I guess I'd like to start by apologizing about this mess of a post, its midnight and I just want to get this up here asap, so I can get some responses.
Had my 96 protege for about a year now, and about 6 months ago, it started having "Issues".
Not the kind of thing where I'd be worried if I'll make it home, just little problems that have poped up and I've dumped money into with no luck.
Anytime the car was idling, it'd have a really profound miss, sometimes rythmic, sometimes not. It progressed to the point where it started giving me P0304 (cylinder 4 missfire) codes. I replaced my plugs, wires, distributer cap and rotor, and it did nothing. I replaced the cylinder 4 injector, and the idle was alot more smooth and the code no longer showed up.
It still wasn't perfect so I went on to replace the fuel filter, I also swapped out the FPR with one from the junkyard. Also tried a junkyard distributor, and I noticed no difference.
Now when the car is idling when fully warmed up, sometimes it'll sound almost absolutely normal. The car vibrates much more than it used to, it's still not running smooth, but when hot (at times) it'll sound almost perfect, no huge POOF POOF misses from the exhaust, just a bit of a lopey rythm, but not enough to cause vacuum or rpm fluctuations.
Other times it'll be nice and hot, and have the same misses it does when just started, which brings me to the next issue. I start the car, and when I let off the starter, it stumbles on itself just barely staying running for 30 seconds or so, then the idle will shoot up to 2k and slowly lower like normal. And during this whole time, until it is up to normal temperature, the engine will have very little power. And will feel and also sound very labored, but only until it is up to normal operating temperature.
The duration which the car stumbles after being started, is proportional to how long the car has sat not running. I don't think this is a fuel pump issue, as I've left the key on for about a minute, turned it on and off a few times, then started it, only to have the same thing happen. I suppose this may be a leaky injector.
I should also notice that even if the car is fully warmed up, and its one of those times its running almost perfectly, if i shut it off and start it right back up, sometimes it'll have the miss again, until i drive it around some.
For some odd reason when my cooling fan kicks in (and it seems I cannot reproduce this by turning on other things) that the idle will stabilize a little bit if its just warm and missing. And it seems the higher the rpms the less noticeable the miss is, like 900rpm will sound almost perfect, but 800 (where it usually settles to) is not so hot.
I've left the car idling and touched the EGR valve (said to be how you test if its failed or not by if its hot) and it was not hot, so I do not believe my EGR is leaking exhaust gases when its not supposed to.
I've taken "Extremely Flammable" TB cleaner and completely dousted every vacuum line and inch of the intake manifold I could see and not once did I hear the RPM increase. I was actually surprised by this and sprayed a BUNCH on the air filter, and to my surprise it didn't raise the rpm at all that I could tell, so perhaps my vacuum test is not valid.
One interesting thing to note is that if I unplug (IIRC) one of the middle two injectors, the engine will stall, however if I unplug cylinder 1 or 4, it'll barely change its tone at idle (but will show heavy missing when reved). Keep in mind I did replace the cylinder 4 injector and used a NOID light on all of the plugs and found them all to be working.
Also must add that if you just slightly rev the engine, from a cold start (when it sounds labored) and you let it settle back down, just as it settles to the idle rpm, you'll hear a little "bla bla bla" from the intake. That little misfire you hear from the intake is always in a group of three from what I've been able to hear, so I'm wondering if this is a valvetrain issue.
I'd like to say that I have been using the really expensive Bosch oil filters as well as Pennzoil Platinum Fully Senthetic Oil and it is not due for an oil change, nor is it low on oil.
I'm totally stuck here, and after 6 months I'm tired of having to let my car warm up, in 90 degree weather, just so it doesnt sound like it's dieing after I start it. I do believe that since this fiasco started, it did loose a little power and a few MPG's (I'm now getting 27-29MPG usually).
I'm just looking for any and all suggestions, I'll buy whatever I have to, try whatever I have to, I just want it to work. I should mention though that this is my daily, so I'm not going to attempt any lengthy repairs.
Had my 96 protege for about a year now, and about 6 months ago, it started having "Issues".
Not the kind of thing where I'd be worried if I'll make it home, just little problems that have poped up and I've dumped money into with no luck.
Anytime the car was idling, it'd have a really profound miss, sometimes rythmic, sometimes not. It progressed to the point where it started giving me P0304 (cylinder 4 missfire) codes. I replaced my plugs, wires, distributer cap and rotor, and it did nothing. I replaced the cylinder 4 injector, and the idle was alot more smooth and the code no longer showed up.
It still wasn't perfect so I went on to replace the fuel filter, I also swapped out the FPR with one from the junkyard. Also tried a junkyard distributor, and I noticed no difference.
Now when the car is idling when fully warmed up, sometimes it'll sound almost absolutely normal. The car vibrates much more than it used to, it's still not running smooth, but when hot (at times) it'll sound almost perfect, no huge POOF POOF misses from the exhaust, just a bit of a lopey rythm, but not enough to cause vacuum or rpm fluctuations.
Other times it'll be nice and hot, and have the same misses it does when just started, which brings me to the next issue. I start the car, and when I let off the starter, it stumbles on itself just barely staying running for 30 seconds or so, then the idle will shoot up to 2k and slowly lower like normal. And during this whole time, until it is up to normal temperature, the engine will have very little power. And will feel and also sound very labored, but only until it is up to normal operating temperature.
The duration which the car stumbles after being started, is proportional to how long the car has sat not running. I don't think this is a fuel pump issue, as I've left the key on for about a minute, turned it on and off a few times, then started it, only to have the same thing happen. I suppose this may be a leaky injector.
I should also notice that even if the car is fully warmed up, and its one of those times its running almost perfectly, if i shut it off and start it right back up, sometimes it'll have the miss again, until i drive it around some.
For some odd reason when my cooling fan kicks in (and it seems I cannot reproduce this by turning on other things) that the idle will stabilize a little bit if its just warm and missing. And it seems the higher the rpms the less noticeable the miss is, like 900rpm will sound almost perfect, but 800 (where it usually settles to) is not so hot.
I've left the car idling and touched the EGR valve (said to be how you test if its failed or not by if its hot) and it was not hot, so I do not believe my EGR is leaking exhaust gases when its not supposed to.
I've taken "Extremely Flammable" TB cleaner and completely dousted every vacuum line and inch of the intake manifold I could see and not once did I hear the RPM increase. I was actually surprised by this and sprayed a BUNCH on the air filter, and to my surprise it didn't raise the rpm at all that I could tell, so perhaps my vacuum test is not valid.
One interesting thing to note is that if I unplug (IIRC) one of the middle two injectors, the engine will stall, however if I unplug cylinder 1 or 4, it'll barely change its tone at idle (but will show heavy missing when reved). Keep in mind I did replace the cylinder 4 injector and used a NOID light on all of the plugs and found them all to be working.
Also must add that if you just slightly rev the engine, from a cold start (when it sounds labored) and you let it settle back down, just as it settles to the idle rpm, you'll hear a little "bla bla bla" from the intake. That little misfire you hear from the intake is always in a group of three from what I've been able to hear, so I'm wondering if this is a valvetrain issue.
I'd like to say that I have been using the really expensive Bosch oil filters as well as Pennzoil Platinum Fully Senthetic Oil and it is not due for an oil change, nor is it low on oil.
I'm totally stuck here, and after 6 months I'm tired of having to let my car warm up, in 90 degree weather, just so it doesnt sound like it's dieing after I start it. I do believe that since this fiasco started, it did loose a little power and a few MPG's (I'm now getting 27-29MPG usually).
I'm just looking for any and all suggestions, I'll buy whatever I have to, try whatever I have to, I just want it to work. I should mention though that this is my daily, so I'm not going to attempt any lengthy repairs.
Comment