Platkar Service
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2022 1:50 pm
The lady friend's platkar has required some TLC for a week or two as the INSP display shows when the car is started at the moment. Since it is about 10k km since I last did an oil change and similar, it as probably time and I bought service kit for the vehicle from the GM / Opel dealership around the corner from the office last week.
On a side note: amazing how prices have risen. The same service kit (oil, filters, plugs etc) cost me somewhere just over R1K last time. This time, it put my back about R2,6K...
Thinking it would be a nice quick job on Saturday, whereafter I could lounge around at home, ponder my camping setup changes (there are some largish changes I'm making to my touring configuration on the big truck) and drink beer, I got stuck into the job.
30 minutes later, all was done. And I start the vehicle. But it does not sound lekker - definite miss. Re-check all the work I did. Later on, pull out the HT leads for the plugs and measure resistance. Of the four plug cables, two were in-spec and the other two were waaaay different. So I headed out to the spares shop and got a new set of HT leads. The problem persisted, and I scratched my head figuring out what it could be before giving my good connection, Anthoney Forgey, a call... He mentioned plug gap. I mentioned they were dealer-specced plugs for the vehicle (the top of the lid even mentions 1.1mm gap). After a few questions (for example: I had cleaned the engine prior to the service) I thought perhaps it was moisture on the coils and let the vehicle stand and dry... Later the afternoon, took it for a nice burn along Solomon Mahlangu to get to temperature and the problems persisted....
So, I pulled the new plugs, and put the old ones back in.... And the vehicle worked a charm.
Investigation shows that, whilst three of the plugs have the properly specced 1.1mm gap (right hand side), the one plug is virtually a dead short (it probably has a .1mm gap)... And so problems solved.
I reckon the take away here, is that never trust the plugs - even those provided by dealerships - and a set of feeler gauges costs less than ZAR100 at Midas (I know - I bought a set this morning)...
Yes. I'm a moron. But this post is merely to (hopefully) prevent somebody else's 30 minute job becoming a full day long one...
PS: Anthoney mentioned that he always checks plug gap on servicing vehicles. Even on OEM pre-set plugs, he find an incorrect gap set on about 1/3 of the plugs he uses at his workshop...
On a side note: amazing how prices have risen. The same service kit (oil, filters, plugs etc) cost me somewhere just over R1K last time. This time, it put my back about R2,6K...
Thinking it would be a nice quick job on Saturday, whereafter I could lounge around at home, ponder my camping setup changes (there are some largish changes I'm making to my touring configuration on the big truck) and drink beer, I got stuck into the job.
30 minutes later, all was done. And I start the vehicle. But it does not sound lekker - definite miss. Re-check all the work I did. Later on, pull out the HT leads for the plugs and measure resistance. Of the four plug cables, two were in-spec and the other two were waaaay different. So I headed out to the spares shop and got a new set of HT leads. The problem persisted, and I scratched my head figuring out what it could be before giving my good connection, Anthoney Forgey, a call... He mentioned plug gap. I mentioned they were dealer-specced plugs for the vehicle (the top of the lid even mentions 1.1mm gap). After a few questions (for example: I had cleaned the engine prior to the service) I thought perhaps it was moisture on the coils and let the vehicle stand and dry... Later the afternoon, took it for a nice burn along Solomon Mahlangu to get to temperature and the problems persisted....
So, I pulled the new plugs, and put the old ones back in.... And the vehicle worked a charm.
Investigation shows that, whilst three of the plugs have the properly specced 1.1mm gap (right hand side), the one plug is virtually a dead short (it probably has a .1mm gap)... And so problems solved.
I reckon the take away here, is that never trust the plugs - even those provided by dealerships - and a set of feeler gauges costs less than ZAR100 at Midas (I know - I bought a set this morning)...
Yes. I'm a moron. But this post is merely to (hopefully) prevent somebody else's 30 minute job becoming a full day long one...
