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View Full Version : Car sounded like a subaru, but wait!


daftphunk
02-23-2012, 07:55 PM
Sup guys, simple enough question.

Today turned my car on after sitting for about two hours. Car sounded like a Subaru, so Im thinking it's only running on three cylinders. Turn it off then back on, sounds the same. Drive down the street and it's back to normal, all 4 cylinders again.

This literally happened 10 minutes ago. Am I looking at a coil pack beginning to go out?

Had this problem last year but it was a bad coil pack and I replaced it and was good to go.

Car has been running strong and fine. Yesterday I put new plugs in, BKR7E and gapped them to 0.028 and drove around and was good to go. Drove 30 miles today, parked and came back out and it happened then disappeared.

Is this a warning sign that a pack could go out anytime now? Or am I looking at something dumb and it just happened randomly?

RyanS13
02-23-2012, 08:06 PM
This happened to me and it was an Injector. Just cut out of nowhere.

daftphunk
02-23-2012, 08:09 PM
Oh yeah forgot about injectors. How can I tell from a clogged vs dead?

RyanS13
02-23-2012, 08:11 PM
Oh yeah forgot about injectors. How can I tell from a clogged vs dead?

I'm not sure how to check if its clogged vs. dead, But I just made sure it had spark, Then I made sure I had compression. When I knew I had spark and compression it had to be fuel, So I just replaced the injector and was good to go.

wangan_cruiser
02-23-2012, 09:21 PM
run a wire directly from the battery to each injector then listen if each one of them makes a clicking sound

AutechKouki
02-23-2012, 11:59 PM
Multimeter. Ohm check each individually, should be around 12.xx to 14.xx ohms. Easy way to know which one is bad is just unplug each injector individually and if it worsens the idle then the injector is fine, if it doesn't change it's bad. Remember to change injector seals whenever you pull injector out.

Taylor008
02-25-2012, 08:45 PM
Make sure you put the coil packs all the way on.

Walperstyle
02-29-2012, 12:46 PM
Once you find out what cylinder isn't firing, try swapping that injector with another cylinder. If the problem follows the injector to the other cylinder, then you know the injector is messed up. Replace it.

conrad_s13.5
02-29-2012, 03:17 PM
same thing happen to me a few times,. the clip on the coil pack harness actually just took a shit,...when i was checking which cylinder was efff'd i could see the clip creating an arc from one pin to the other

so yeah,...check everything

daftphunk
03-05-2012, 06:11 PM
Okay so it ran fine until today, then it went on 3 again. On the way home I got back to 4, then on my way to pick up my fluke meter it went back to 3.

While on three cylinders, I pulled each injector clip, each one changed the idle until I got to injector 4 where it made no change. Is that a sure sign that injector 4 is dead? Or do I have to go pull the coil packs, etc.

And with a fluke meter, I have Ohms, how do I test for resistance? Ground with black and where do I test with the red at? Not too experienced with testing with a meter.

r20crazy
03-05-2012, 10:58 PM
ohms IS resistance. injector 4 is dead. if dead it will read as an open circuit. it should be between 12-14 ohms when putting one lead of multimeter on each injector prong being tested. pull injector clip off and test the injector itself..... but u already know whats wrong, replace injector #4, and have a few spares on hand, when 1 goes out others generally follow as they are the same age usually

Heytheremr2
03-06-2012, 12:56 AM
^then why not replace all 4 if you're gonna buy them all at once?

0danxQ
03-06-2012, 09:50 AM
this happened to me... turned out to be the ecu but id check to see if it's just a bad ground. make sure you check ecu---injector very important

Blues13
03-07-2012, 02:02 AM
Happened to me as well. Unplugged each injector one at a time, found dead injector and then swapped it with another cylinder to double check. Replaced injector and all was good. You can have them all serviced, flow tested and balanced to make sure they're running within limits after you get your replacement.

conrad_s13.5
03-07-2012, 08:25 AM
it does NOT mean the injector is dead,.. it just means cylinder 4 is the problem. Could be injector, could be coil pack, could be spark plug.

the off and on again-ness,...i would imagine its a loose connection or a coil pack taking a shit.

pull a coil pack off another cylinder and put it at number 4. See if number 4 is still the problem. While your doing this, check the coil harness clip

Blues13
03-07-2012, 10:46 AM
it does NOT mean the injector is dead,..

Please explain why it would not be injector #4 if he swaps that injector to cyl 3 and the problem follows to that cyl? Obviously, if cyl 4 still has the problem after swapping, than he can start checking the ignition/coilpacks. Best to check one system at a time.

redline racer510
03-07-2012, 10:49 AM
You sure you don't have a ej25 in their.

axiomatik
03-07-2012, 10:53 AM
Please explain why it would not be injector #4 if he swaps that injector to cyl 3 and the problem follows to that cyl? Obviously, if cyl 4 still has the problem after swapping, than he can start checking the ignition/coilpacks. Best to check one system at a time.

He is replying to the OP's question, not your post. Indeed, if you swap injectors and the problem follows the injector, then the injector is the problem. Ohming out the injector isn't reliable a reliable test. When one of my injectors died, the bad one ohmed out fine, but it was stuck open.

daftphunk
03-07-2012, 02:42 PM
So I'm back. The car ran fine up until now and had no more 3 cylinder problems until the other day. Unplugged injector to cylinder 4 and it made no change to the idle. I went ahead and got a different injector from one of my buddies. Put it in and started the car up - no change. Still injector 4.

I went ahead and checked coil packs, moved them around, still cylinder 4 was not firing.

I haven't had to check for spark before so I'm going to try and do that. I do know that when removing and replacing coil packs, there's a clicking sound inside the cylinder.

So I know the coil pack is not at fault. I'm gonna see if the connector is the problem next. Hopefully not.

I could still have a dead injector, I'm going to go and remove/replace and see if it follows the injector too.

What else could I potentially be facing?

Might I add I turned the car on one day and was on three cylinders. I had to get home so I drove about 10 miles and was back on all 4 and it got me home. After parking for a bit I was back on 3 cylinders.

All help is appreciated! Need to get this car moving.

Edit: cylinder 4 is getting spark. So must be another dead injector?

cbt240sx
03-07-2012, 04:38 PM
I am going through the same thing currently with my 1990 KA24e.... kinda stumped. I made my own thread before I saw this one, but there is some good info in here. Ill try to hard wire test the injector to the battery like wangan cruiser suggested. (sorry to thread-jack, jack!)

http://zilvia.net/f/s-chassis/440043-ka24e-2-cylinder-dead.html#post4565032

daftphunk
03-07-2012, 04:58 PM
My problem is solved, thanks everyone.

My injector was dead. Replaced it with another dead injector, lol.
Replaced it with a working one now and I'm good to go!

I moved the injector and the problem followed it.

Thanks for all the good info