Skipping Question

[thadley01]

Guys I am in need of help. I have a 2000 Xterra, that is skipping. It has had full tune up including plug wires. 6000 miles later skipping begins. I change fuel filter,still skipping, change dist. and rotar button, same. The driver bank exhaust turns red. I assume clogged catalyitic converter, nope. The mass airflow will cut engine off if unplugged, so I assume its not that. Any Ideas?

[Q451990]

Welcome to NICO! Do you have any ECU codes - e.g. is your "check engine" light on? Were all of the parts used OEM? Which engine do you have, 4cyl or 6?

Heath

[dvdswan]

check the TPS

[thadley01]

There were no codes in the begining. Once I unpluged the Mass air thats when the light came on. Its a v-6 3.3

[seang]

The driver bank exhaust turns red.

Is that supposed to happen? I mean, I have seen videos of full throttle dyno runs where that glows red; but yours is only on one side? It is like there are injectors that are running lean and raising the EGT. I'm not sure, just a shot in the dark. Hopefully you don't have a burned valve.

[thadley01]

The exhaust turned red while idleing during trouble shooting. I was told that my fuel pump may be going bad and not having proper pressure. It cranks fine and idles fine. Once you give it fuel is when it skips.

[seang]

So what they said is that it is going lean from not having enough pressure, and that is what is causing the high EGT's; this makes sense, but why isn't the same thing happening to the other side? All the injectors are fed from the same circuit, right?

You should pull the spark plugs and read them, they can indicate what is going on in each cylinder. Here is a chart: http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/t...d.asp And while they are out you can check all the gaps (if they are gapable).

[jdansmith]

I suspect a lean mix, this will burn a exhaust valve real quick. Pull the plugs a read them. Is it red closer to the block or the down pipe?

[thadley01]

The pipe is closer to the block where it is turning red. I pulled plug wires, there is very little spark. It acts as though it is only running on 2 cylinders. After checking spark I pulled wires 1 by 1. It only got worse with 2 wires.

[seang]

I meant to say to unscrew the spark plugs out of the head and read them, not just check the wires against the block for a spark.
Modified by seang at 8:13 PM 3/27/2010