Thread: Cylinder 3 not firing.

Hey gang. Over the past month, sometimes when I'm driving cylinder #3 will just cut off and my car runs like ass. Then after a few moments, maybe a minute or two, it'll come back and I have teh powerz again. Tonight i changed the plugs, that didn't do it. I'm thinking a bad wire. How to test? Can I take the plug wire for cylinder #2 and use it on #3 to test if the wire is bad? Will the thing stay running with only two cylinders firing?

Here's a pic of my plugs from tonight, guess which one is #3.

Imagebin - A place to slap up your images.

Hopefully I didn't really jinx myself with the three more oil changes thread...I iz at 293,050 now. :\

You could put the #2 wire on #3 to see if its the wire, but it wouldn't do you much good unless the car is already running on 3 cylinders. When it is running on three cylinders, pull the wire off of #3 and see if you can hear the spark arcing to the plug. If you hear it, the wire is good. If not, then I would try putting a different wire on that cylinder. If you still don't hear it, try replacing the dist cap and rotor.

Also, when it does run on 3 cylinders, does it backfire a lot? If it does your dumping fuel into that cylinder and its burning in the exhaust.

Cyl #3 is too rich, check your injector. First do a leak down test of the fuel rail and make sure the O ring is not leaking (happened to me). Simply unbolt the fuel rail and put a rug under it, then turn the key to ACC but don't start the car. That should prime the fuel pump and the rail, and if you have a leak it will leak out.

The injector could be also getting stuck open, thus you would need a replacement. Shouldn't be more then $10 for one injector. But check whats the cheapest/easiest first.

Edit: Thinking about it, it could also be rich due to no spark. I would unplug the cyl #3 from the distributor cap and see if there is corrosion inside where the plug wires plug into. If not then remove the distro cap and check to make sure the connection that the rotor head touches is not worn.

Alright, I'll try your advice guys. Good thing I have a spare fuel rail but threw my old wires away arg...

if your getting an intermittent misfire on your cylinder like that its not likely a wire. If it was a wire it would be almost a constant misfire.

I can bet you you have a broken wire at the injector clip. Take and give both wires to your #3 injector clip a nice tug and see if it pulls apart, If so there is your problem.

Its happened to many many many se-r's including mine. It happens. haha

Well, I looked at the wire for the injector clip, they looked alright....the same as the rest of them, anyway. I'll look again today now that it's light out...and it turns out I tossed my spare fuel rail and injectors, or misplaced it....so if I do end up having a bad injector, anyone got one they would sell me?

Sure.

We have a plethora of stock injectors laying around up here.

Word. I'm thinking that might be it. I just swapped wire #2 with cylinder #3, no dice...still not firing. I will remove the rail and check the injectors for leaks...but it's so gd cold and windy outside right now. Will report back in a bit.

OK, so I just tried to perform the leak down test like you said Vadim. The car was started and ran 10 minutes before....no fuel squirted out from any of the injectors but I heard a buzzing noise coming from the fuel rail. ???

Like Vadim said, inspect the dist. cap contacts, inside and out.
Do you have a voltmeter?
Remove injector harness, should be 10-14 ohms resistance on the injector.
Plug wires should be < 30,000 ohms
Coil wire < 7000 Ohms (for reference - coil wire not the issue since only one cylinder)