# Sputtering after engine compartment wash



## nelsito65 (Jan 12, 2007)

I took my 98 maxima SE yesterday to a local self help car wash and sprayed the entire engine compartment with engine degreaser while the engine was running. I let it sit for a couple of minutes then I rinsed it off with plenty of water, like I've done it in the past. However, as I was leaving the facility I noticed that the "Service Engine soon" light came on and the car started sputtering. If I accelerate quickly the car still sputters at first but then it becomes a smooth acceleration and the engine light flashes for a few seconds but stay lit after that. I'm assuming that water went somewhere it wasn't suposed to. I thought the problem would go away overnight but today it's still there. Please advice.


----------



## nelsito65 (Jan 12, 2007)

Never mind. I got a code 06 06 Cylinder 3 Misfire and 03 04 Knock Sensor. I'm willing to bet that the latter is a result of the former. Spark plug on that cylinder looks worse that the rest. Replaced all six spark plugs, since I've been wanting to do it anyway, and the sputtering appears to have disappeared. Did a resetting of the Check Engine light and will see if it comes back


----------



## Jeff (Oct 17, 2002)

Hopefully water didn't get into the coil pack. 

The problem will most likely surface and if it does, look at replacing Cyl 3 coil pack before any others.


----------



## Lrossxxl (Jan 28, 2007)

nelsito65 said:


> Never mind. I got a code 06 06 Cylinder 3 Misfire and 03 04 Knock Sensor. I'm willing to bet that the latter is a result of the former. Spark plug on that cylinder looks worse that the rest. Replaced all six spark plugs, since I've been wanting to do it anyway, and the sputtering appears to have disappeared. Did a resetting of the Check Engine light and will see if it comes back


nelsito65, how many miles do you have on that car?.. i have a 98'gxe that ive dumped alot of money into and still having problems. the evap system seems to have problems and its not just my car that has proplems with that, i've read a few post that people where having the same problem. also check and see if your car was one of the thousends that had a recall on the altornatior and there putting in 120amp alt's for free.


----------



## nelsito65 (Jan 12, 2007)

This car has 113,628 miles. I purchased it from a private seller almost 3 years ago and I don't know if it falls under the recall. I did have to replace the starter twice already. Going back to the original problem, something strange happened; the sputtering slowly came back, not as frequent as before, and the service engine light also came back, giving out the same codes (06 06 and 03 04). I followed the procedure described in the Haynes manual for testing coil packs and the one for cylinder 3 tested ok (I also tested the one for cylinder 1 with the same results). I was not convinced by the test results so I swapped those 2 cylinder's coil packs and did a resetting of the service light again. So far, the car has not been sputtering and the light has not come back.


----------



## Jeff (Oct 17, 2002)

The problem should move to Cyl 2...I'm willing to bet on that.

I had 1 coil pack go out intermittedly on my '99. Testing the coil packs is only useful when the coil pack is _definitely_ out...


It's been covered in another thread in another forum that the later coils (98/99) made by Hanshin are subject to moisture. Whether they were sealed properly or whatever they start failing when there is moisture outside...humidity, engine washing, etc


----------



## nelsito65 (Jan 12, 2007)

Thank you, Jeff. That was exactly the purpose of swapping the coil packs; if the service light comes up again, I'm hoping that the codes will refer to Cylinder 1 at that time, instead of Cyl 3. If that is the case, then we will know for sure that the problem is the coil pack. Good to know that those packs are subject to moisture. I'm not sure how good are the ones sold by PepBoys.


----------

