YA stalling thread

[Yorb]

'92 KA, pretty much stock, pretty high mileage (190k or so), has an oil leak (about 4 qts every 3 months—perfect ), over the past year has slowly gotten progressively worse about stalling at lights and turns and other places where the gas comes off and the clutch goes in. RPM needle "bounces" at idle, very irregularly.

Recently (past month), it's gotten much worse, occasionally stalling entirely at idle, and making it a gas hog to drive because I have to keep it revved whenever im at a light.

What have I tried? I've cleaned the air filter (one of them re-usable joints), and started putting 93 octane in it again (it had been running mostly 87 for a year or so). Searched visually for vacuum leaks, no luck. Ran the ECU diagnostic twice, first time it came up with "fuel injector leak" (!). Second time it came up all okay (55). Visual inspection reveals no external injector leakage...still suspicious of fuel injectors though, so I bought a pressure gauge and, for the heck of it, decided to seafoam the engine first. 1/3 to fuel tank, 1/3 into vacuum. Guess what? PROBLEM FIXED...for about a week...which is about the time I filled the tank again. CLUE?

I'm going to check the fuel pressure this weekend unless someone here can figure out what it might be, based on this. I've searched of course, and while stalling is not exactly an uncommon problem, I think the seafoam-fix is a clue, so I'm posting this in case one of you knows what the clue points to. I sure don't.

Thanks friends. I will keep this updated if I learn anything.

[chang2182]

You could get your fuel injectors cleaned and re-fitted with new washers. I had a problem with injector 1 in my 95 240sx leaking fuel and it caused the car to die at idle as well. I was driving around having to rev my engine all the time because of it.

[rogoman]

You may have leaking fuel injectors. To test them, unbolt the fuel rail from the intake manifold and pull off the entire assembly. Unplug the electrical connectors on the injectors. Keep the fuel hoses still connected and don't remove any individual injectors. With the assembly now away from the intake, turn the ignition key to the run position WITHOUT STARTING THE ENGINE. Now observe each injector to look for leaks. There should be no drips.

[Yorb]

so i finally got around to doing this check today, except i never actually was able to get that far because though I got the bolt below the FPR off after a couple hours, it still wouldnt come off. too many harnesses, plus the FPR has a hose on the other side that was impossible to get to :/

anyway, i left that bolt off when I put it back so when I get back to it it will be sooo much easier ;D

much thanks to vancouverbc for his tutorial on it though.

anyway, during the process i found some cracks in the vacuum hose that goes to the booster. i thought that might be causing my stalling, but when i opened the cracks while the engine was running, it just makes it rev higher. not big enough leaks to cause stalling i don't think. i'll still replace the hose, but i guess im still looking for the source of this problem.

added/recent symptoms and notes: - ugly exhaust (not black, but definitely visible)- decreased fuel economy (not sure by how much, but definitely noticeable)- gas/rich exhaust smell when i turn on the car at first- running the A/C seems to make it stall less? makes sense i guess because the idle rpm is higher with the A/C on, so less chance of stalling.- timing chain makes a ****load of noise sucks because i had it replaced a couple years ago.

any new ideas?

[rogoman]

The motor running rich could still be caused by leaking fuel injectors or maybe the spark plugs are fouled up.