Driving home one night in Vibe (‘09 1.8L Base 176,xxx) lost a ton of power driving on interstate. Thank god I was pretty close to mechanics shop so made it there, dropped keys and called next day. Week later mechanic said one of the spark plugs either melted or broke off in the cylinder!!! Not mechanically inclined, btw, but I’ve NEVER heard of this. I replaced the plugs myself at around 120-30,xxx miles (and of course I could be at fault but if I did something wrong installing the plugs would I have made it another 50,xxx wo any problems?)
Anyway, mechanic said he would put a scope down there to see what kind of damage there was. STILL has not and it’s been about a month now, but whatever. In the meantime I went in to ask for that plug bc I thought maybe they’re still under warranty so maybe it’s help me out. He produced one (wasn’t sure his guy kept it at first) and it did have the end missing but was not the same brand (Bosch) I installed. (So maybe bs-ing me or just honest mistake? Doesn’t matter, I guess, that mystery can be solved my just pulling out one of the other plugs.)
So sorry for the long story. Just wanted to see if anyone here had any suggestions, info, shoulder to cry on lol. I’m kinda really disappointed. I’ve taken pretty good care of the car and I thought the Toyota engine would last forever! And installing those spark plugs was the most “invasive” thing I’ve done to the car mechanically. So again, could just be my fault but I just can’t see the car driving that far if I messed something up. And I did not change the gap in the plugs, I remember reading specifically not to.
Thanks again for any input.