# 99 Altima Cylinder 4 Misfire...



## Luca Brazzi (Feb 7, 2006)

The Car has 123,000 miles on it. Its my girlfriends car and it hasnt been taken care of well.

I replaced the plugs, and fuel filter. It was running fine. Then I decided to flush the cooling system. There was a ton of rust in there. I drained the radiator, added cleaner, and refilled. A few days later of driving, and the Check Engine light started coming on and flashing. I put the ECM in Diag mode and it flashed code 65 (Cylinder 4 misfire). Just as a test I pulled the #4 plug to have a look. The part of the plug that is outside of the engine had a white powdery look to it. The other plugs didnt have this. I decided to swap the #3 and #4 plugs. I reset the computer, and thus far the light hasnt come on again, but the engine runs rough, and lacks power.

Any Ideas?


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## Darktide (Jul 29, 2004)

please do yourself a favor and search before posting.

you'll find over 5 threads in the past 2 months devoted to this single problem. 
(hint search for intake gasket leak or do an advanced search for Cylinder 4 inside the altima section).

I'd say read it to find out but I'll be nice today. Chances are the intake gasket is leaking pretty bad in that area. Its a pain in the arse and time consuming but can be done. If you aren't mechanically inclined I would take it to a garage. The "sackless" effect is from the loss of vacuum in the cylinder. Its a sad turn of events but like I said it is quite common. Just do a search for the topic and you'll find plenty of threads that are much more detailed than me. Good luck.

Darktide


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## Luca Brazzi (Feb 7, 2006)

Um...er...uh...

I did search. Found a few threads. but none seemed to exactly duplicate the situation I described.

Thanks anyway


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## gfriedman (Oct 12, 2005)

Replace the wires, cap, and rotor.


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## Darktide (Jul 29, 2004)

I'm not sure if that would cause a spark plug to go bad so fast. 
But best to start where its cheap though. 

As a side note you didn't add the cleaner to the new coolant and leave it in did you? You added it to the water and flushed it out before you added coolant?

Anywho, its my guess that you have a slight leak in the intake gasket causing cylinder #4 to burn some antifreeze. Which is something rather common to flushing out the coolant. Because the crap that you flush out actually has a tendancy to be plugging up holes in the system. So if you remove the crap it'll show leaks. On top of that the cleaner is a very powerful cleaner. It could find weaknesses in the system and cause failures like that.
I'm not saying that flushing the coolant system is a bad idea but only if its done on a regular basis. If it has been poorly taken care of (and I'll admit I don't take care of my cooling system as I should either) I would recommend just replacing the coolant and calling it good. 

I'm sorry I sounded like a jerk in the other post, it was uncalled for. I hope that the problem is resolved by the cap/rotor/wires. 

Darktide


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## Luca Brazzi (Feb 7, 2006)

I Think I know what happened...

When I originally drained the Radiator, put the cleaner in, and refilled the radiator, I forgot to bleed the air out of the system. I probably had an airpocket trapped in there. When I opened the radiator cap the other day.. the coolant was low about a pint even though I filled it to the top the previous week.

Thing is... it didnt overheat, it ran in about the middle of the temp range, but Im sure that airbubble didnt help the engine...


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## gfriedman (Oct 12, 2005)

>>Im thinking of doing the wires this weekend, guess Ill tell her to drop the money on a rotor too.... She also needs a serpentine belt.

Cap and rotor = $20, belt= $15, wires=$45


>>Could a leaking intake manifold gasket show intermittent symptoms like this?

No. Intake gasket leak won't affect performance only makes the idle rough. That's why I think the tune-up will help. And obviously the seafoam is making a difference. 

Cylinder 4 misfire doesn't automatically mean its a gasket issue. There are a number of causes for this. Bad spark plug, wire, etc.


>>>Another question... Its possible that there could have been air trapped in the cooling system. Is it possible that if there was a bubble in there... that it could burp itself? The car wasnt overheating or anything...


Possibly, but it's a non-issue if the car didn't overheat.


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## Luca Brazzi (Feb 7, 2006)

>> As a side note you didn't add the cleaner to the new coolant and leave it in did you? You added it to the water and flushed it out before you added coolant?


I left the cleaner in... this is cleaner... not flush... According to the Prestone Directions the car should be driven 3-6 hours with the cleaner in. I only put a little new coolant in because I didnt feel comfortable just filling the radiator back up with nothing but water. When I do the Flush, it will only stay in 10-15 minutes

>> I'm sorry I sounded like a jerk in the other post, it was uncalled for. I hope that the problem is resolved by the cap/rotor/wires.

No problem

>> Replace the wires, cap, and rotor.

Im thinking of doing the wires this weekend, guess Ill tell her to drop the money on a rotor too.... She also needs a serpentine belt.

Currently the situation with the car is this... I reset the ECM, and the check engine light went out. I drove the car to the gas station it drove really rough, and added a can of Seafoam into the tank, and filled up with 89 octane. She had been putting 87 in the car. I drove it on the highway to work, and it lacked power but the engine light didnt come on. On the way home I noticed that the power seemed to be coming back. Last night I drove it again... the problem seems to be totally gone. She drove it to work today and so far the report is good... no SES light... power is great. This weekend I plan to do the seafoam through a vacuum line thing, and change the wires.

Could a leaking intake manifold gasket show intermittent symptoms like this?

Another question... Its possible that there could have been air trapped in the cooling system. Is it possible that if there was a bubble in there... that it could burp itself? The car wasnt overheating or anything...


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## Spddracer (Jan 31, 2003)

$20 says the gasket is blown @ #4.


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