2013 GTI Running Rough After Off-Season

[bwhite]

My family decided to take the first trip to the Lake of this season this weekend. It seems one of our 2013 GTI (Model 23DC) is running a little rough while the other runs fantastic. They have right around 60 hours on them. Yes, they did sit over the winter with ethanol free fuel about 1/4 tank.

It will run up to about 30mph (typically gets up to around 56mph) for the short period of time it was in the water. It sounds almost like its running on fewer cylinders than 3. Is there a quick way to check which cylinder may be misfiring without causing any damage?

I plan to pull the plugs later this week, but until then.. any ideas/recommendations? I know this model takes NGK DCPR8E with a .030 gap and we are in Northern Florida if that makes any difference so we have warm winters.

 

[wrench2ride]

you likely have a fouled spark plug, or if you did fog the cylinders when you put them away for the end of season last fall maybe one of the ignition coils didn't get plugged in all the way, pull the plugs out and take a look if one plug looks darker/wetter than the others that will tell you which cylinder isn't working, best to do a compression test on it, if the compression test is fairly even across all the cylinders (within 10% of each other) try some new plugs in it and see.

 

[bwhite]

This is what I found after pulling the plugs. Left to right cylinder 3 to 1. Cylinder 2 seems fouled. I'm curious on a root cause for this, though. Should I be concerned? I'm pretty sure the ignition coils were snug and the harnesses were attached.

Next thing to check will probably be fuses.

 

[Digdog]

Yes try changing the plugs and then take it out and see how it runs, plugs just sometimes stop firing correctly. I have had lots of them fail after sitting for a period of time in bikes, boats and sleds. I usually change all of them and keep the good ones for spares, looks like the center one is misfiring from your photo, was that plug wet when you took it out? or black and dry? If it doesn't run right after plugs and new fuel let us know, but I don't think you should be too concerned at this point.

 

[bwhite]

The plug was black and dry, granted I let the engine cool before I pulled the plugs.

Would it be worth adding seafoam to the fuel to clean the cylinder heads and injection system?

 

[Digdog]

I'm not sure about the Seafoam, there are other guys who would know about it. Just by looking at the plugs I would say that is the problem.

 

[Chester]

Just replace the plugs every year.

Chester

 

[bwhite]

Swapped out the plugs. Seems to run pretty smooth on the hose now. Will have to wait until we splash them again in a couple of weeks to see how they run in the water.