Hi All,

My '96 2.0liter 4x4 Sportage with 55,000 miles is running on 3 cylinders. Dealer says a valve is leaking causing the plug to foul with oil and not fire. Dealer wants $2,500.00 to repair.
I decided to take a look and found plug 3 loose, not even finger-tight after dealer had car. Plug is sooty, not oily like I expected based on dealer's description.

Can you help me troubleshoot please? I don't want to remove the head and replace/reseat valves if the problem is electrical. I don't want to touch the electrical and potentially damage it if the problem is mechanical.
Is there a way to prove that the plug is firing? I was thinking of removing the plug, holding it to earth and seeing if it sparks when I turn the engine over.
The ignition coils and plug wires were replaced last year when engine ran on 3 cylinders after a rain storm. I noticed a little oil near plugs 3 and 4, but I don't believe enough to cause mis-fire problems that I've read about from others.
Is there a way to prove that a valve is leaking? I was thinking of a compression test, but don't want to spend money on a compression tester from AutoZone if it will not correctly diagnose the problem.

Do you perhaps have a soft copy of the technical manual for the '96 2.0litre Sportage 4x4 please? I have been using kiatechinfo.com but would prefer something that I can more easily search. If so, please send to me at kia@GoVIRTUAL360.com [large files are not a problem]

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Patrick
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