thanks for your help matt. i had the help of an RAC man (roadside breakdown assistance) and he couldnt understand it either. we did the test you describe (earth a plug on the block, try to get a spark). when connected to one on the left, you get a really big spark. no spark at all on any on the right. the guy had me start the car, pulled off all 3 right spark leads, nothing happened. pull off 1 of the left 3 and it stalls immediately. the emmisions test is the English MOT (still pretty strict). the car is very underpowered at low speed. the spark plug contacts are a bit white on the firing side, and oily on the non firing. the cap is definately ok, i havent had the distributor off yet. --- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "dmcchaser" <dmcchaser@xxxx> wrote: > > Are you certain that only three plugs are getting spark? The > reasons I ask are: The car should be almost undriveable on only 3 > cylinders. The car could not have passed its emissions test while > missfiring that badly, the HCs would have been far too high. It's > very unusual to lose exactly half of the firing events in this way. > That said, I don't doubt that your test is correct. Let's take it > a step further. Pull the spark plugs out of the cylinders that > aren't running and take a good look at the ends. Are they clean and To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/