I have a 2004 X-type 3.0L and my check engine light came on last week and the codes are “random misfire” and 5 other codes telling me that cylinders 1,2,3,5,& 6 are misfiring (I should have recorded the exact code numbers and can do that if necessary). I am also getting a mass air flow sensor code intermittently, but just replaced the MAF a few weeks ago. The car runs rough at cold start for about a minute. It drives well after it is warm, but do notice there is a slight loss of power when accelerating.

The car has 55,000 miles (was stored for several years and now my son drives it – very little). I have a hard time believing it is spark plugs and ignition coils with so little miles? The first thing I plan on doing is swapping the ignition coil from cylinder 4 to misfiring cylinder 2 to see if the code switches from cylinder 2 to 4. If that happens I will proceed to replace all of the coils. I will also remove the spark plugs from the front bank and inspect. I will replace those anyways. I am a little afraid to do the rear bank of plugs due to the fact that you need to remove the intake.

Does this sound like a plug/coil issue to anyone since 5 of 6 cylinders are misfiring? Does it sound more like an injector or cam position sensor? I am going to use some Seafoam in the gas tonight with low gas level. I have replaced the mass airflow sensor and cleaned the throttle body.

Any advice would be welcomed. I may have to take it to a shop to have it properly diagnosed.

 

JaguarJimmy, not to ask a silly question, but did someone feel the need to clean the engine bay with a garden hose? What you are describing sounds like someone was cleaning the car and power washed the engine bay. This forced a lot of water into the spark plug wells, leading to the misfire condition.

If that is not the case, has someone recently did some electrical work on the car near the ABS module/passenger front wheel? If so, they may have affected the ground for hte coils, leading to the random misfire.

 

Thermo,

No - no cleaning under hood. I will know more when I replace the front plugs and ignition coils this Saturday. I know, it does seem strange that 5 of 6 cylinders are misfiring and believe that the work I plan on doing will make no difference. L was sitting in the car at lunch today with it idling and it sputtered a bit every couple of minutes, but drove smooth for the most part.

I plan on clearing the codes after my work to see if the misfire codes go away. Hope I don't have to drive 200 miles before the codes for cylinders 1,3 & 5 come back!

You have helped me in the past with other issues, so glad to see you chime in!

I have a feeling I will need to take to my mechanic to do some diagnostics - compression tests, check for vacuum leaks, etc...

 

I would bet a valve cover vacuum leak.