yesterday i threw a CEL, i went and got it checked at the parts store and it was a cylinder 3 misfire. i popped out the plug, re-seated it, and then the code went off. i did not see anything that could have been an issue to make it misfire, the plugs haven't even been in the car for 1k miles.

i went to my friend's house to help him with his new BOV on his WRX and after wer finished with that i replaced my plugs. the plugs i was removing were pretty damn loose and my best guess was that this could have caused the initial misfire. on the way home i threw a CEL again. i checked it (i bought a OBD-II scanner while at the parts store), and again it was cylinder 3 misfiring.

i was in the middle of nowhere so i drove to the nearest well-lit area 10 or so minutes away to examine the car. i didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so i checked all my connections and restarted the car. my girlfriend then started telling me to shut it off because i was sparking. the wire for cylinder 4 off of the coil pack on cylinder 3 was arcing against a vacuum hose that i ran too close to the wire. i must have done this when i removed the boot for cylinder 4 when i changed the plugs (d'oh!).

my question is: did i do much damage do you think? the thing must have been arcing for 10-15 minutes tops, and i was not driving very hard at all... it was running like crap. the wire did not appear damaged at all and it drove fine on the highway on the way back home. today it also is running just fine. i think i caught the problem in a timely manner and that i didn't do any serious damage to the wire or the coil, but i wanted some other opinions.

thanks guys.

 

shouldn't have done any noticeable damage. In my old car one of my plug boots got a slit on the side and started to arch against the manifold. I had to drive 20min or so to get a new plug wire and the car ran fine after that....no problems

 

yeah i drove my old van on 5 cyl for almost 2 weeks and that did no damage. It was a 318 dodge tho and their pretty much bullitproof.

 

good to hear, i talked this over with my boss as well and he said i shouldn't have done any damage.