PO301 Misfire, cylinder 1 2001 XJ Sport 4.0

Hello All,

Got the old check engine light, read the code and it's a Misfire in
cylinder 1, so I'm thinking I'll replace the distributor, rotor, leads
and spark plug, simple enough, 'cept when I pop the hood it sure
doesn't look like my 1990 XJ under there, no distributor and an odd
box like contraption on the left side where the sparks should go...
someone wanna tell me what the hell that is and how I go about pulling
it apart? No reference to what that is or how to fix it in the Hayes
manual. Seems the 21st century left me behind. Thank you.

Stevil wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> Got the old check engine light, read the code and it's a Misfire in
> cylinder 1, so I'm thinking I'll replace the distributor, rotor, leads
> and spark plug, simple enough, 'cept when I pop the hood it sure
> doesn't look like my 1990 XJ under there, no distributor and an odd
> box like contraption on the left side where the sparks should go...
> someone wanna tell me what the hell that is and how I go about pulling
> it apart? No reference to what that is or how to fix it in the Hayes
> manual. Seems the 21st century left me behind. Thank you.

Don't you just hate it when the machinery gets smarter than you are? Makes
me feel so damned OLD! I thought 2001 was a bit early, but you appear to
have the coil-per-cylinder ignition. No distributor, all electronic. Each
pair of plugs (one cylinder on the power stroke, the other on the exhaust)
fire from the coils on the rail. The plugs are under the rail. If you
have a single cylinder report, it's likely to be a plug. Pull the ignition
rail. With that off, you'll probably recognize the landscape again <g>.
Change the plugs, pull the battery cables for a couple of minutes to clear
the errors and then check for any further reports.

--
Will Honea

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Will Honea wrote:
> Stevil wrote:
>
>> Hello All,
>>
>> Got the old check engine light, read the code and it's a Misfire in
>> cylinder 1, so I'm thinking I'll replace the distributor, rotor, leads
>> and spark plug, simple enough, 'cept when I pop the hood it sure
>> doesn't look like my 1990 XJ under there, no distributor and an odd
>> box like contraption on the left side where the sparks should go...
>> someone wanna tell me what the hell that is and how I go about pulling
>> it apart? No reference to what that is or how to fix it in the Hayes
>> manual. Seems the 21st century left me behind. Thank you.
>
> Don't you just hate it when the machinery gets smarter than you are? Makes
> me feel so damned OLD! I thought 2001 was a bit early, but you appear to
> have the coil-per-cylinder ignition. No distributor, all electronic. Each
> pair of plugs (one cylinder on the power stroke, the other on the exhaust)
> fire from the coils on the rail. The plugs are under the rail. If you
> have a single cylinder report, it's likely to be a plug. Pull the ignition
> rail. With that off, you'll probably recognize the landscape again <g>.
> Change the plugs, pull the battery cables for a couple of minutes to clear
> the errors and then check for any further reports.

Yup, it was a plug when I got a similar code for cylinder 6. Coil rail
is a bit of a pita to move out of your way since it has a wire
connector on the end near the firewall.

This might help... http://www.getahelmet.com/jeeps/maint/sparkplugs/

Steve