Here here we go again, after a trip to Sydney in the pouring rain our Mazda MPV started to miss fire. This has happened previously, and so I knew where to start solving the problem. Even so I pulled over at a Service Station three quarters of the way to Sydney, NSW and sprayed WD40 over parts of the electrics I suspected may be at fault. All I managed to achieve/create was create a foul smell in the engine compartment.

I purchased two new ignitions coils online, and this easily and painless solved the misfiring problem, however during my checks I notices that I had a spark plug with a very pointy ignition tip, which I initially thought was wear and tear but after a bit of reading I discovered that it was an iridium spark plug, designed to last a long time, and withstand very high temperatures.

So that leaves me with wondering if this single spark plug was replaced by my mechanic when I previously had this issue, or if when I replaced all my spark plugs a couple of years ago I had very wisely fitted iridium plugs? I’m not sure, so I shall check all thee plugs on the side of the engine to which I have easy access.

The spark plugs on the far side the engine (fire wall side) are extraordinarily difficult to gain access to replace.