Long story, Homestead backup vehicle, sat a lot between service expecting the service to be good.
Started off with Cylinder 5 misfire and running too rich. I myself replaced the Air Filter, Mass Airflow Sensor, All Oxygen Sensors, Fuel Pump, Fuel Pressure Regulator, Spark Plug Wires, Spark Plugs, Select Electrical Fuses, 1 Relay, Battery, Alternator, Battery Fusible link with best premium parts. OEM usually discontinued. Some OEM was shipped from Japan using either Megazip or Amayama. I love this SUV; it won the Dakar! Some of it surely ended up in 2006!
Anyways, my work did not fix it, so I sent it to Nippon Auto Works Vegas to replace the fuel injectors with decent quality aftermarket from Rockauto, not premium. There aren't as many gas outvents as OEM fuel injectors. Dave at Nippon said codes were supposed to go away after 100 miles but did not. Brought it to Lake Havasu City AZ shop for complete plenum leak in the upper manifold they said. They also *said* they found an o-ring was missing in one injector. That $3000 fix ended with no more of the previous codes but now got a Catalytic Convert error code which they said was caused by the leaky injector, so I replaced that myself with AP Eastern Y-pipe Catalytic Converter from Rockauto.
When I was bolting together the right, passenger side cata to the front exhaust pipe connected to the exhaust manifold it swayed and budged because I did not tighten the mid bolt hangar to the exhaust. I instantly regretted it and felt shocked that it did that.
So now even though the cata system is tight, the original error codes are back as I'm afraid I sheared or cracked the exhaust manifold or front pipe because now I hear a loud clicking near the valve cover.
I don't smell much if any exhaust but maybe. The Montero needs to be pumped with gas hard to start up now. Must I take down that side of the engine bay, heat shield, EGR, and inspect the manifold? Are there any ODB cues I should look for?
Tuesday, March 18th, 2025 AT 7:04 PM
