Was searching the local Craigslist ads and found a clean 04 with 68k on it. The previous owner has replaced a crank sensor and cats due to tracking down a misfire on cylinder one. It seems that they swapped the coil twice and both of the new ones blew almost immediately. I'm not 100% sure that he explained it correctly or that I understood him, but the story seems to be that it is getting constant power to the coil and not pulsing. He doesn't have the title yet so I'll be picking it up in a week or so, but I'm trying to get ready for the adventure that lies ahead. I'm wondering if it's something with the wiring that could be causing it, as I've seem a somewhat similar problem due to damaged wiring, but the I was thinking that more than likely that would cause it to have no power or ground out. Is the ecu a possible culprit? If so, I'm assuming they would need to be programmed to work with the immobilizer etc and I couldn't swap a junkyard unit. Is there anyone out there that can reprogram them if that's the case? Thanks in advance

 

Typically the cats would have no effect on misfire, and at that mileage would be far from any need to replace. The crank sensor is a go/no-go item and would not result in a single cylinder misfire. If you have good compression, no coolant loss, and the coil is seating properly, check to see if you have a wet plug to ascertain the fuel injector is working. Note that the Ecu will shut down the fuel injector after a few moments when misfire is detected, so this may not always suggest a bad injector. I have had experience with KV6 misfiring as a result of a corroded terminal inside the ECU. Pull the connector closest to the engine and check the pins. If any look bad, pull off the cover and check the inside. I have bypassed the connector by soldering a wire to the board connection, then routing it to the corresponding wire by splicing near the connector.

 

I would be more concerned about buying a Rover with a Kv6. The engines are historically bad

 

Dont buy an FL1 full stop, buckets of **** they are.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied and sorry for the delay. Today is the first time where I've actually had a moment to look at the car. The first thing that struck me as odd was that it looked like there was wire in the spark plug well. Upon further inspection, I realized that the whole coil was melted in. Spent a couple of hours experimenting with all combinations of tools to try and get it out. The problem was, there was little to no material to hold and pull, there was about 4 inches of combined coil and boot still gripping the plug, and the geniuses who designed the engine decided to make the top of the well have a Ridge on it that stops whatever you are trying to pull up. Even if it pulls through the rest of the way fine, that lip will stop it and not allow room for any tools to grip it and pull out. My fix was this - zipped a large screw into the coil and was finally able to grip/twist with enough force to get everything out

I'​​​​m thinking and sincerely hoping that the mechanic who was working on this car either broke the coil Removing it or that if he did change it, he either didn't install it correctly and it caused arcing and fried it, or he used the wrong one (I recall reading somewhere about there being two different coils that were used on these engines, and some were longer than others. Thinking it's possible that the one he had was too short and it melted itself arcing in there

 

To add to the fail, the mechanic previously working on it was trying to fix a cylinder 1 misfire by changing the coil on cylinder 2. He had the banks wrong.

 

A minor detail, I wish you luck.