Hi guys,

Last fall my car threw a CEL with codes 300, 303 & 304 - the dealer performed a valve adjustment and the problem went away.

Last Saturday my car threw a CEL with codes 303 & 304, same problem. The car was at a dealer in Ohio (for mod day) and they believed it was a bent exhaust valve. I spoke to Billman on Sunday and he said it was next to near impossible to bend a valve on an AP2, but my dealer is telling me otherwise.

Leak down test was performed this morning, with these results:

Cylinder 1 - 5%
Cylinder 2 - 7%
Cylinder 3 - 5%
Cylinder 4 - 13%

They are recommending new valves, etc. to fix the problem, I just need some reassurance that this will indeed fix the problem, and that this is the reason for the CEL and lumpy idle.

Thanks
Sam

 

1. How many kilometers on the car?
2. Have you replaced the spark plug yet?
3. Have you replaced the coil packs?

 

32k on the car.
The spark plugs were replaced, as were the coil packs, it didn't resolve the idle issue, so the old ones were put back in.
The injectors were also checked, but they were fine as well.

The car has not thrown a CEL since Saturday, but it hasn't been driven either, just started up a few times to see if it would come back on.

Car drives fine under load, but at idle it is lumpy.

 

A friend of mine had a similar result on his 100,000+ mile ap1 when we performed a leakdown test. Except for cyl. 4 having 12%-14% loss. His first response was that his piston rings were shot on that cylinder..

 

redo the leakdown test to find out where the air is leaking...

with the valves still closed, rotate the crank so that the piston goes down the cylinder. does leakage change or increase? if yes, your cylinder is scored...

 

I had similar results on my AP1 with 116K on it. Except mine was on Cylinder 2 at about 12-13%. We checked to see where it was leaking from but couldn't find a concrete place so I am thinking its rings. Granted 12-13% isn't too horrible but it is one of those things you probably want to keep an eye out.

 

Unless under warranty I suggest a strange examination method - I haven't tested it.

If you think it's not valves and maybe a scored wall, get one of those tinny spy cams and go in through the spark plug hole.

unless you over rev'd 32K on a motor with a leak down probably seems strange. cyl4 does suffer from oil starvation with hard driving.

 

I'm guessing I over reved at some point, I just don't remember when.

 

have you done a valve adjustment yet? try that first then retest.

 

he stated that in the first sentence of his original post..