Hello Briskodians!

I have a friend's car in my garage.

He bought this '97 Felicia 1.3 LX one month ago.

Everything seemed right at first, then the engine developed a rough idle, so he decided to change spark plugs. To his surprise (and mine) no. 3 spark plug position was odd (see photo) and the spark plug was screwed in only partially (some 3 turns).

How can I assess the engine performance impact?

What could have happened there?

How to correct position?

Edited 5 October, 201213 yr by adurer

I had exactly the same problem on my old feliia although not quite as bad. It is very easily done as it is soft aluminium.

To fix it you would need it helicoiled probably. Obviously this is going to need the head off though unless it can be done without all the bits going inside.

Mine wasn't too bad and was able to screw the plug far enough in to seal it and not cause problems.

Phil

Yeah, looks like someone's hoofed it in cross-threaded. As phil says, it'll need helicoiling to fix it properly, although it can be done in situ, apparently. I wouldn't want to chance my arm getting something like that done with the head in place, particularly on an OHV car where it's a piece of cake to remove and replace and not expensive (as the MPi engine doesn't use stretch bolts) - cost about £10 to get it off and on for a decent gasket.