Help! Running on 3 cylinders!!!!
12-13-2002, 06:18 AM
#1
Drifting
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Help! Running on 3 cylinders!!!!
Oh S&!t.
I was driving home from work last night, and the car decided to go completely wrong!
Symptoms are: slow pick-up, vibrations on accelleration, a VERY large puff of black smoke when stationary and giving a bit of gas!, NO black smoke under normal driving, NO major water temperature rise!
The way I see it, is as a fuelling problem, or a head gasket failure rather than something mechanically screwed such as bearing or piston/rod problem.
I haven't actually loked at it yet (Can't bring myself to do it on Friday 13th), but I'll be checking over the injectors, plugs, HT leads, distributor, and FPR.
Has anyone had these symptoms before, and what did it turn out to be? Any advice greatly appreciated!!
I was driving home from work last night, and the car decided to go completely wrong!
Symptoms are: slow pick-up, vibrations on accelleration, a VERY large puff of black smoke when stationary and giving a bit of gas!, NO black smoke under normal driving, NO major water temperature rise!
The way I see it, is as a fuelling problem, or a head gasket failure rather than something mechanically screwed such as bearing or piston/rod problem.
I haven't actually loked at it yet (Can't bring myself to do it on Friday 13th), but I'll be checking over the injectors, plugs, HT leads, distributor, and FPR.
Has anyone had these symptoms before, and what did it turn out to be? Any advice greatly appreciated!!
12-15-2002, 02:51 PM
#4
Burning Brakes
Join Date: Nov 2001
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Does it only shudder and vabrate on acceleration? How does it run on no load cruising? My first guess is the plug wires or coil wire. If its continual shuddering..we all know what 3 cylinders feels like...
Now, if your plugs and wires seem ok...look towards the injectors, with the motor running, (assuming its doing its 3 cylinder studder at idle) pull each injector clip off one at a time (you can do this for the spark plug wires also), what you are looking for is a clip that when pulled, does NOT make a change in the operation of the engine. If you find one, plug wire or injector clip, then that will most likely be your culprit. Remember, your looking for the plug wire or injector clip that when pulled, does NOT change the sound or studder of the motor.
If this works, then change the plug wire, or injector/clip...now its tough to find injectors just laying around, so do this...lets assume your culprit is an injector,you have done the test on the wires and injectors, and found one injector (say the number two injector) to change nothing when pulled...swap that injector to the 3 cylinder, this will nail your problem..eliminating any other cause on the 2 cylinder, like bad rings, low compression due to burnt valves or bad seals etc etc..if after doing the swap to the 3 cylinder and the problem exists but is now at the 3 cylinder, send that injector out to be cleaned, better yet...send them all to be cleaned and checkd. If its a plug or wire that failes under the test...replace.
Now, lets say you do this test on the wires/plugs/injectors/clips. None of them seem to be the culprit, as in...when you pull any of them, the engine changes tune and struggles more, then your looking at a bug hunt.
Start with the tps, its the easiest to get to..when the car is idling, pull the tps clip..again, look for a change in tune...if it stalls or dies, you know the tps is in some kind of working order, not meaning its perfect, but its doing its job enough to keep the motor running. Now move onto the barn door, kill the motor, then turn the ignition to ON, using a meter, check the voltage from the barn door flapper, 0-5 volts ( I don't have the manual in front of me, but I think thats the voltage, someone here will tell you for sure) make sure it reads that range, and reads it smoothly throughout the operation of the flapper. It this fails, then run back to the tps, change that out. And if the flapper fails, change it out.
Others on this list have ideas too, and a lot of them have their own ways of hunting this stuff down, none of us like it, but its life.
Other things to try, checking the fuel pressure, and the fule filter(doubtfull), swap the DME relay, check your speed/refernce sensors for contact and stability. If you have access to a friends 951, try swapping DME's, this sounds drastic, but after the first tests, and your stumped, you might want to try :-)
If I can think of anything else, I'll post.
Take Care!
Now, if your plugs and wires seem ok...look towards the injectors, with the motor running, (assuming its doing its 3 cylinder studder at idle) pull each injector clip off one at a time (you can do this for the spark plug wires also), what you are looking for is a clip that when pulled, does NOT make a change in the operation of the engine. If you find one, plug wire or injector clip, then that will most likely be your culprit. Remember, your looking for the plug wire or injector clip that when pulled, does NOT change the sound or studder of the motor.
If this works, then change the plug wire, or injector/clip...now its tough to find injectors just laying around, so do this...lets assume your culprit is an injector,you have done the test on the wires and injectors, and found one injector (say the number two injector) to change nothing when pulled...swap that injector to the 3 cylinder, this will nail your problem..eliminating any other cause on the 2 cylinder, like bad rings, low compression due to burnt valves or bad seals etc etc..if after doing the swap to the 3 cylinder and the problem exists but is now at the 3 cylinder, send that injector out to be cleaned, better yet...send them all to be cleaned and checkd. If its a plug or wire that failes under the test...replace.
Now, lets say you do this test on the wires/plugs/injectors/clips. None of them seem to be the culprit, as in...when you pull any of them, the engine changes tune and struggles more, then your looking at a bug hunt.
Start with the tps, its the easiest to get to..when the car is idling, pull the tps clip..again, look for a change in tune...if it stalls or dies, you know the tps is in some kind of working order, not meaning its perfect, but its doing its job enough to keep the motor running. Now move onto the barn door, kill the motor, then turn the ignition to ON, using a meter, check the voltage from the barn door flapper, 0-5 volts ( I don't have the manual in front of me, but I think thats the voltage, someone here will tell you for sure) make sure it reads that range, and reads it smoothly throughout the operation of the flapper. It this fails, then run back to the tps, change that out. And if the flapper fails, change it out.
Others on this list have ideas too, and a lot of them have their own ways of hunting this stuff down, none of us like it, but its life.
Other things to try, checking the fuel pressure, and the fule filter(doubtfull), swap the DME relay, check your speed/refernce sensors for contact and stability. If you have access to a friends 951, try swapping DME's, this sounds drastic, but after the first tests, and your stumped, you might want to try :-)
If I can think of anything else, I'll post.
Take Care!
