I’m back at it this morning. I’m rolling out the cats as there is plenty of exhaust pressure and I repaired the exhaust leak this morning. Also if it was the cat I would believe all cylinders would have gone to shit.
I took all the plugs out of the cylinders today and while the weren’t soaked with gas all you could smell was gas from cylinders 123. Cylinder 4 was perfectly fine and its plug seemed clean and new. Cylinders 1-3 plugs were black with carbon. I’m thinking its the coil. Any way to test without taking the leap and buying a new one to see if thats the problem?
An easy way to see if its your coolant temp sensor is use a code reader, it will tell you if your car is in open or closed loop and you can either eliminate that or find out that’s the problem.
I would be shocked if you had 3 leaky injectors at the same time. And it doesn’t sound like a coil issue to me.
temp guage reads normal. but I am told that the guage actually runs off a different sensor. I have read all about the ECTS but usually that goes slowly and you get bad gas mileage. We just took the car to burlington vt saturday and i tracked 27mpg.
The scanner I have does tell open or closed loop and I definitely dont want to drive the car anywhere
my scanner will give me codes, pending codes, MIL and ready status
Yes it has 2 separate sensors, one for the AFR and one for the guage, I actually have both of them (spares) brand new if you want to try the one out? Also just let the car warm up then check to see what loop you are in, did you mean your scanner does or doesn’t read that? If not mine does, if you need a hand let me know and I can swing over tonight, as long as you dont live terrible far away!
Tell us what the codes are. Also remember that codes are not always a definite problem but point you in a direction.
Make sure your PVC valve is in good shape, Its probably not the problem but it caused a misfire in my Ranger with carbon build up due to so much oil in the intake.
usually the coolant temp sensor data does not affect AFR that much. The computer uses coolant temp vs intake temp vs MAF to calculate the temperature of actual intake charge. At low engine speed the intake air temp will be closer to coolant temp where at high speed or greater airflow the intake air temp will be closer to the values given by the IAT sensor. These calculations have a small impact on commanded AFR but the CTS itself usually has a greater affect on final ignition timing.
Ok i got desperate so I tried something. I swapped the non fouled plug from cylinder 4 to cylinder 2 and sapped the cylinder 4 plug wire to cylinder two. so the firing order was fucked up but cylinder two did not foul its plug and cylinder 4 did.
I’m really thing three out of 4 outputs on the coil are shot.
possible?
don’t think it is catalyst, o2 or ect cause that one cylinder will stay perfect the rest will foul. if it was any of those three I would think i’d see it across all 4 cylinders
with new coil pack cylinders 3 and 4 fire fine 1 and 2 are still fouling pulgs with carbon. I ran the car for 5 -7 minutes and while it did not register hot I could smell coolant.
What do you mean by skipping. Its spitting and sputtering right of start up with a 2000 rpm idle then it drops and rumbles just like any car running off 2 cylinders. Coughing up liquid ( pretty sure gas) out of the end of the exhaust. Strong exhaust pulse though. And after 5 minutes its barely running with you cylinder 1 and 2 fouled
Im pretty much out of ideas and way to test shit at this point. I havent replaced ect sensor or o2 but thats aanother $150 i dont want to waste. Probably going to try and take it somewhere tomorrow as the girlfriend really needs it for tuesdsy
Going to bump this back up with some more info: Went to take it to Meat Paws on Monday car choked itself dead after a mile. Stopped let it cool started back up ok-ish Smoke pouring off/ out of exhaust manifold piping.
Tried to take cats off but all the bolts on the exhaust system are beyond gone. O2 sensor can only be removed if you drop the cat.
Tested spark, all units are sparking full nice orange sparks. ICM and coil complete a circuit.
Tested injectors plugs all plugs firing on full.
Cylinders 2 and three are strong cylinder 3 is perfect. 1 & 4 will carbon foul a plug at idle within a minute or so.
I began doing a compression test and cylinder one was 155 cylinder 3 was 152 and then the battery on the car was dead so after charging tonight i’ll check cyl 2 & 4
Coolant is clean and green. System builds pressure
Oil is clean and from what I can tell does not have a gas smell.
I unplugged the ECTS while the key was on but the car was not running and the fans immediately kicked on so I don’t think that has failed.
Checked ground for the harness controlling ICM and coil.