Help! Misfires on all cylinders AFTER replacing plugs, and v.cover gasket

[C4mSh4ft]

I was driving and the MIL came on, car started shuddering and driving like crap. After searching ther forums I decided to replace the valve cover gasket ( there was oil on the ignition coils and on the spark plugs), all 4 ignition coil packs, and all 4 spark plugs. After doing all that I turned on the engine car started shaking somewhat, and you could tell the cylinders were still misfiring. My OBDII scanner came up with these codes: P0300 P0301 P0302 P0303 P0304.
What should I check/do next???

[jonan]

sounds like a coilpack issue...

[absolutegtr]

check all your vaccuum lines.

[A4 Moda]

Yeah CP or MAF

Multiple cylinder Misfires are usually caused by

1. vacuum leak
2. bad MAF

[C4mSh4ft]

thanks for the replies. Can you please tell me how to check both of these?

[mrbacardi35]

did you checked the gap on your plugs?

[C4mSh4ft]

Yes, I did. They were all at 0.032

[actlsub9]

thanks for the replies. Can you please tell me how to check both of these?

Unclip the MAF.

[C4mSh4ft]

Is there some sort of a TSB or DIY instruction for it? I have no idea how to do this.

[old guy]

Is there some sort of a TSB or DIY instruction for it? I have no idea how to do this.

After you remove your cold air intake tube you will be looking right at the MAF harness plug. It's the plug at the head of the TIP (the tube running from the air box to the turbo.

[C4mSh4ft]

Sorry, where is it in the picture?

[old guy]

The black wire running just to the right of the air box. The MAF is located in the black cylinder that the turbo intake pipe connects to (you can see the hose clamp connecting the TIP to the MAF housing).

[C4mSh4ft]

never mind, i figured it out (location of maf). i'll check if it's what's causing the problem.

[john red b6]

is your valve cover cracked? did you say you changed the spark plugs that may be causing the misfire

[C4mSh4ft]

I figured the valve cover gasket was leaking because I saw oil on the coils when i pulled them out for replacement. so I replaced it. I also replaced all 4 coils and all 4 spark plugs.
Problem was when I turned on the car after doing all that, it started misfiring and had a very very rough idle.
The MIL came on again and when I pulled the codes I got all kinds of misfire codes.

[a4wd]

I just had a similar situation occur to my car. It was a boostleak in the back of the motor

[C4mSh4ft]

How did you fix your car's problem?
Anyway, thanks for all the tips. I disconnected the MAF cable and turned on the engine again. No more misfires!
So I guess I have to clean the MAF sensor now huh? Does anyone have any tips/instructions on how to do this?

[a4wd]

Buy MAF cleaner

[widgget]

unless your running a GTRS or higher you should be gaped to .28, the larger gap you are running will cause issues if you have a K03/K04, likely not the root of the issue you are experiencing but it's not helping your cause at all, just making it worse.

[subversion]

Damn, we have the exact same issues. I just ordered a new MAF but I'm trying the cleaning method anyway. I just stuck the MAF in a bag of isopryl and shook it a couple of times and now I'm waiting for it to dry.

I'll see if that changes anything. It didn't look all that dirty to begin with so I'm not sure if it'll help.

Can you update this thread if you fixed your problem? Thanks

[jonan]

maybe check valve #2 needs to be replaced, that one broke in half when i was doing my VC gasket.

[subversion]

Well I put the MAF back in after letting it dry and the car seems to run fine. The first few seconds the RPM went up and then back down and the hazard light that was on while the MAF was disconnected went away.

Drove it to school and then back home and I didn't have any problems. I feel like I don't have as much power as before though. And I'm sure that the engine is still making more noise than it normally did (before I did any changes to the car). I can't remember hearing it before (maybe I wasn't paying attention), but I can definitely hear it now. Not as bad as when the MAF wasn't working, that was terrible, I could actually see the engine shake (I can't see it shake now). But, still noticeable, and I can feel and hear the vibration on the engine when I put my hand on the cover. It's not really noticeable while driving (the only reason I notice is because I'm still paranoid about the car), and the RPM is solid at idle. Maybe it's the spark plugs? I didn't know how to gap them at the time (BKR6EIX), 3 of them were at .031 and one was at .030.

Should I try putting the BOSCH F6DTC in tomorrow morning (I had good a response with those in when the car was working) or just wait for the new MAF to get delivered and put that in?

Just to add my fuel economy seems to be fine, averaging 23.5 mpg city (very little traffic on my route).

If cleaning the MAF fixes the issue, how long before the CEL goes off on its own? 30 miles?

[C4mSh4ft]

Well, I cleaned my MAF w MAF cleaner from Autozone, put it back in and turned on the engine. Didn't work at all. So I figured I had a bad MAF and ordered a new one (Bosch). It finally arrived today and I put that in. The vibrations went away and the car ran fine when i took it for a very short test drive around the neighborhood. I did feel it still slightly shuddering towards the end. Afterwards I pulled into my garage and let the car idle. After less than a minute the misfires happened again :( The MIL came on again and I got the following codes: P0300, P0302, P0304.
Well this is getting to be frustrating, but I'm not one to easily give up. After doing some research online I figured I ought to check for vacuum leaks next, and replace any defective hose lines, valves. Except I have no clue at all how to even begin doing this testing or replacement.
Anyone have any tips/ideas/DIYs how to do that? Also, what else should I look for?
At this point I have replaced all 4 coil packs, spark plugs ( BKR6Es gapped at 0.032in), valve cover gasket, MAF.

[C4mSh4ft]

Hey thanks. At this point I will try anything to make this work! But, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out where those valves are, from your picture.

[C4mSh4ft]

To the guy who had the boost leak, can you tell me how you checked for it and how you fixed it? Thanks

[subversion]

OK well I put the BOSCH F6DTC back in, the car likes them much better than the BKR6EIX. Much better driving experience with these plugs.

Now for the problems, drove it around for a while with the new plugs. Everything seemed to be fine, then the brake pad light came on which was random (it went away on its own), and then the auto heating turned off for a few seconds then back on again. Didn't seem like a big deal, after all it was a cold start. Took it on the highway and everything was fine, drove much better than with the NGK plugs.

After driving it for about 20-30 mins I decided I wanted to get the codes cleared to see if they'd come back. Took it to advance auto and cleared the codes myself. Then turned off and restarted the car, rough idle is back. But didn't last nearly as long as before (maybe because the car was warm?). This is the same thing that happened last time, right after I clear the codes the car has a rough idle.

Anyway parked it and opened the hood and saw smoke coming out of the passenger side of the engine above where the catalytic converter is, freaked out and drove to the dealer. Car still drove fine, no rough idles. When I got to the dealer he popped the hood and no smoke (maybe it was temporary after clearing the codes initially?). I have a MAF on order that should be delivered on Monday, he was telling me that you generally don't want to clean the MAF and that it's better to just replace it (he didn't seem to care that I was doing it myself).

Anyway I drove it back, car still drove beautifully, no rough idles. But check engine light is still on. The dealer also told me that it would take a week for the CEL to go off after replacing the MAF if it fixed the issue.

At this point I'm not sure whether to just go ahead and replace the MAF or do something else? I'm going to see how it drives over the weekend on cold starts, I'm crossing my fingers that either everything will be fine on its own or the new MAF will fix the issues.

EDIT:
Boost leak tester:

Tennis ball method: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=189133
Other method: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=189114

[C4mSh4ft]

maybe check valve #2 needs to be replaced, that one broke in half when i was doing my VC gasket.

I checked these valves just now, and found exactly the valve you mentioned, completely broken! you're most probably right, it got broken when I replaced the valve cover gasket.
Well I'm so happy I finally found out what's been causing the misfires. any ideas where I can find the replacement?

[subversion]

Wow, this car is a nightmare.

Drove home today, right before getting on the highway I put it in neutral to slow down before the toll booth came up. The Intermittent headlight warning immediately came on, this happened before and when I turned off the car and turned it back on it went away. I didn't think it was a big deal so kept driving with it on.

When I got on the highway I put on cruise control and set it to 74, 2-3 minutes later all the sudden the speed starts dropping like the gas got cut off. I took it off cruise and gave it gas myself and it acted normal. Nothing happened for a while so I put it on cruise control again, same thing 2-3 minutes later speed starts dropping while cruise control is set and on (it runs the normal 74 mph for a few minutes then suddenly starts dropping). Didn't want to mess with it so just stopped using cruise control the rest of the ride home.

Once I get home, I park the car, go inside come back outside and turn on the car. When I give it gas to back it out, it sounded like a harley and like it was only running on 1 or 2 cylinders. This stayed constant the whole time.

I had my Accord for 3 years before this car and the only issue I had the whole time I owned it was the door latch broke on the drivers side and I couldn't use it till it got fixed.

I just got back home and I'm afraid to even touch the car now. I opened the engine cover and looked at the ignition coils to make sure they didn't pop out and they looked fine. The spark plugs might have died, but I don't even want to mess with it anymore. WTF!

OK I made a list of everything that went wrong, I'm almost positive I have a leak somewhere (I really hope). After all of this my idle is still rock solid. So hopefully a trip to the dealer will fix this with something simple and not something huge like needing to replace ECU.

[jonan]

To the guy who had the boost leak, can you tell me how you checked for it and how you fixed it? Thanks

make yourself one of these on a4mods.com, i used it with much success...the next day after everything has dried up, mix some soap and water together in a spray bottle, spray it on all of the check valves and vacuum lines, pressurize the system and the leak will create bubblys with the soapy water...

[C4mSh4ft]

make yourself one of these on a4mods.com, i used it with much success...the next day after everything has dried up, mix some soap and water together in a spray bottle, spray it on all of the check valves and vacuum lines, pressurize the system and the leak will create bubblys with the soapy water...

Seems easy enough. I might do this even after replacing the check valve, in case there are other leaks.
I guess the PVC parts can be picked up from Home Depot or Lowe's, correct? Where did you pick up the connector, and what compressed air source did you use?

[jonan]

Seems easy enough. I might do this even after replacing the check valve, in case there are other leaks.
I guess the PVC parts can be picked up from Home Depot or Lowe's, correct? Where did you pick up the connector, and what compressed air source did you use?

i used a a "high quality" portable bicycle pump i use when i go mountain biking...the connector shown above requires a compressor, the connector i used looks like this...i was too cheap to buy a compressor LoL

[subversion]

Woot! Thanks to the guys over at CDI in Victor, NY my car's back to running great!

Best $140 I've spent, now I need to return that MAF that's going to get delivered today

Turns out I had a cracked vacuum valve (PN: 058 905 291K). Once they fixed it all the misfires and system running to lean codes went away.

They didn't have time to fix the headlight message and the cruise control disengaging (I walked in at 8 AM and they were backed up for a week with appointments but the guys were nice enough to fit me in. Mentioning Audizine seemed to help ). They also found an issue with the coolant temp sensor having a low signal or something (which would probably be why my auto climate control freaks out from time to time), but said it wouldn't cause any problems with driving.

I'm going to get the rest of this stuff fixed next week.

I appreciate all the help, if I knew how to look for all this stuff I would've probably saved a $100 bucks but I'll stick to learning about my car by starting with oil changes and spark plugs and not things like this.

[C4mSh4ft]

Woot! Thanks to the guys over at CDI in Victor, NY my car's back to running great!

Best $140 I've spent, now I need to return that MAF that's going to get delivered today

Turns out I had a cracked vacuum valve (PN: 058 905 291K). Once they fixed it all the misfires and system running to lean codes went away.

They didn't have time to fix the headlight message and the cruise control disengaging (I walked in at 8 AM and they were backed up for a week with appointments but the guys were nice enough to fit me in. Mentioning Audizine seemed to help ). They also found an issue with the coolant temp sensor having a low signal or something (which would probably be why my auto climate control freaks out from time to time), but said it wouldn't cause any problems with driving.

I'm going to get the rest of this stuff fixed next week.

I appreciate all the help, if I knew how to look for all this stuff I would've probably saved a $100 bucks but I'll stick to learning about my car by starting with oil changes and spark plugs and not things like this.

Wow, this is exactly what I had too ! I just replaced it now, and my car runs great again! I will do the boost leak check just to make sure there aren't any other causes of vacuum leaks !

[jonan]

Wow, this is exactly what I had too ! I just replaced it now, and my car runs great again! I will do the boost leak check just to make sure there aren't any other causes of vacuum leaks !

for $140 you guys could have replaced all 6 of them and had some money left over if you did it yourself....i'm just going to remove all of that crap and leave 1 check valve and the SAI pump...

[C4mSh4ft]

for $140 you guys could have replaced all 6 of them and had some money left over if you did it yourself....i'm just going to remove all of that crap and leave 1 check valve and the SAI pump...

I did replace it myself and spent way under that $140 you mention. Also, why should I replace all 6 at once, can you explain?

[jackyaudi]

On my 2002 1.8T (Automatic w/Tip tronic) valve #2 does not exist.

[jonan]

depending on year, there can be 5 or 6 valves...