i have developed a miss,it only seems at idle as car seems to still have power when driving,i checked the spark and its there just looks a bit weak,also when i pulled the plug out it was wet,pretty sure it was fuel,if it was leads wouldnt it miss all the time and not just at idle??any help appreciated

Hi There

A bit more info needed.

What model / engine ???

Unfortunately, a miss at idle could be a simple case of a dirty ISC unit or
one of a dozen other reasons.

Does it blow anything out of exhaust at idle or if you rev at idle ???

Wet spark plug, if fuel, could be leaking injector or insufficient
spark to fully combust mixture.

Pull all spark plugs.
If 1 or 2 look VERY clean compared to the others then it could
be a head gasket starting to go.

If plugs and leads are very old, I'd probably do those first
and go from there.

plugs are new,leads are old,it blows black smoke when you take off up the road when its cold so i am assuming that would be fuel,once it warms up it it seems to blow just a little bit of smoke,its an ed xr6 so its the 4 litre,head was recond about 2 months ago and i have only done about 3000 kays in it,when you crank it,one cylinder sounds as if it has no compression,its freakin me out cos i dont want to have to do rings and bearings yet

Hi There

If the leads need replacing anyway then maybe do that
first. See what happens ( one less thing to worry about )

Who put the head back on ??
Were NEW head bolts used ??

If a workshop did everything, maybe you could take it back
and tell them of your suspicion about a compression loss.
They MAY do a compression check for free.

If you put the head back on, then I would do a compression check,
just to get an idea if things are OK or not.