My 06 H3 suddenly started losing power yesterday and the CEL came on. Checked the code and found a cylinder 1 misfire. Removed the coil to find the plug completely embedded in solid ice. A hair dryer, slotted screw driver, shop-vac, and liquid wrench cleared it out. Two hours, a new plug and coil, with some Techron added to the tank, for a total of $67 and she's running like a dream. Oh ya............it's 18 degrees today and starting to snow. Gotta love the temperamental H3!

 

Glad you were able to fix the problem relatively cheaply.

I'd be worried as to how the plug came to be surrounded in water...Ice doesnt come from nowhere, that means you have a leak in the seal around the coil pack if I had to guess....hopefully it was the coil pack itself and not the block having warped to create a bad mating surface.

Good luck

 

Hey Brian, when it's 18 above here, we go swimmin'. Just kidding (too cold to get the ice off the lake first) My H3 been running fine with temps hitting 20 below. The wind chill on the motor at 75 mph at -20 has to be, idunno, um, brazilion below. Water could accumulate in wet weather and puddle in no. 1.

 

Now that I know this has happened, I'll monitor it more closely. Hopefully it was just a bad seal in the pack. Thanks for the info.

 

75 and sunny on Jupiter Island!

 

Just a heads up... wind chill is an effect on exposed skin... it has no effect on machinery. The temperature is the temperature, regardless of windspeed. So if it's 20 below, then it's 20 below, even if you're going 75. The speed of the vehicle will have an effect on convective heat transfer, but that is all. If there is water puddled in that area, it will freeze as soon as the convective losses drive the temperature below the freezing point of water.

 

It may not affect metal, but your warm coolant hoses are affected by wind chill, causing them to cool more rapidly.

 

That's not "wind chill", that's convective heat transfer. Two different things.

 

That is absolutely an element of wind chill. I'm not talking about the perceived cooler temperature caused by the wind chill factor.

Wind chill, the wind, will cool your warm hoses faster as it displaces the ambient air surrounding the hose. Anyways..

Brian, congrats on fixing your misfire. I did the same steps for mine and I still get a twice-monthly misfire code. I wasn't so lucky.. Seems like my 06 finally has the leaky exhaust on a bad head.

 

Take a look at your #1 cylinder and then look at the hood.

If the clips for the fake cowl are not sealed the moisture(water) that accumulates under the fake vent will drip down onto the motor. Right about where the #1 cylinder is.

Glad you have it fixed. Seal up those holes to prevent it from happening again.