So my wife has been having problems with her 2.0L '97 Tracer and I haven't been able to pin point it. It's been ongoing for ~6months. ~6 months ago, she was having problems with the car bucking lightly (auto, so it's tough to "buck" like I'd usually describe it), as in shaking. It was intermittent. I didn't think much of it other than that it probably needed a tune-up.
So it threw a code, "Misfire in cylinder 4". I gave it a tune-up (wires & plugs) and cleared the code. Next week or two it starts doing it again. I pull the plugs, they look good yet. Then it once again throws the same code, "Misfire in cylinder 4".
This is where I start to get confused, so I start thinking injector, compression, ? I give it a few rounds of injector cleaner and it gets better for 6 months. It would still do it intermittently, but not as much by any means and no codes were thrown during this time.
So earlier this week it throws a code again. Now I haven't given it any injector cleaner in a while, so I did that. But today I finally got around to giving it a compression test.
Looking left to right from the front of the engine we get:
190/215 -- 185/240 -- 180/240 -- 185/270
When I put some oil in, I put it in all 4 cylinders at once and tested right-to-left. I could see oil shooting out into the air, so that's why I think the left side has less compression w/oil than the right. (Give me a break, this was my first compression test, I guess put the oil in the cylinder only before testing that cylinder? )
My only conclusion is that the injector in cylinder 4 must be dirty or going bad. Air/fuel pressure/ignition coil/o2/temp sensor/etc all seem to be good as they are for all cylinders. Because it's always cylinder 4 that throw's the code, I think it has to be one of these -- compression/injector/spark plugs/wires.
Which is cylinder 4? (Haynes manual is confusing if it's on the left or right) It says it is on the right, but the diagram it gives for hookup to the distributor is then wrong.
Any help/clarification is appreciated.
So it threw a code, "Misfire in cylinder 4". I gave it a tune-up (wires & plugs) and cleared the code. Next week or two it starts doing it again. I pull the plugs, they look good yet. Then it once again throws the same code, "Misfire in cylinder 4".
This is where I start to get confused, so I start thinking injector, compression, ? I give it a few rounds of injector cleaner and it gets better for 6 months. It would still do it intermittently, but not as much by any means and no codes were thrown during this time.
So earlier this week it throws a code again. Now I haven't given it any injector cleaner in a while, so I did that. But today I finally got around to giving it a compression test.
Looking left to right from the front of the engine we get:
190/215 -- 185/240 -- 180/240 -- 185/270
When I put some oil in, I put it in all 4 cylinders at once and tested right-to-left. I could see oil shooting out into the air, so that's why I think the left side has less compression w/oil than the right. (Give me a break, this was my first compression test, I guess put the oil in the cylinder only before testing that cylinder? )
My only conclusion is that the injector in cylinder 4 must be dirty or going bad. Air/fuel pressure/ignition coil/o2/temp sensor/etc all seem to be good as they are for all cylinders. Because it's always cylinder 4 that throw's the code, I think it has to be one of these -- compression/injector/spark plugs/wires.
Which is cylinder 4? (Haynes manual is confusing if it's on the left or right) It says it is on the right, but the diagram it gives for hookup to the distributor is then wrong.
Any help/clarification is appreciated.
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