Question

Please describe a real situation in which you had to troubleshoot and fix the failure of a piece equipment/machine?

Answer 1

Answer:

Fixing a faulty spark-plug in a typical gasoline car engine.

Explanation:

The faulty equipment/machine

The equipment/machine was a gasoline car engine. After switching it on, I heard a not common pulsing sound at the end of the exhaust pipe of the car. When running the car, there was also a loss in power of the engine when trying to accelerate it.

Troubleshooting

I started with a working hypothesis addressing a fault in any of the spark-plugs installed, since the problem, at first sight, seemed any related to an ignition or fuel distribution failure. Since spark-plugs are relatively easy components to remove and check, then I troubleshoot them as a first step.

Firstly, I checked the condition for any of the spark-plugs, extracting them with a spark plug socket and a torque wrench, to later perform a careful visual inspection, looking for any out-of-normal condition in any of the four of them installed in my car. I checked three of them, visualizing no wear, combustion deposits, and/or electrodes inappropriate gauge distance.

For the last one, I needed an anti-seized lubricant to extract it with caution to not break it or cause any damage to the component. After extraction and the visual inspection, I immediately noticed the presence of combustion deposits between the electrodes of the spark-plug.

Fixing the problem

Since one way of cleaning a spark-plug is using a wire brush, I started to carefully remove the deposits until no remaining was left after the cleaning process. I also checked for wear conditions and gauging distance of the electrodes, which resulted in good enough.

An explanation for this is that in the electrodes gap were accumulated some deposits coming from combustion, resulting in a not working cylinder, thus the noise and loss of power in the engine.

I reinstalled the spark-plug and the fault dissipated after accelerating the engine in situ.

The outcome

The engine is working appropriately with no pulsing sound and the end of the exhaust pipe of the car and no power loss while accelerating it.