Well..last week on pulled into the local Amoco to fuel the beast with it's weekly diet of premium.
I leave and just a few miles down the road the "service engine light" goes on and stays on. Of course
first thought was "bad fuel"...now my Bolt has ~20,000 miles on her and has had a little too rough idle
for over a month but ran fine...So pull into my SVT dealership just a few miles away...a mechanic was available...
did diagnostics...BOTH cylinder banks were running lean...cleared the "pcm"...said would order some parts...
(mass air flow etc; thought that might be a problem)...said truck was safe to drive and that did not have bad gas. Next morning Sat crank it up...gray smoke poring out the exhaust...wont hold an idle (just like a bad or dirty IAC) problem...acts like starved for fuel...I remove the negative batt terminal to clear the pcm...barely could get the truck started...finally get it running...back to dealer...mechanic pulls a few plugs...thinks may need a new set of plugs...said I wasn't driving it hard enough (limited driving distances since I've been layed off) but really couldnt do anything else or further analysis till parts came in. This past tuesday parts came in...Whippy Do DA !.Next morning back to dealership...my favorite ace tech is available. Pulled all the plugs...3 were loose and just 10000 miles ago I asked the dealer to check the plugs for tightness (the mechanic said they were fine). All 8 plugs
looked normal so evidently they were not really checked ~a year ago...so the tech pulls the mass air flow and he really gets excited...a tiny peace of a orange leaf (about 1/4 x 1/4 inch)was stuck to the mass filiment...OK now things are making sense...SO somehow this alien visitor got past the air filter edges and adhered to the filiment.
Now this makes me wonder if I really ever had any IAC problems (prior posts). The tech replaced the plugs, airfilter, MASS, belt tensioner all at no charge...very nice service visit ! After all the parts were installed (took 4 hours and I was with the tech the whole time)...took it out for a test ride...the beast pulled rubber at 40 mph. I forgot how good she could run...so thats the TRUE story of the famous leaf attack in Athens Ga. As a side
note asked my tech about this blowing plug issue...he said that if the plugs are tight they should NOT blow out period...said that the combustion chamber does NOT produce enough "twisting" or rotational force to cause the plug to turn counterclockwise...said that if a plug is loose it will though be pushed up and down against the cylinder threads therfore causing an eventual thread failure in the head thus blowing a plug.

 

now thats pretty funny. Wonder how that got in there?

 

And here I thought we were going to see a pic of a Candian Maple Leaf standing in front of an L holding a hockey stick, or something

 

grinomyte:
when the tech pulled the airfilter housing off I noticed that about
1 1/2 inches of the airfilter lip seal was distorted..not fully flush with the box edge...other than that suspect the NSA.

fastbolt2002:
sorry to let you down BUT the peace of leaf DID look like a
Canadian Maple Leaf...and there were NO traces of any hockey
stick.

 

georgia moon, what dealership do you use ? university ford ? its hard to get good service around these parts.

 

Do you have a stock intake and airbox or something else?

Justin

 

Libom:

 

Libom:
Yes..University Ford...i agree it is hard to get good service.
If you decide to go there let me know and Ill introduce you to
the right techs...not all my service visits have been positive...but
when they do a top job then they deserve credit.

Justin@JDM:
My truck is totally stock...I have wanted to do some upgrades
but have always been concerned with warranty issues.

 

Sounds like a GREAT SAVE on possible spitting plugs Georgia_Moon .
I found 3 factory plugs loose when I first bought mine,
2 were way to lose for comfort, and one was barely in at all.
I personally think all L's with stock plugs should be checked.
It seems new Lightning's, or original pluged Lightning's spit the most.

Great story, glad she's back to normal

I'm interested on knowing what filter your using too,
STOCK ???

When I "had" that massive 4" intake feeding my Ram Air, I use to take in all kinds of stuff, remember our brother that found a bird in his Now I use 3" Stainless feeding my JLP box, I'm amazed of the crap I find in there, I have to empty the sand and leaves often.

 

Rob_02Lightning:
Nice to hear from you big guy. The airfilter system is stock. About
2 months ago when it was real cold here (30 degrees and below)
the truck started getting this WOO WWOO sound on first morning
startup...after numerous trips to the dealer to "attempt" fix this
WOO WOO a tech decided to grease the edges of the airfilter to
so as to get a better seal (thinking there was air getting past the
filter)...well maby he just didnt reseat the air filter just right...therefore some junk skipping by the "edges" of an unsealed/not flush airfilter...thats all i can figure out Rob as far
as cause...furthermore i believe that because the airfilter was
greased on the edges that this stupid fragment of a leaf caught a little bit of grease as it blew by and STUCK to the MASS air flow
filament..the service manager does'nt agree with this but thats
my opinion....what kind of bird did you suck up...I think you
are the first one with that happening. Whats odd and funny is that a tiny piece of leaf could disable a 4800 lb truck...go figure.

 

thanks georgia ! i live in gainesville and everybody round here aint to great. ive even had it out with akins a time or two.

 

No not me with the Bird Georgia_Moon
But one of our L Brothers form here once was down a tenth on his ET so he checked his filter to find out a bird had been sucked in the ram air system

Me,
I only find Farm Animals in mine

Glad your back to
"the beast pulled rubber at 40 mph"

Rock On Bro, Rock On

 

Rob_02Lightning:
I've never had a strange animal car story but my grandfather did.
Many years ago in south georgia (a lot of dirt roads back then) my
grandfather saw a huge (I mean HUGE) copperhead snake laying
in the middle of a dirt road...so he proceeded to slowly run over the snake...then back up...run over it again...well then granddad drove home (about 15 miles)....pulled into his wooden garage...opened the car door...as his left foot touched the ground
the "dead copperhead" struck for his leg but missed...well granddad ran to the house...got the 12 gauge...then killed the
snake for sure...the snake had wrapped itself around the rear axel of his car...wasnt dead but awfully mad...the moral of this
true story is "if you run over something dangerous...make sure
it's really dead". BTW the record here in ga for the biggest rattlesnake ever killed was 125 pounds...if you could see that snake guarantee you that you'd have nightmares.

 

Well where are the pics?????

 

No animals, but I bought a used Dakota off a dealers lot, and drove it for about a week and decided to check the air filter since it had 20,000 miles on it and found some interesting stuff in there. It ended up that a rat had been living in there. The filter was pretty clogged up, and there was a nest and nuts; to say the least it was full. Needless to say the truck felt like I had put a 50 shot of nawz on it after a new air filter and some cleaning.