plug and make sure it's working.

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