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Please help. 91 nissan maxima GXE engine miss



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 26th 05, 07:05 PM
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Default Please help. 91 nissan maxima GXE engine miss

Hey everyone,

First of all, sorry for the cross posting but I believe it's relevant
in all groups posted to. I have a 91 nissan maxima GXE with 190k, V6,
5sp. This car has driven great until 2 days ago. All of a sudden
(literally overnight)it developed a miss that is noticeable throughout
the entire RPM range. Car ran great Friday and then Saturday when I
started it, the miss was noticeable. The idle is down to about 600 vs
800 it was before and power is down. I checked the plugs, wires, cap
and rotor and they all look good. They are about 2 years old with
roughly 15k on them. The miss seems worse when the engine is cold. I
can't see any wires arcing and have verified that there is spark at
every wire using a timing light. The check engine light is not lit.
The car shakes mildly at idle and has kind of a pfft pfft sound at the
exhaust pipe. Anyone have any ideas on what else to check? I am at a
loss and need to get her running right again asap.

Thanks in advance

Derek

Ads
  #2  
Old June 26th 05, 11:43 PM
Chris H
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Could be a bad fuel injector, or much worse- a burnt valve. If it's not
ignition-related, it's either fuel or mechanical. You'll need to narrow it
down to one cylinder if you can. If not one offending cylinder, could be a
bad O2 sensor. Others here will probably offer more accurate diagnoses, but
that's where I would start.
Good luck.

Chris
90 & 94 GXE's


  #3  
Old June 27th 05, 12:49 AM
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Chris,

Thanks for the quick info. Do you have any suggestions on how to
narrow this down without throwing random parts at it? I did unplug the
battery for 30 mins, reconnected and same issue. I suspect something
electrical as the vehicle literally developed this problem overnight
while parked. Thanks again for the input.

Derek

Chris H wrote:
> Could be a bad fuel injector, or much worse- a burnt valve. If it's not
> ignition-related, it's either fuel or mechanical. You'll need to narrow it
> down to one cylinder if you can. If not one offending cylinder, could be a
> bad O2 sensor. Others here will probably offer more accurate diagnoses, but
> that's where I would start.
> Good luck.
>
> Chris
> 90 & 94 GXE's


  #4  
Old June 27th 05, 03:51 AM
njmodi
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If one cylinder is not working (either because of fuel or spark for
example) you could run the car and pull the spark plug wires for each
cylinder one at a time - when you unplug the bad cylinder - the engine
should not run any differently. Once you have figured out which
cylinder is not firing, you can diagnose further.

As an aside, you can get a piece of rubber tubing or a long screwdriver
and use it as a stethescope to listen to each injector - you should
hear distinct clicking for each injector pulse... see if find a dead
injector. You can confirm that cylinder is indeed dead with the method
I described above.

Cheers
Nirav
96 Max GLE, 118k

  #5  
Old June 27th 05, 04:31 AM
Bill G
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Default


> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hey everyone,
>
> First of all, sorry for the cross posting but I believe it's relevant
> in all groups posted to. I have a 91 nissan maxima GXE with 190k, V6,
> 5sp. This car has driven great until 2 days ago. All of a sudden
> (literally overnight)it developed a miss that is noticeable throughout
> the entire RPM range. Car ran great Friday and then Saturday when I
> started it, the miss was noticeable. The idle is down to about 600 vs
> 800 it was before and power is down. I checked the plugs, wires, cap
> and rotor and they all look good. They are about 2 years old with
> roughly 15k on them. The miss seems worse when the engine is cold. I
> can't see any wires arcing and have verified that there is spark at
> every wire using a timing light. The check engine light is not lit.
> The car shakes mildly at idle and has kind of a pfft pfft sound at the
> exhaust pipe. Anyone have any ideas on what else to check? I am at a
> loss and need to get her running right again asap.


How old is the fuel filter? Replace it if it's old. Since you have spark
at each plug, the other necessities are fuel and air. Check the air filter,
and then check the injectors.

You can use a piece of rubber hose to listen to each cylinder as the engine
runs, and each injector should make a "pfft pfft" sound. Another test is to
unplug each injector (engine off) and put an ohm meter across the two leads.
I don't know what it should read, but they should all be the same. If one
is wildly different, it's probably bad. But, you should have a Check Engine
light if one of the injectors has failed. You could also unplug each
injector and see if the car's performance changes. If one is bad, and you
pull another cable, you'll probably stall the car.


Bill G
'91 SE Auto


>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Derek
>



  #6  
Old June 27th 05, 04:47 AM
Chris H
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Ok, it sounds like one cylinder is not igniting properly. If the pfft pfft
sound is pretty regular like it's the same cylinder, then it must be
ignition or fuel injector to that cylinder. Pull each spark plug wire and
note the wire that does not change the misfire characteristic. That's the
one you need to completely diagnose. Pull the spark plug, check resistance
to that wire, check the distributor cap for cracks, contact points for pits,
any moisture inside of dist cap and any dirt particles in the Crank Angle
Sensor disk inside the distributor. If there's any moisture in the dist
cap, replace it and the rotor cap. (Both my Max's had cracks in the dist
caps which allowed moisture in. They were REALLY old, but your's still could
have a defect, so check them anyway.)
Also, check the fuel injector wires to make sure there are no cracked or
loose connections to the fuel injectors. That would definitely cause a
regular misfire. Did you wash your engine compartment or did it rain last
night? Water and moisture
can cause a short in the ignition by allowing the spark to jump to ground,
and moisture in the dist cap will also cause a short.


Chris
90 & 94 GXE's


  #7  
Old June 28th 05, 04:11 PM
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Posts: n/a
Default

<top post>

Thanks to everyone who replied. Mysteriously the miss is gone and the
car runs good now. No idea what caused it. Friday it was fine, Sat &
Sun had a miss, Monday was fine. I imagine some moisture might have
been somewhere it wasn't supposed to be and when it dried out, it was
fine. I am going to throw a new cap, rotor, plugs, wires and fuel
filter just as preventative maintenance since I have no idea how old
they are. Thanks again to all who replied.

Derek

Bill G wrote:
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > Hey everyone,
> >
> > First of all, sorry for the cross posting but I believe it's relevant
> > in all groups posted to. I have a 91 nissan maxima GXE with 190k, V6,
> > 5sp. This car has driven great until 2 days ago. All of a sudden
> > (literally overnight)it developed a miss that is noticeable throughout
> > the entire RPM range. Car ran great Friday and then Saturday when I
> > started it, the miss was noticeable. The idle is down to about 600 vs
> > 800 it was before and power is down. I checked the plugs, wires, cap
> > and rotor and they all look good. They are about 2 years old with
> > roughly 15k on them. The miss seems worse when the engine is cold. I
> > can't see any wires arcing and have verified that there is spark at
> > every wire using a timing light. The check engine light is not lit.
> > The car shakes mildly at idle and has kind of a pfft pfft sound at the
> > exhaust pipe. Anyone have any ideas on what else to check? I am at a
> > loss and need to get her running right again asap.

>
> How old is the fuel filter? Replace it if it's old. Since you have spark
> at each plug, the other necessities are fuel and air. Check the air filter,
> and then check the injectors.
>
> You can use a piece of rubber hose to listen to each cylinder as the engine
> runs, and each injector should make a "pfft pfft" sound. Another test is to
> unplug each injector (engine off) and put an ohm meter across the two leads.
> I don't know what it should read, but they should all be the same. If one
> is wildly different, it's probably bad. But, you should have a Check Engine
> light if one of the injectors has failed. You could also unplug each
> injector and see if the car's performance changes. If one is bad, and you
> pull another cable, you'll probably stall the car.
>
>
> Bill G
> '91 SE Auto
>
>
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
> > Derek
> >


 




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