Fuel injector problems?

[chozo]

About 2 months ago, I bought an '89 240SX Coupe (auto, 90K mi.) which I was very stoked about, being that it's my first car and all. But of course, I started noticing a few problems after a few weeks which has now turned into a very serious problem. The first thing that I noticed was that when the car was stopped or going very slow and I tried to give it gas, the car would sometimes hesitate for a second or two before i started moving. Another thing i noticed was that the rpm's seemed to fluctuate a little when the engine idled. It didn't seem like a problem before, but lately, it's been so bad as to move b/w 500 and 1500 rpms when idle! Now I'm not mechanically inclined by any means, but i know that's not right. The main problem now, though, is the hesitation i mentioned earlier. In the past few weeks, my car has completely died on me twice in the same situations: I'll be stopped at a light, and i'll give it gas on green, the engine will go silent and that's it! The car just dies and I can't start it again until at least a few hours later. I'd really appreciate any help I can get, because I've already had a mechanic look at it and of course it ran fine then and he said he couldn't see anything wrong. He suggested taking it to have some diagnostics done, but I wanted to hear anyone else's insight on this. !!:help !!

[DAEDALUS]

It's hard to diagnose intermittent symptoms like that, but there are a couple simple checks you can do to rule out common causes. The first is the MAF sensor, which is the little box with the harness on it just past the airbox. The harness connection sometimes corrodes and loosens up, and the salt air environment of Hawaii doesn't help. The next time the car is acting up and "hunting", with the RPMs going between 500-1500, pop the hood and just jiggle the connector on the box. If that makes a difference, you'll have to disconnect the harness, clean the terminals carefully with a metal pick, put some dielectric grease on it the pins, and hook it back up.The other thing you can do is check for vacuum leaks on the intake. Listen around the engine bay with the car idling and listen for any hissing/sucking sounds. Get a can of WD-40 and spray a mist of it around all the intake and vacuum hoses. Look for the mist to get sucked into any little cracks, or around seals. If you find any leaks, replace the seal or tighten the clamp.Beyond this, you'll need diagnostic data to help narrow the problem down.

Welcome to NICO from a former Kama'aina!