I have a 2000 crown victoria n my check engine light came on and I got it read and it says cylinder 3 misfire. What could it be.

i would check compression make sure you dont have a bad cylinder then wire by wire find the bad cylinder then either bad plug or wire

If the CEL is flashing, the cause of this feeling is undoubtedly an engine misfire. On a Crown Victoria, the CEL only begins to flash when a misfire is detected. Too much misfiring can damage the catalytic converter. This is a warning designed to avoid said damage.

Engine Misfire diagnosis can be complex and there are many reasons for misfires to occur. I suggest you read the article at this link that deals with engine misfires and the diagnosis of them and possible solutions to repair them.

you can drive it but it will damage your catalyst system, that is why the klight flashes to let you know other problems can develop. the car being a 2002 it has a misfire monitor in the computer. go to a local parts house and have them scan for misfire codes to see which cylinder is misfiring. make sure you check the intake at the #5 cylinder (which is the first one on the left side of the engine)to see if it is getting coolant in it from the intake leaking at the thermostat housing.

not only did the problem switch cylinders, it switched banks. cylinders 5&6 are on the drivers side and 4 is on the passenger side. i would recheck all wires to make sure you have the correctly installed.

cylinder locaton
2 8
dr. 8 7 6 5 7 4 coil

pass. 4 3 2 1 3 5
6 1 coil

your egr on that side is dirty try cleaning it aslo check intake boltsaround those clyinders.

make sure no fuel is down in the spark plug ports it will short out the spark

first cylinder 4 is the last on the passenger side . first pull the coil out and check if there is water where the plug is. if there is take the water out and dry up the coil. if you find water you got a crack manifold or a bad intake manifold gasket. if there is no water replace the coil. good luck

Before you do that, check which thermostat it has in it, if it has one that is letting it get too warm or not completely up to temp when the computer think it should be, it would cause this. My 2000 crown vic did the same thing and thats what it was.

I had a problem with a chevy with random misffires on all cylinders. It was the computer. Fords have very few problems with there computers. Does the check engine come on? Maybe have it scanned.