Today I learnt that the JDMny can do a pretty good Subaru impression when running on 2 cylinders, and that you can only drive so far on these 2 cylinders before the unburnt fuel from the 3rd starts roasting the catalytic converter…

Having bailed into a layby not too far from home and confirmed that the smoke and smell was just a bit of oil baking off the toasty catalytic converter I sat and waited for a tow – a rather shameful experience for the otherwise dependable JDMny (and a nerve-wracking one for me!).

The problem had appeared out of the blue as a momentary loss of a cylinder under heavy load, progressing over time to a complete shut down of one of the cylinders. As boost and temperature had remained normal throughout these events I figured a spark plug or coil would be the likely culprit and, sure enough, cylinder 2’s coil was looking a little worse for wear.

After checking the spark plugs – all were fine – I swapped the coils out for a new (to me) set which had been bundled in with my N1 ECU purchase. At the time I wasn’t sure why these had been included in the auction along with the N1 but was now very glad they had been! The dutiful little JDMny instantly fired back up on all cylinders… don’t you love simple, free repairs? 🙂