Engine Trouble - rough running all of a sudden

[cmkelly]

Greetings all,

I took the car out today and on the way back I fired her up and I barely made it back home. Ran rough like a cylinder was not firing. I pulled each spark plug with the engine idling and no change when I pulled plug #2 (2nd closest to the radiator). Big change when I pulled all the others. So it’s something with cylinder #2.

I changed the sparkplug with #1 but got the same result. So my question - what would cause such a sudden change? I feel like if it were valves or pistons it would have gotten worse gradually. When I pulled the plug wire from #2 I could hear an intermittent ticking. The oil looks fine and there was an odor of fuel with the plug wire out.

Injector perhaps? Are they interchangable with each other?

Thanks guys. This is NOT the way I wanted to generate more traffic to the vert section.

[krash]

That ticking you heard was probably the spark flying all over the place from the spark plug wires. If the spark plug was fine, check the injector. They are interchangeable from one cylinder to another. Also try spark plug wires, distributor cap, distributor rotor, and if all else fails, the ECU. I know the ECU thing sounds weird, but it work on my sister's car, which had the same problem as yours. I read that some chip in the ECU can get corroded or something, and it has fuel maps in it. But try that after you've exhausted all other options. Heck, if that IS the problem, you can have my old ECU, its just taking up space.

[cmkelly]

The plugs and wires are both fairly new, iridium NGKs and those silly blue NGK plug wires. They should last the life of the car. I also replaced the distributor cap and rotor at the same time so I don't think it's one of those but who knows. I kept all the old stuff so I could swap things around to rule them out.

As for the ECU, I'll find out where it lives and see how it looks.

Thanks!

[krash]

Then I'd check the injectors. Swap one from a working cylinder and see if the problem goes to that cylinder. The ECU lives in the passenger side-kick panel. But that one's really a gamble.

[94_240sx]

Don't swap the injectors. You will mostly likely destory them when you take them out. Get a used injetor from 240sx or Altima and replace. Get new o-rings too. I know your car runs like crap and you are worried, but don't worry. Most likely, that should fix it. I've replaced 3 of them on mine already.

[-RJ-]

I'll agree with 94_240sx as well, it sounds like a dead injector. I had gone through three already. I also got some spares if you don't live near a junkyard I can give to you cheap.

[cmkelly]

I'm seeing around $50 for re-manufactured ones and more than a $115 for new. My car's got 123,000 miles on it. What's the likelihood that they will all start to fail one-by-one? It's literally 101 degrees today and this weekend's likely to be hot too. I'd rather just work in my garage rather than rooting around in a junkyard.

Thanks guys!

[krash]

If they've never been changed? probably sometime in the near future. My sister's car had about 127 on it when they started blowing out. I changed 3 of them all together

[Eikon]

Yes, sounds like a clogged or dead fuel injector.
Still have the KA right? You didn't swap to an SR?

You could try to run some fuel injector cleaner through to see if it's a simple clog that can be remedied easily.

I've taken out injectors and swapped them to other cylinders without problem. You might hit a nissan dealership and get replacement o-rings and replace those as you do it. Personally, I would try removing and cleaning before dropping the cash on a new one. That's just me..
As long as you're working on your fuel system, you might as well swap the fuel filter.

[cmkelly]

They are all original - as far as I can tell. I bought the car with 89,000 miles on it 5 years ago and have not had to do much work on her.

I'll try the fuel injection cleaner first but what's the thought on re-manufactured versus new?

[-RJ-]

I'm seeing around $50 for re-manufactured ones and more than a $115 for new. My car's got 123,000 miles on it. What's the likelihood that they will all start to fail one-by-one? It's literally 101 degrees today and this weekend's likely to be hot too. I'd rather just work in my garage rather than rooting around in a junkyard.

Thanks guys!

My car had 130k miles when they started going out. They all died within a week of each other

[krash]

I'll try the fuel injection cleaner first but what's the thought on re-manufactured versus new?

I don't see the problem with going for re-manufactured. Some places do warranties and stuff on them, so if you're nervous see if its under warranty.

[-RJ-]

Rockauto has manufactured injectors for sale for $50 with core and it comes with a one year warranty. Brand is BECK/ARNLEY

[cmkelly]

Thanks guys. I bought a new fuel injector from AutoZone last night and just put it in - the car runs great. I'll likely buy another one in the next month or so to have on had and from what I'm hearing here will probably end up replacing them all before too long.

I mangled the old one taking it out so I'm sure there's a better way. I read all the posts on not using vice-grips and using a big screwdriver but that didn't work for me.

Anyway, thanks again for the help.

[94_240sx]

Glad to hear that you fixed it. My car had 120k-130k when Injectors went bad. I'm waiting on the last one to go out and of course I have a spare to put in. This is the trick BTW.

when removing the ka24de injectors, twist them so the little side grove is facing the head gasket. put a flat head in it, and another screwdriver between the head gasket and the injector and push down using the screwdriver thats inside the grove for leverage.

My last new injector that I bought from Courtesy Nissan was not a 240 KA injector. Nissan discontinued 240 KA injectors and replaced with Altima's. They look slightly different, but fits and works perfectly.

[cmkelly]

I'll try that trick next time. Yeah, mine looked different too but I figure Nissan's 2.4L engine has been in everything and there were bound to be ones that worked out there. Thankfully mine does now!