91 240sx oil problems

[tigerfan]

Hello. I have a 91 240sx. I love this car. She's a lot of fun she has been really good to me over the years. But lately the poor thing has just started to fall apart on me.

It all started a couple of months ago when she started misfiring and blowing some white smoke out of the exhaust. I took her to the mechanic and he diagnosed her with a bad fuel injector. I also had to replace all the spark plugs and wires (the wires had melted a little because the motor was shaking so violently, the wires were hitting the hood), distributor, rotor and all that other good stuff. Basically a nice tune up.

He fixed it and all was well for about a week. Then I started having the same problem again. I took it back and the mechanic said yet another fuel injector had gone bad. So I opted to replace them all. Once the mechanic replaced them all and started her up, she started blowing O rings. The mechanic fixed those and then it wouldn't start at all. The mechanic then puts in a new starter, which by the way, now grinds most of the time when I start the car.

After all of that and $1,500 in mechanic bills the damn battery cable died and I had to replace that too. No charge on that one.

All of that said, the gremlin living inside of my car is still alive and kicking. This past couple of weeks she started leaking oil, a fairly good amount of it, though I don't know exactly where from. There's plenty of leaking out all underneath the motor, but most disturbing is the oil coming out of the exhaust pipe. Have I blown a head gasket too? She has not overheated at all.

Also recently she has been getting the shakes really bad, spuratically, but usually at lower speeds. I have to slow down and let go of the steering wheel to get the shakes to go away. I don't know whats up with that. Maybe a tire (although they're pretty new) or alignment?

I've had so much trouble with her lately, but I don't want to give up on her. Would it behoove me to just bite the bullet and put a new motor in her or keep having piece after piece fixed? Does anybody have any idea what is up with this car and why so many problems at once?

[leonelrr]

Well one thing can lead to another sometimes.. The rest well depends the mileage.

In my opinion at this point your best bet will be to get a compression test, to see how the cylinders are doing.

A compression gauge can be had for around 30-40 bucks at sears wallmart or etc..

The shaking could be many things, vac leak, bad timing, a bad injector, bad compression or no spark in one of the cylinders..

Another smart thing for you to do is to get your hands on a Haynes Manual or chiltons and give it a read so you can start understanding how everything works and maybe do the work your self? Or at leat have the knowledge so you don't get ripped...

[alex4]

Yeah, I would recommend doing your own work. "The mechanic" this, "the mechanic" that. 99% of the time, mechanics don't give a !@#$ about your car, they just want to get paid. You care about your car 100% of the time. Plus doing all your own work is fun and rewarding, and you can use high grade parts rather than cheapo stuff. The fact that a newly installed starter is grinding should tell you something about the work they are doing.

How many miles are on the engine? On the fuel injectors, yeah, that's normal. My last DOHC did the exact same thing. I replaced one injector, then the other three, then O-rings. Don't hate your engine just for that. Although, it sounds like maybe some head work is imminent with all those oil issues... Any news from a compression tester?Here is how you do it if you still haven't bought a manual http://www.nicoclub.com/articles.php?id=159838

[tigerfan]

You know I really wish I could work on it myself. I can change the oil and the tires and do a tune up - that's it. I'm just so intimidated the mechanical things, worried about breaking it more. I'm a nerd (computer programmer) and a girl (not really a good excuse there). I did get a manual and it does make it less intimidating. I may take a crack at it, but definitely not on the head. That's no place to start if you're a newbie for sure! There is no doubt in my mind she needs head work. I'm just hoping that will be the end of it for a while. Still not sure if I should just replace the engine or not.

Well, she goes in for inspection on Friday, compression test included. These past couple of weeks have just been a blur so now I'm finally getting some time to get her taken care of. I've decided to take it to my mechanic that I have known and trusted for years even though he's always harrassing me about my foreign cars (ha ha - my 240 is way cooler than his stupid pickup truck any day!). Maybe I'll have better luck. Not saying anything bad about the guys that worked on it last time, but I don't want to take any chances of having a repeat of the last repair fiasco that I told you about earlier. I know **** happens, but that was my first experience with that mechanic, kinda a bummer. I only changed mechanics because I moved to the other side of town and didn't want to break down on the way to my old mechanic.

She has 269,000 miles on her - yep that's right. She's been a great car and I definitely got my $1500 worth (that I paid for her ten years ago) out of her - and more. I think she may still have a few more left in her yet. I'll keep you posted. Thanks guys.

[leonelrr]

Good luck to you, but i'll tell you one thing.. If you can understand C++, Visual basic, and all that sht you can definitely understand cars..It just takes time like everything else..

As far as the rest goes, if it comes up to expensive you can always get another motor with low mileage. I've seen some here in cali for around 500-700 bucks with low mileage since lots of kids do the sr20det swap..

Keep us posted..