3.4L Spark plug/ignition coil problem
03-04-2013, 06:14 AM
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3.4L Spark plug/ignition coil problem
I have been using this forum for the past 5 months and have found a ton of useful information. So let me start by saying thank you to everyone.
My wife has been driving our 95 Toyota T100, which has 180,000 miles, for the past few months with no problems. It only gets driven a couple times a week since it is our 3rd vehicle. About a week ago she had left the drive way and drove about a mile down the road but came back home. She said something was wrong and that the truck sounded horrible. I checked later in the evening and found that the ignition coil for the #5 cylinder was just hanging by the wires. The coil had melted the boot completely off. So I figured i was going to need to replace the coils, spark plugs, and wires. I needed to change the valve cover gaskets too, so this was just going to be an all day repair. I started on the passenger side, that was the side with the melted coil. I began taking out the coils and spark plugs and they were BAD. The coils were the original ones and the spark plugs were "Champions" that had a lot of corrosion.
Now this is were I have a BIG problem. There was no spark plug in the #5 cylinder. This is the same cylinder that had the melted coil. I have tried to put a new spark plug in, but I can't. The threads won't start/catch. I looked down in the spark plug well and it looks the same as the other cylinders. I don't know what to do besides take it to a shop. The truck never had a misfire or any hesitation. I don't know where an entire spark plug could have gone. I don't see any "fresh metal" to indicate that it had sheared off. I'm baffled.
Could it run with just the ignition coil in place?
My wife has been driving our 95 Toyota T100, which has 180,000 miles, for the past few months with no problems. It only gets driven a couple times a week since it is our 3rd vehicle. About a week ago she had left the drive way and drove about a mile down the road but came back home. She said something was wrong and that the truck sounded horrible. I checked later in the evening and found that the ignition coil for the #5 cylinder was just hanging by the wires. The coil had melted the boot completely off. So I figured i was going to need to replace the coils, spark plugs, and wires. I needed to change the valve cover gaskets too, so this was just going to be an all day repair. I started on the passenger side, that was the side with the melted coil. I began taking out the coils and spark plugs and they were BAD. The coils were the original ones and the spark plugs were "Champions" that had a lot of corrosion.
Now this is were I have a BIG problem. There was no spark plug in the #5 cylinder. This is the same cylinder that had the melted coil. I have tried to put a new spark plug in, but I can't. The threads won't start/catch. I looked down in the spark plug well and it looks the same as the other cylinders. I don't know what to do besides take it to a shop. The truck never had a misfire or any hesitation. I don't know where an entire spark plug could have gone. I don't see any "fresh metal" to indicate that it had sheared off. I'm baffled.
Could it run with just the ignition coil in place?
03-04-2013, 07:19 AM
#2
I have been using this forum for the past 5 months and have found a ton of useful information. So let me start by saying thank you to everyone.
My wife has been driving our 95 Toyota T100, which has 180,000 miles, for the past few months with no problems. It only gets driven a couple times a week since it is our 3rd vehicle. About a week ago she had left the drive way and drove about a mile down the road but came back home. She said something was wrong and that the truck sounded horrible. I checked later in the evening and found that the ignition coil for the #5 cylinder was just hanging by the wires. The coil had melted the boot completely off. So I figured i was going to need to replace the coils, spark plugs, and wires. I needed to change the valve cover gaskets too, so this was just going to be an all day repair. I started on the passenger side, that was the side with the melted coil. I began taking out the coils and spark plugs and they were BAD. The coils were the original ones and the spark plugs were "Champions" that had a lot of corrosion.
Now this is were I have a BIG problem. There was no spark plug in the #5 cylinder. This is the same cylinder that had the melted coil. I have tried to put a new spark plug in, but I can't. The threads won't start/catch. I looked down in the spark plug well and it looks the same as the other cylinders. I don't know what to do besides take it to a shop. The truck never had a misfire or any hesitation. I don't know where an entire spark plug could have gone. I don't see any "fresh metal" to indicate that it had sheared off. I'm baffled.
Could it run with just the ignition coil in place?
My wife has been driving our 95 Toyota T100, which has 180,000 miles, for the past few months with no problems. It only gets driven a couple times a week since it is our 3rd vehicle. About a week ago she had left the drive way and drove about a mile down the road but came back home. She said something was wrong and that the truck sounded horrible. I checked later in the evening and found that the ignition coil for the #5 cylinder was just hanging by the wires. The coil had melted the boot completely off. So I figured i was going to need to replace the coils, spark plugs, and wires. I needed to change the valve cover gaskets too, so this was just going to be an all day repair. I started on the passenger side, that was the side with the melted coil. I began taking out the coils and spark plugs and they were BAD. The coils were the original ones and the spark plugs were "Champions" that had a lot of corrosion.
Now this is were I have a BIG problem. There was no spark plug in the #5 cylinder. This is the same cylinder that had the melted coil. I have tried to put a new spark plug in, but I can't. The threads won't start/catch. I looked down in the spark plug well and it looks the same as the other cylinders. I don't know what to do besides take it to a shop. The truck never had a misfire or any hesitation. I don't know where an entire spark plug could have gone. I don't see any "fresh metal" to indicate that it had sheared off. I'm baffled.
Could it run with just the ignition coil in place?
I can't imagine what could have happened with that plug, but it sounds like whatever it was damaged the threads. Unless you have a tap and die set and can clean up those threads, there's not much you can do aside from taking it somewhere. If there's somewhere close by that could just do the tap/die for you, you could probably drive it there and back and do the rest of the work that you already planned by yourself. There's not really any other option but to clean up those threads and get a new plug/coil pack in there.
You can run the truck without the plug, but it's going to miss badly and I don't think you should do that for very long. Running on 5/6 cylinders can't be good for an extended period of time. From my understanding of how it works, it doesn't make much sense to run just the coil pack in there, as that will do nothing without the spark plug. The coil pack takes low voltage from the battery and makes high voltage through spark plug to make the spark. Without the spark plug, there's not much point, other than to cover the hole.
I'm not a mechanic, so I can't really offer any good guesses as to what happened to the spark plug. Too bad this happened, but good thing you found it sooner than later and it's not a huge issue. Best of luck to ya!
Last edited by 98SR54RUNNER; 03-04-2013 at 07:21 AM.
06-28-2021, 01:48 PM
#3
Registered User
I
I have been using this forum for the past 5 months and have found a ton of useful information. So let me start by saying thank you to everyone.
My wife has been driving our 95 Toyota T100, which has 180,000 miles, for the past few months with no problems. It only gets driven a couple times a week since it is our 3rd vehicle. About a week ago she had left the drive way and drove about a mile down the road but came back home. She said something was wrong and that the truck sounded horrible. I checked later in the evening and found that the ignition coil for the #5 cylinder was just hanging by the wires. The coil had melted the boot completely off. So I figured i was going to need to replace the coils, spark plugs, and wires. I needed to change the valve cover gaskets too, so this was just going to be an all day repair. I started on the passenger side, that was the side with the melted coil. I began taking out the coils and spark plugs and they were BAD. The coils were the original ones and the spark plugs were "Champions" that had a lot of corrosion.
Now this is were I have a BIG problem. There was no spark plug in the #5 cylinder. This is the same cylinder that had the melted coil. I have tried to put a new spark plug in, but I can't. The threads won't start/catch. I looked down in the spark plug well and it looks the same as the other cylinders. I don't know what to do besides take it to a shop. The truck never had a misfire or any hesitation. I don't know where an entire spark plug could have gone. I don't see any "fresh metal" to indicate that it had sheared off. I'm baffled.
Could it run with just the ignition coil in place?
My wife has been driving our 95 Toyota T100, which has 180,000 miles, for the past few months with no problems. It only gets driven a couple times a week since it is our 3rd vehicle. About a week ago she had left the drive way and drove about a mile down the road but came back home. She said something was wrong and that the truck sounded horrible. I checked later in the evening and found that the ignition coil for the #5 cylinder was just hanging by the wires. The coil had melted the boot completely off. So I figured i was going to need to replace the coils, spark plugs, and wires. I needed to change the valve cover gaskets too, so this was just going to be an all day repair. I started on the passenger side, that was the side with the melted coil. I began taking out the coils and spark plugs and they were BAD. The coils were the original ones and the spark plugs were "Champions" that had a lot of corrosion.
Now this is were I have a BIG problem. There was no spark plug in the #5 cylinder. This is the same cylinder that had the melted coil. I have tried to put a new spark plug in, but I can't. The threads won't start/catch. I looked down in the spark plug well and it looks the same as the other cylinders. I don't know what to do besides take it to a shop. The truck never had a misfire or any hesitation. I don't know where an entire spark plug could have gone. I don't see any "fresh metal" to indicate that it had sheared off. I'm baffled.
Could it run with just the ignition coil in place?
06-29-2021, 12:41 PM
#4
Registered User
Might be better to take it to the shop. They'll need to pull the head so they can keep metal shavings, that result from chasing the plug's threads, out of cylinder. Of course, that means a new head gasket, new intake gasket, and so forth. Again, best to let a shop do it, but hey, feel free to go for it yourself. It will definitely give you a lot of good experience, and you'll know it got done correctly. I hope, anywho
Also, use NGK spark plugs. They are what the system is designed around, and they seem to make everything work better. Just an opinion, based on experience. Nothing more.
Good luck!
Pat☺
07-08-2021, 06:14 PM
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You can get new boots for these ignition coils. I recently had a bad misfire with 2-3 cylinders down, and replaced my leads which solved the problem, but have also replaced the coil boots as a preventative maintenance step.
Example - not connected with this site:
https://www.densoproducts.com/denso-...-plug-boot-kit
Unless they are fairly new probably worth doing the leads at the same time.
Example - not connected with this site:
https://www.densoproducts.com/denso-...-plug-boot-kit
Unless they are fairly new probably worth doing the leads at the same time.
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