I have a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica that is having some misfiring issues. A few months back, it sprang an oil leak in the oil filter housing (pretty common I’m told). I took it into a high school mechanic program to do the repair. I sent 6 spark plugs along with the repair, figuring it would be a good idea to have the plugs replaced while they had the engine exposed for the filter repair. After completing the repair, the teacher (who is a great guy and has done repairs for me in the past) informed me that the van was misfiring. He ran a bunch of tests, and then informed me that the only thing he could figure was that the catalytic converter must be dirty/possibly beginning to fail. It was not having this issue prior to putting in the new plugs? He recommended I try using a catalytic converter cleaner like cataclean to see if it helps. I tried it, knowing that it was most likely not going to help and it did not. My question is, is it possible that this issue has nothing to do with the catalytic converter, but maybe one of the spark plugs was bad? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Explanation doesn’t sound right, they put in plugs (a pretty involved procedure on V6 FWD vehicles) and the misfire is due to a new cat plugging problem? Not likely.
+1
I think that the explanation that was given to the OP by the teacher/mechanic is reversed, or that the OP misunderstood the explanation. Instead of the catalytic converter causing the misfire, I think it’s a lot more likely that misfiring has damaged the cat.
I strongly suggest that he get his van to a qualified mechanic a.s.a.p., in order to determine the actual cause of the misfire… before the cost of repairs becomes ever higher.
Thanks for the response. Just reread the message from the teacher. He changed coils, spark plugs and checked everything else that he could. So I guess a bad spark plug doesn’t make sense if he changed them out. He said there was a sulfer smell that he said goes along with a clogged cat converter. He believes the clog may stem from the PCV letting oil through the system from the leak in the oil filter housing?
Not so fast… Where were the spark plugs and coils sourced? Amazon? Ebay? Cheap parts from these sources are far too often counterfeit crap.
If it ran good before these were changed, my first thought is bad parts.
Interesting, thank you for the advice!
Has anybody performed a compression test?
Are all the injectors squirting?
No, not that I know of?
How many miles are on the odometer?
Does the engine consume (burn) oil?
If so, how much does it consume?
Any mechanic worth their salt knows when this happens they go back and recheck their work.
Tester
Approaching 100k. No, I have not noticed a consumption of oil. Oil levels have held strong.
Is this a hybrid? The software that controls the engine changeover to battery power didn’t shut the fuel injectors off early enough and raw gasoline poured through the cylinders into the exhaust manifold where it burned. The manifold was so hot that it glowed red. A side effect of this was the destruction of the catalytic converter. You should have received a recall notice. Again, this is only for the hybrid.
Just to ad to Mustangmans reply, did you use OEM plugs, not OE type, but what the vehicle came with from the factory??? The wrong plugs can/will cause misfires…