Report from Mark Donovan, a fellow subscriber.

The vehicle was experiencing intermittent poor running. The engine was losing power intermittently and the NRMA diagnosed code44 - ignition coil (Cyl #1& 4).

The car was only running on two cylinders until switched off and restarted. As soon as the key is switched off, and the engine restarted, the problem goes away immediately. The car drives well for 5/10/15 minutes until the fault reoccurs.

The engine was intermittently triggering the check engine lamp and running on two cylinders until the key was cycled. When the car played up, we checked this.

There was a great spark when the fault occurred. Fuel injectors 1& 4 were not being switched at all. The vehicle had done 113,000kms and the timing belt was out of action at 112,000kms.

We checked the crank/cam sensors and tried to replicate the fault by playing/disconnecting them. No luck.

We pulled the top off the timing case cover and inspected the timing belt condition/adjustment. All was OK. There were two coil on plug assemblies, both with spark leads feeding other cylinders.