I purchased the car last year in NJ when it had 50,000 miles on it. I drove less than 5,000 miles this past year, including the 1,000 miles trip back home to Iowa City without any problems. The only potential problems I noticed were the bad gas mileage (16mpg in the city), and a slight, noticable gas smell from the exhaust on start-ups.
Yesterday I purchased a drop-in K&N airfilter, and was looking at the fuse box under the hood for the ECU fuse, so that I can reset the ECU after dropping the filter in. I couldn't find an ECU fuse, but more disturbingly I discovered that the small, 7.5A "Injector Fuse" was missing. Upon closer examination, I discovered that one of the metal connectors of that space for the fuse was missing as well.
The guy who sold me the car had said that a family mechanic had been meticulously maintaining all of the family cars. I'm just wondering if the mechanic had rigged my J30 somehow. I have been driving the J30 fine for the past year on a daily basis. And the car shouldn't even run at all without the INJECTOR FUSE, shouldn't it? I would appreciate any advice here. Thank you.
Please Help With My 97 J30
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Q451990
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Interesting... I'd definately check with another car of the same model on the injector fuse issue to see if one is there. The injectors are getting power from somewhere - so it may be a design change on the later J30 vs. earlier models.
As far as your poor gas mileage and smell - I'd lean either toward bad O2 sensors or an injector bleeding down while the car sits.
Heath
As far as your poor gas mileage and smell - I'd lean either toward bad O2 sensors or an injector bleeding down while the car sits.
Heath
Hey! Thanks, Heath. I believed you have helped me before, and I appreciate your help. Can my car be running all this time if the Injector Fuse is not there, or are you saying that the injector is getting it's power source from something else? I looked the car over thoroughly, and there's not a hint of modifications anywhere. Thanks.
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Mayhem_J30
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Alexho, sorry, I misread your first post. I meant that the injector circuit sounds like it's hard-wired, just like you suspect; not the fuel pump.I don't think injector shorts are too common, but it would be nice to have some chance of saving the wiring/ECU if it were to happen. Fuses are a good thing.
I agree with your assessment, Daedalus, which is why I was very disturbed when I saw that it was missing. But I can't test the voltage, because one of the metal clips on the Injector Fuse socket was removed.
I wanted to reset the ECU after dropping in K&N filter for a quicker adaptation. But now that this problem is discovered, do you still suggest I should reset the ECU? Thanks again.
I wanted to reset the ECU after dropping in K&N filter for a quicker adaptation. But now that this problem is discovered, do you still suggest I should reset the ECU? Thanks again.
I don't see how resetting the ECU will cause any problems. It's only if your injector shorts that you will likely have a very bad and expensive day. If the metal clip to the socket was removed, maybe it is spliced together nearby? The only reason I can think of to ever bypass the fuseblock is if there's a hard-to-reach broken wire somewhere. Hopefully whoever did the work wire a fuse in somewhere.
Yeah! I knew about the disconnecting the negative on the battery, but I didn't want to mess with that. I was hoping to take the safer route by removing the ECU fuse, which all five of my previous cars had, but it doesn't seem like my J30 does.
Yes. There are diagrams underneath the fuse boxes, but the ECU fuse is not listed ;-(
Yes. There are diagrams underneath the fuse boxes, but the ECU fuse is not listed ;-(