[Capital Punishment]

124,700 miles and my first problem.

I even drove the car home under its own power!

Part of this is quoted from the chatroom, so please excuse the broken english. I dont feel like typing it again.

while i was driving on the highway,
the check engine light started flashing
i took the nearest exit and pulled over.
The car sounded like a motorcycle (Especially with the flowmasters...)
sounded like i was on 2 or 3 cylinders. It also ran extremely rough, barely keeping its idle.
I started messin around with things, checkin connections and whatnot. All the while the check engine light keeps flashing.
I think its the fuel injectors
i dont think some of them are getting any voltage
i pulled the 3 electrical plugs on the front 3 injectors
the way the car ran didnt change for 2 of them
and it ran worse when i pulled one of them
so i limped home and here i am.

So what do yall think happened? I had no warning, it was just all of a sudden. The car ran slightly sluggish just prior to the check engine light flashing. Also worth noting, theres alot of black soot coming out of the exhaust now. And my other question is, what controls the injectors? Do you think 3 or so injectors could just up and quit working at the same time?

 

[Capital Punishment]

*Bump*

I'd really appreciate any help yall can give me. I sorta really need my car tommorow night.

 

[sixfofalcon]

If the cylinder isn't getting a spark, the PCM shuts off the injector for that cylinder. So, just because the injector isn't doing anything, it doesn't mean that the problem is with the injector itself. That's about all I can tell you. Get the codes scanned.

 

[Capital Punishment]

Originally posted by SixFoFalcon@Jan 9 2004, 10:50 PM
If the cylinder isn't getting a spark, the PCM shuts off the injector for that cylinder. So, just because the injector isn't doing anything, it doesn't mean that the problem is with the injector itself. That's about all I can tell you. Get the codes scanned.

Its getting spark.

Gonna get the codes scanned tommorow.

 

[zeptoplix]

I would just check the plugs/wires. It sounds more like 1 or 2 of your plugs are just not pluggd in correctly. I did this quite a bit because well I tend to be a knob at times. You think your car sounded loud like that? You shoulda heard my car with nothing except a cherry bomb. eek.

 

[-qaz-]

I guess one more posibility is that some of your injectors got clogged and can no longer 'inject'. If you know it has a spark and you know injectors have a voltage... guess what that tells ya? on the other hand if this is a vulcan those 14# injectors suck anyway. You might be able to clean them and put them back in but I'd get new ones since its a PITA to change them from what i heard. (didnt need to change one yet 163k so far so good).

 

[saerandy]

What you're describing is a lot like what I went through with my '97 when the camshaft postion sensor went out. All the same symptoms you describe.

But --- I din't have any black soot coming from the tailpipe. That doesn't dound good.

 

[Racer X]

Black soot = unburned fuel.

Sounds to me like an ignition problem, aka no spark at 1 or more cylinders. Coil pack died maybe?

 

[Bob Gervais]

We need codes to diagnose, that's why the light's there.

 

[Capital Punishment]

QUOTE

I would just check the plugs/wires. It sounds more like 1 or 2 of your plugs are just not pluggd in correctly.[/b]

Checked the front 3 any theyre fine.

QUOTE

I guess one more posibility is that some of your injectors got clogged and can no longer 'inject'. If you know it has a spark and you know injectors have a voltage... guess what that tells ya?[/b]

2 of the front injectors arent getting any voltage.

QUOTE

Sounds to me like an ignition problem, aka no spark at 1 or more cylinders. Coil pack died maybe?[/b]

At first, thats what i thought too, because thats what it felt like. Then we started pulling the electrical connectors to the fuel injectors and realised the engine tone wasnt changing any when we pulled two of the fronts. The engine ran worse when we pulled one of them, which i guess was one that was still working/getting voltage.

QUOTE

We need codes to diagnose, that's why the light's there.[/b]

While i was limping it home, i stopped at autozone, but it was too late. They said they didnt read codes that late at night.

 

[Bob Gervais]

Then it's pretty much useless to try to diagnose now. When you get the codes, we'll be able to better determine what the problem is.

As far as the injector voltage, how did you check it? Read above, if there is a misfire detected (ignition), that injector will not fire. So, if there's a bad plug wire, etc, it could be causing the injector not to fire.

 

[Capital Punishment]

Originally posted by Bob Gervais@Jan 10 2004, 09:30 AM
Then it's pretty much useless to try to diagnose now. When you get the codes, we'll be able to better determine what the problem is.

As far as the injector voltage, how did you check it? Read above, if there is a misfire detected (ignition), that injector will not fire. So, if there's a bad plug wire, etc, it could be causing the injector not to fire.

Yea...

as far as how we checked the voltage, all we did is pull the electrical connectors to the fuel injectors on the fuel rail one by one.

And we pulled the 3 front plugs to, theyre getting spark...

I called autozone and they said they cant read codes untill more people get in around 1-2 oclock.

Anywhere else that reads them?

 

[Bob Gervais]

I remember another chain store that me and Dan Thomas went to down there--Advance Auto maybe?

 

[Capital Punishment]

The code turns out to be a cylinder 3 misfire. Looks like it might be my cars way of telling me it needs new spark plugs and wires.

Turns out this isnt my cars first problem after all, my car is still flawless.

Gonna change all the plugs and wires right now ourself. And just for the record, its 10 degrees outside, and we dont have a garage.

Be back in an hour or so.

 

[Capital Punishment]

I spoke too soon. It wasnt the spark plugs or the wires, allthough i noticed that the #3 cylinder plug was fouled. Gonna take it into pep boys and let them handle it.

Looks to be something with the fuel injector.

 

[Bob Gervais]

Did you check the resistance on the wires? The plug's fouled--carbon, fuel or oil?

Pep Boys??? Man are you nuts? I'd let Tman work on my car before I took it there!

 

[Tman]

Originally posted by Bob Gervais@Jan 10 2004, 07:09 PM
Did you check the resistance on the wires? The plug's fouled--carbon, fuel or oil?

Pep Boys??? Man are you nuts? I'd let Tman work on my car before I took it there!

what in the hell is that supposed to mean BOB!!!

.....and i can fix stuff....i do it all the time but doesn't mean i don't mess up or don't know what i am doing sometimes...geez with friends like this who needs enemies

 

[Capital Punishment]

Originally posted by Bob Gervais@Jan 10 2004, 07:09 PM
Did you check the resistance on the wires? The plug's fouled--carbon, fuel or oil?

Pep Boys??? Man are you nuts? I'd let Tman work on my car before I took it there!

No, i didnt check the resistance. And i dont know what the plugs fouled with, but it isnt oil. Its just blacker than the rest of the plugs, i guess because of fuel.

That comment made me laugh.

My dads just biased towards pep boys, and they have seem to done at least decent work in the past.

And with their diagnostic, we know theyll fix the right thing.
Any suggestions/comments?

 

[Bob Gervais]

The plug is carbon fouled, which usually results from weak spark. A bad injector that's not firing will cause a lean condition in that cylinder, and the plug will look glazed or burned, much different from fouled.

My suggestion-check the resistance of the plug wires with a volt/ohm meter. There should not be more than 5k ohms/foot resistance. If there is, it's time for replacement.

I was half kidding about Pep Boys. Obviously, different stores can be good, just the ones around here are packed with employees that got dropped off by the short bus.

 

[Capital Punishment]

Originally posted by Bob Gervais@Jan 11 2004, 05:36 AM
The plug is carbon fouled, which usually results from weak spark. A bad injector that's not firing will cause a lean condition in that cylinder, and the plug will look glazed or burned, much different from fouled.

My suggestion-check the resistance of the plug wires with a volt/ohm meter. There should not be more than 5k ohms/foot resistance. If there is, it's time for replacement.

I was half kidding about Pep Boys. Obviously, different stores can be good, just the ones around here are packed with employees that got dropped off by the short bus.

We replaced all the plug wires.