Cylinder 8 fail... what to do?

[bexamous]

On Friday at lunch I was going down some street and engine sounded like it was misfiring or something? Not sure how to describe it, exhaust sound was off and lack of power. Thought wtf? And pulled in driveway at work and parked it. After work started car and nothing unusual, drove it home nothing unusual... figured I'd get it looked at Monday morning.

On Sat kinda forgot about it, started car and didn't seem to idle well, drove a block and then turned around and parked it.

So Sun night now and wondering what to do tomorrow morning. I go read error codes... P0018, P0300, P0000, P0308. I think that last one means doom.

80k miles on car, its out of warranty.... I'm fairly sure bad things have happened to cylinder 8... and if this happened on Friday at lunch then I also drove it home ~30 miles... is cylinder wall going to be all scratched up? Anyways so... what would you do in this situation?

I mean I *COULD* just bring it to dealer and pay ??? and let them just fix it, I don't know what they do exactly? New rotating assembly and lots of labor to install it? I could order a MMR shortblock?-- Although I don't really want to be without a car that long.

Really crappy timing, I've been on and off thinking about trading it in.

 

[coyote302]

I dont think you have a problem with that #8.... P0018 is Crankshaft Position - Camshaft Position Correlation.....maybe you only have a bad vct solenoid.....

 

[Zemedici]

P0308 is cylinder 8 misfire^^^

Hmmm....

 

[coyote302]

Misfire on #8....so what. ...??? a bad o2 can get you a p0308 it does not mean you have a failure on piston #8....:shrug:

 

[Angry50]

maybe get a diag from the dealer?

 

[Zemedici]

Misfire on #8....so what. ...??? a bad o2 can get you a p0308 it does not mean you have a failure on piston #8....:shrug:

I didnt say anything about failur on cylinder #8?

He's got a misfire on #7 & #8, as well as a random misfire code. Could be that bank's o2 sensor you're right. :shrug:

 

[Need4Speed03]

Was it smoking out the exhaust? Pull the number 8 plug and see if its covered in oil.

 

[daustin]

I was thinking the same thing as everyone else. Check the small stuff before assuming the worst. Best of luck for an easy resolution. Just because you have a cylinder 8 misfire, doesn't mean the piston is toast.

What mods are on the car?

 

[Gremlin85]

You're jumping to conclusions, OP.

Do a proper diagnosis. As stated, those codes could be a faulty vct solenoid or even a bad O2 sensor. Get those tested and move on from there.

If things start to turn out find there, do a compression and leak-down test. This will get you a better idea on the health of your motor.

Don't go throwing parts at it or writing it off until it's properly diagnosed.

 

[Blazer707@TBR]

Just pull the plug on number 8. That right there will tell alot about whats going on.

 

[RAZRS EDGE]

You're jumping to conclusions, OP.

Do a proper diagnosis. As stated, those codes could be a faulty vct solenoid or even a bad O2 sensor. Get those tested and move on from there.

If things start to turn out find there, do a compression and leak-down test. This will get you a better idea on the health of your motor.

Don't go throwing parts at it or writing it off until it's properly diagnosed.

That. ^ Logic always prevails.

 

[bexamous]

Well yeah I mean I'm getting it looked at, dropped it off this morning. On Sat when I drove it like 100 feet in a circle I pulled in driveway and it wasn't idling very well.... after maybe 20 seconds or so there was a bit of smoke from exhaust, not a huge cloud but a noticeable amount. I then just turned it off. I had been assuming it was oil burning but wasn't sure why, then seeing misfire on #8 got me worried. I'm getting it looked at, if its something simple great. But if worst case.. this is my DD, I don't want to sit around w/o a car trying to decide what to do.

Oh and it is tuned/cai/axlebacks, has been for 50-60k miles.

 

[Blazer707@TBR]

Whos tune?

 

[Kornilov]

Whos tune?

Yeah, who's tune?

With 80K miles on the odometer, Im assuming yours is a 2011? Do you know what your build date is?

 

[bexamous]

Yeah 2011. Tune was from Brenspeed... I don't see blaming that after so long. I dislike when people refuse to say who tuned their car though, like it needs to be a secret. I don't recall build date, got it in Dec of 2010 though, think it was a job 1 car or whatever.

Worst case though, is there a better option than getting a short block from MMR? $3700 or whatever + install?

 

[Kornilov]

Yeah 2011. Tune was from Brenspeed... I don't see blaming that after so long. I dislike when people refuse to say who tuned their car though, like it needs to be a secret. I don't recall build date, got it in Dec of 2010 though, think it was a job 1 car or whatever.

Worst case though, is there a better option than getting a short block from MMR? $3700 or whatever + install?

Being that you are in the bay area, and with labor rates there, I would count on $6K to have an MMR shortblock delivered to the shop, the top parts bolted on and the motor dropped in the car. If you do go that route, I would see if AED would take the work as you dont want just any shop doing an MMR swap.

But you first need to find out what the issue is. It could be something simple like bad crank sensor or bad plugs/coils.

Even if it is a piston, you may be OK with your current block and just need pistons and rings done, which should be substantially cheaper.

 

[bexamous]

Holy crap, lol. So talked to mechanic... so piston 8 didn't fail. =D Although I'm not clear exactly what did happen... so it was 4 qts low on oil(?!?) and VCT solenoid was stuck. So, lol... 4 QTs!? I think I should feel lucky engine is still running at all. Honestly though I never check oil level between changes. At first I was changing it whenever the computer would say oil change, but at 60k miles it stopped ever doing that. I'd go in menu and it'd always say oil was at 100%. So instead I changed it ever 8k. But between changes I never check oil level. I guess I've learned my lesson, haha. But man... woudln't burning/leaking 4 QTs be noticeable? Only time I ever saw smoke was on Saturday when it was idling in driveway.

Man at first I felt unlucky something bad happened, now I just feel lucky something worse didn't happen. Should I get VCT solenoid replaced? He said he tapped it and it started working again and didn't suggest replacing it or anything.

Oh and I think they only checked compression on piston #8 and one from the other bank, He was saying one was at 180psi and the other 210. I get pretty crappy cell reception at home and figured I'd clarify when i pick car up.

 

[daustin]

That's great news! But man, you need to check your oil regularly! Like you said, lesson learned!

If it's working now, I'd drive it and see how it goes.

Did you ever check with Brenspeed to see if there were any updates for your tune? If you haven't, now would be a good time to. If you're running a tune from 2011, I'm willing to bet there's an update. Tuners have learned a lot over the past three years and have updated their tunes accordingly.

 

[drh_5.0]

Holy crap, lol. So talked to mechanic... so piston 8 didn't fail. =D Although I'm not clear exactly what did happen... so it was 4 qts low on oil(?!?) and VCT solenoid was stuck. So, lol... 4 QTs!? I think I should feel lucky engine is still running at all. Honestly though I never check oil level between changes. At first I was changing it whenever the computer would say oil change, but at 60k miles it stopped ever doing that. I'd go in menu and it'd always say oil was at 100%. So instead I changed it ever 8k. But between changes I never check oil level. I guess I've learned my lesson, haha. But man... woudln't burning/leaking 4 QTs be noticeable? Only time I ever saw smoke was on Saturday when it was idling in driveway.

Man at first I felt unlucky something bad happened, now I just feel lucky something worse didn't happen. Should I get VCT solenoid replaced? He said he tapped it and it started working again and didn't suggest replacing it or anything.

Oh and I think they only checked compression on piston #8 and one from the other bank, He was saying one was at 180psi and the other 210. I get pretty crappy cell reception at home and figured I'd clarify when i pick car up.

Glad it wasn't a cylinder failure!!!

 

[F.D.Sako]

Make it a habit to check the oil every time you fill-up!

If you took it to a shop for the oil change... Go check your receipt or their database to see how many qrts they put in.