How to tell which cylinder is which

Have you ever had your car suddenly start to sputter on acceleration? These hesitations can be from a variety of things that are starting to malfunction, including the ECU, fuel pump, fuel injectors, cam or crank sensors, 02 sensors, coils, or spark plugs.

More times than not, however, it seems that either of the last two are common failing points on cars and give these symptoms.

How to tell which cylinder is misfiring without scan tool

Fortunately, they’re pretty easy to diagnose if you have access to the coils.

If you’ve had enough sputtering to trigger a check engine light, an automotive diagnostic tool or scanner that plugs into the OBD2 port (for cars 1996+) can save you some trouble and tell you exactly which cylinder poses the problem.

If you don’t have a scanner, you’ll just have to go old school.

In most modern-day vehicles, engines have a plastic cover, which will usually expose a coil-on-plug setup upon removal. If your car is idling funny and you can gain access to the coils, you can easily figure out if your sputtering issue is coming from the ignition system or elsewhere.

Test #1  If th

which cylinder is misfiring

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