Odd Problem, Need Help

Haven't been on here in a while cuz I lost the internet but i'm back and I got a problem!

For a while my car was missing spark and would stutter under a load, which I misinterpreted as the clutch and wasted much time and money. So I put in some Bosch Platinum +4 spark plugs about 2 weeks ago and it has been running as smooth as possible. Everything was good yesterday, then hurricane Katrina came through western NY last night so it rained. I go to drive it today and same stuttering/missing spark problem, this time no load was needed it just did it constantly. I checked under the hood to see if maybe on of the wires was loose or something, pushed them all down, still no help to the problem. I let the car sit for another 3-4 hours go back out and start it up and it runs smooth again!! So i'm a bit confused, what could cause this?? My thought would be something got wet and then dried up, but how could that be? Any help would be appreciated!

sounds like you got water in something this time, and when you ran it the motor got warm enough to evaporate the water while she sat.

Mike

Yeah that would make perfect sense, but any idea what would cause it to miss spark/stutter if it got wet?

My car would studder under load (or more like hesitate when I leaned into the gas) and it when away when I changed the spark plug wires (I only figured that out after 2 sets of spark plugs... One platinum and one iridium)

The moisture thing also happened to my car... Except I couldn't start it after washing the car until it had dried but hasn't done that to me since I changed the spark plug wires...

If you are wondering I got mad and decided to buy MSD because I NEVER wanted to be stuck in the driveway with a nicely detailed car again.

Yeah, I'd check for water interfering with your plug wires or distributor, etc. You may also want to check your plugs, run some STP gas treatment, and change your fuel filter (if it's old).

Yeah one of the techs at my work suggested the wires also, i'm gonna go ahead and change them.

First I would go get some injector cleaner and gas treatment ;)
and never ever get platinum spark plugs for a vr4. vr4s came stock with NGK Coppers I recomend you use those. OEM NGK Coppers they burn hotter and work alot better in performance. Plus they are cheap :)
and for the water... a little bit of water won't do anything, alot of cars get water injection to stop detination in the cylender.
Try the injector cleaner and see if that stops the studdering and then if that doesn't work then get the NGK Coppers and keep working one the ignition system and fuel delivery areas.

But if you do have a blown head gasket or cracked head then that water will hurt the engine... dont get me wrong, too much water is a very bad thing.

I'd get rid of those Bosch +4's. They are utter crap and a huge waste of money. You only want a single electrode to get the hottest spark. As for teh stuttering could be a few things. Check some of the things already suggested tehn go from there.

I'm pretty sure its the wires, it wasn't water in the cylinders, just moisture build up on the outside of the wires arcing to ground. Hasn't rained and haven't had the problem, thanks for the suggestions though.

As for the copper over platinum, two things: On the hood of my car theres a sticker that says to use only NGK Platinum spark plugs replace every 48k, and I thought the copper ones were only good for a short time?

I was just going to start a thread on this same subject. My car has been doing this for a while now, took it to a dealer and they said it was the computer, my car was stalling too. So instead of paying a grand for them to install it i bought it from Advanced Auto and put it in myself. The car stopped stalling, you can't hear the computer click on and off anymore, but it still stutters under a load or when ever I push the gas a little hard.

I was told it could be the throttle positioning sensor but I havent replaced that yet(I would have if pepboys gave me the right one when i ordered it 2 weeks ago). Im gonna try the wires and plugs, hopefully that fixes it.

I'm pretty sure its the wires, it wasn't water in the cylinders, just moisture build up on the outside of the wires arcing to ground. Hasn't rained and haven't had the problem, thanks for the suggestions though.

As for the copper over platinum, two things: On the hood of my car theres a sticker that says to use only NGK Platinum spark plugs replace every 48k, and I thought the copper ones were only good for a short time?
Manufacturers tell you to do a lot of things.:p As for the coppers they last around 12k miles. But for the better spark you get plus the coppers being much less expensive it is worth it. Only hassle is changing your plugs more often.

And stock the vr4s DID come with NGK platinums. Coppers are better, for plenty of reasons, but were not the stock plugs used.

Yeah the coppers are better performance wise, I thought they only lasted like a month though, 12k isn't too bad. But for now I don't have a problem cuz it hasn't rained, and the platinums will do fine until I get a VR4, then i'll go copper.