New front tires; cylinder missing

Got some BF Goodrich touring tires for the front. I looked into tires a good bit, heard Firestones were bad, Bridgestones and Michelin’s were good, and the one’s with Weather in them seemed reasonably to be good for weather. I went to Sears just because they had a variety of brands that seemed better than NTB. The lady there didn’t mention any Bridgestone or Michelins being available for my 13″ rims, though some had said on their webiste and on the wall at the store that they were available. She said the Goodrich tires would be the best for what I was looking for, which was good snow traction as well as good all-season performance. They cost $45 each before installation fees, etc., which wasn’t much more than the Bridgestone’s and others that were on sale, so I wen’t with them. $145 installed. That’s a good bit of money, getting close to half of what I spent on four Bridgestone Insignias on my Camry, which had also included wheel alignment. The Insignias I had liked a lot. They had really good snow traction. But they were unavailable in 13″. Hopefully these’ll perform as well as those.

From use so far, they seem to have quite good traction. Turns feel more controlled. I had worried a bit with my previous tires, which were pretty much flat bald in the centers. They seem to work quite well on wet pavement. I’ll have to wait till winter though to see their snow/ice performance. Though turning feels more sporty with them, acceleration does not. They feel heavier/bulkier, and make acceleration feel a bit slower.

One of my cylinders is missing, ie not firing, part of the time. It had been acting similarly for a while, and had been doing it particularly badly just before I installed the new exhaust. It then stopped for a bit. It started again soon after I did two things: I tightened a bolt on the exhaust system; I filled up the tank with Sheetz gasoline. I’m guessing the gasoline may have been the reason it suddenly started again. Either that or my Dad’s driving habits, as he borrowed the car the day it started having trouble again (the day after I refilled the tank and tightened the bolt). I found the cylinder, which was covered in wet oil. I’m guessing a gasket is leaking and the oil is preventing the spark from igniting when it is coating the plug thickly enough. The tank of gas I used before the Sheetz tank was from BP, with some fuel injector cleaner. I’m guessing the injector cleaner was helping burn off the oil.

I’ll have to look into it more, as a number of things could be causing this oil leak. Another valve looks like it is not far from having this problem, as it has oil covering its threads, though none below that. I can’t imagine running on only two cylinders. Some potential causes could be quite costly to fix, and it will be a pain to figure out the problem in the first place. Gotta happen soon though, as it is running quite poorly. I just put some new BP gas in, and will see what effect that has. I will try some more injector cleaner soon until I get the actual problem fixed.