I have a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer V6. I replaced the spark plugs, wires,and coil. It has a slight tapping sound coming from the engine and, there seems to be little or no spark from the wires on one side when the wires were pulled while engine running.

Asked by Bellathecat Feb 07, 2015 at 07:02 PM about the 2003 Mercury Mountaineer Convenience AWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

The wires were pulled off while the engine was running and what i think are the 1,2,and 3
cylinders had lots of arcing coming from the wires when they were pulled.  On the other
side, there was little or no arcing.  In addition, there is a tapping noise and I can smell
gas...

1 Answer

26,235

If the wires were pulled off violently, you probably damaged them internally and need to get new ones. The gas smell is probably due to those cylinders not firing and leaving raw gas to be pushed through the exhaust ports. Also, the "tapping" could be arcing from a broken plug wire where it is shorting to the block or other grounded part. Change your spark plug wires and see if that fixes it. By the way, typically the odd cylinder numbers are on one side of the block and the even numbered ones on the other side. Be careful to make sure your new plug wires are connected correctly and follow the firing order for your vehicle.

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