1992 Nissan 240SX dead cylinder/misfire

Tiny
MARKYBOI
  • MEMBER
  • 1992 NISSAN 240SX
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 170,000 MILES
Background: I dd a 92 240sx with the original ka. Bought it with 104k miles now it has 173k miles. Earlier this year, I noticed that SOMETIMES my car had a trouble starting up. It misfires/sluggish the first 3 seconds of startup and then idles normally (~800rpm) and the engine check light appeared. I thought I might be leaking fuel so I decided that I was going to replace the o-rings on the fuel injectors. Never got to replacing it because of the busy school schedule. The car runs perfectly and I noticed that this problem only appears during cold start.

After coming from a 5 day vacation last month, I started my car and the misfiring was still present and I figured to check which cylinder was out. The problem appeared to be on cylinder 3 where there were no changes in the rough idle after I pulled the #3 plug wires.

I checked the ecu and came out to be code 35 (weird) which was the code for the egr I believe.(But how would the egr affect the #3 cylinder?). I cleaned the egr and reset the ecu but the problem was still present.

This time, I check if my injectors were functioning correctly. Again, #3 injector was out so I replaced it with a rebuilt injector. Started up the car again, and cylinder 3 was still out.I then tried to check for compression on all cylinders and got 180,185,180,180. I dont understand what is happening and is frustrating me.

I replaced numerous parts already (new plug wires, new oem spark plugs, rebuilt distributor cap)and I am still getting a dead #3 cylinder.






cliff notes:
misfires on #3 cylinder
checked fuel injector: #3 was bad. Removed and replaced, now all injectors work fine
checked compression: ~180 across the board
replaced plug, wires, cap





UPDATE:
i tried another compression tester (from autozon) to see if maybe the one that I used (borrowed from my friend) might be off. I got the following results

#1: 165
#2: 170
#3: 165
#4: 165

that takes care of the compression problem. But as I was removing the spark plug. I noticed the the #3 plug (the cylinder that was misfiring) hasn't even gone off yet. What I mean by that is I do not see any signs of the plug firing.

what else could be wrong? I put new oem plugs, Brand new plug wires, new cap, and I also recently swapped the ecu from a different running car.




update 082808:
i did the noid light test last night on all four. It lights up, so im assuming the harness works.I tried swapping the injector harness (i put #4 to #3) to maybe verify if the harness works and #3 is still dead.

I bought new distributor rotor since they only cost $10.#3 still dead

i tried swapping plug wires to check maybe the one that I got is defective. Still dead
i tried swapping plugs, #3 still dead


could a bad distributor cause only 1 cylinder to misfire?
since I am getting good, consistent compression on all 4 cylinders, could a valve be stuck? Intake valve stuck (not getting air=no combustion but holds compression?)?
sensor problem? --> If it is, but why only one cylinder consistently?
Thursday, August 28th, 2008 AT 5:51 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
STRAT_53711
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Wow, I have the exact same problem.

1991 240sx, Number 3 Cylinder is dead on a 160K engine.

Last year, replaced rotor, distributor cap, wires, fuel filter and the problem went away.

This week, symptoms reappeared.

It seems to happen during summer/fall season change for my car (wisconsin).

Sometimes, a fresh gas tank plus some fuel/injector cleaner helped.

Let me know if you find a solution :)
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Monday, October 6th, 2008 AT 9:10 AM
Tiny
ARTISTICSOUL
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
Any updates on this? I have the same problem and have done the same steps to correct without any luck.
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Monday, June 1st, 2009 AT 11:19 PM
Tiny
STRAT_53711
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
It was the fuel injector. I went to my local NAPA store and picked up a single injector.

If my memory is correct, I replaced the part using the following procedure (from the service manual).

1. Remove fuel pump fuse.
2. Start engine, run until it dies. This will depressurize the fuel rail.
3. Remove and replace injector.

Due to the dual o-rings, the injector itself is pretty tricky to remove. The top of the injector is pretty soft plastic. I lightly clamped a vicegrips on the top and turned/pulled the injector 60 degrees back and forth. It eventually worked it way out. I got a misting of gas on my face/mouth when if finally popped off. Use a rag to avoid this situation.
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Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 AT 11:06 AM

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