Hi all,

Yesterday I used my Compustar remote starter to start my Acura CSX (8th gen Civic with a non-performance K20 motor in Canada). After the car started, the Compustar alarm siren went off like crazy and the whole block could hear it. Then I got inside the car and it smelled of gasoline and gave me a P0301 cylinder one misfiring code. So I turned off the car and rushed inside to grab my spare spark plugs and ignition coils and switched them out. (On a side note if you have a 2006-2012 Civic Si you'd know it's a pain to pull the spark plugs lol, gotta move that stupid wind shield cowl out of the way). So I switched the parts and there was indeed misfire in that cylinder. That spark plug I pulled smelled of gasoline. Then when I started the car again, the problem was still there. At this point I asked my mechanic friend what could be wrong. He told me to disconnect the battery and leave it overnight to see if it gets better tomorrow. By the way that stupid alarm would begin screaming as soon as I turned my key. 

Fast forward to today, I reconnected the battery and the aftermarket alarm did not scream. I started the car and there was a bit of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe but it seemed to be running better. I turned off the engine, cleared the code and let it run until it reached operating temperature, also revving it from time to time and it did not hesitate. The misfiring code did not come back, nor could I feel any misfire. And no more white smoke from the tail pipe. For now the problem seems to have gone away. 

My theory is that the remote starter somehow messed up the electrical signals and cut off electricity supply to the ignition coil of cylinder one. 

So my question is can a aftermarket remote starter cause an engine to misfire, or based on what I described, could you think of other reasons that may have caused the problem?

Thanks,

Paul