Q: My car is shaking at idle and is losing power in the low end service engine soon light is flashing.

asked by on February 23, 2017

I scanned the obd2 for my car and it gave me a p0304 which is a cylinder 4 misfire and I'm not sure where to go from here, do I replace the spark plug and the ignition coil. When I changed the spark plugs less than 2k miles ago I noticed oil in the spark plug hole above the plug and I'm not sure if that would have anything to do with the misfire or not so my question is do I replace the spark plug and coil or replace the leaky valve cover or spark plug seal. Thanks for your help

My car has 104579 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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Engine misfires can be caused by many different problems and are generally caused by either a spark or fuel issue or in some cases, a combination of both. Spark related problems generally will result from things like ignition coils, crankshaft position sensor, spark plugs, spark plug wires or ignition modules not working properly. When the misfire results from a fuel related issue, this is commonly related to a lean fuel condition (lack of sufficient fuel supply to the motor). Fuel related misfires can be caused by many different things such as low fuel pressure, faulty or dirty fuel injectors, a faulty O2 sensor, a dirty or failing mass air-flow sensor, a faulty or dirty idle air control valve or a vacuum or intake leak. When the fuel supplied to the combustion chamber is insufficient, this results in an ignition (spark) that is igniting a less than balanced load of fuel and air. This results in a misfire or an explosion in the cylinder that is much less powerful than the other cylinders. This creates a loss of power that resonates throughout the motor additionally causing other problems with ignition and fuel timing. Due to the number of different things that may cause an engine misfire, the quickest and easiest way to diagnose this type of problem is to hook the vehicle up to a scanning tool which will download any potential fault codes that may have registered in the vehicle’s computer as a result of the poor running condition. I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your location to diagnose your misfiring problem.

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