200 miles and dead plugs on a 306

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Wed 28 Feb 2007 11:29
200 miles and dead plugs on a 306 - Tuffty
I have a Peugeot 306 1.8 Meridien, 2000 'V' reg with 83000 miles on the clock. I recently had a full service performed including new spark plugs.

The first time I drove the car after the service was a 300 mile motorway trip. The first 150 miles were fine with no problems - then the car suddenly developed a problem with lack of power and jerky acceleration. This worsened over 50 miles or so until I had to call out the RAC who failed to diagnose the problem and recovered me home.

On taking the car to the local garage the next day they diagnosed a misfire and replaced the plugs. 2 of the plugs were fine but the other 2 had heavy sooty deposits on them which were the root of the problem. I explained that the plugs were brand new so they examined all the electricals etc and could find no problem. I've kept the 4 'old' plugs and checked their serial numbers, and they are indeed the right plugs for the car / engine - and you can tell they are new plugs. Thing is I'm now nervous that there's a deeper problem here which is going to rear its head again - I've only done 100 miles since the newest set were put in. Anyone any ideas what could have caused this?
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Wed 28 Feb 2007 11:37
200 miles and dead plugs on a 306 - Screwloose
Tuffty

Roughly where in the country are you? Have you seen the thread about the dodgy fuel? If your oxygen sensor is one of those affected, then that could well explain fouled plugs.
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Wed 28 Feb 2007 11:43
200 miles and dead plugs on a 306 - Tuffty
Screwloose - thanks for pointing that out, I'd not seen it but now taken a look. I'm in East Anglia but the tank was filled in Plymouth when the problem occurred, at a Shell station. So wouldn't appear to be the problem but definitely worth a closer look.
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Wed 28 Feb 2007 17:21
200 miles and dead plugs on a 306 - yorkiebar
imo its very rare to get faulty spark plugs of any brand (but obviously can happen)

Easiest test is to move the 2 "faulty" plugs to the 2 good cylkinders and vice versa and see what they are like after a run of 50 miles or so.

If the 2 sooty plugs stay sooty then there is your problem but if the fault changes to the other 2 plugs then sorry but somebody has to dig deeper!
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