Thread: Not sure what is going on

Alright I'll start off by saying I searched but may be I didn't know some good key words or something cause I know these threads pop up from time to time.

Any way if I may explain what is going on may be someone can assist me. Yesterday when driving my car home I went to get on the highway and shift to 5th (no outrageous rpm I drive my car normal) and it lost a little power and started to gently vibrate. So I push in the clutch and shift to neutral, thinking it maybe wasn't all the way in gear, then shift back into 5th and its fine. Till I get to a red light and it starts idling weird and vibrating slightly more than gently. I go to take off and bam no power to get going hardly and sounds like a wrx. So I limp it back home the rest of the highway ride, when I get off the highway I'm thinking great its going to do it again, but it was fine and drove like nothing was wrong. I checked a few thing like the plugs and wires and everything was fine and connected good.

Today I go to start up to go to work and it starts fine but with about 2 seconds of what sounds like the timing chain or valve train slapping around. That settles down then it starts running weird and sounding like a wrx again. I get a long screwdriver and try and listen to the injectors. #4 wasn't making hardly any noise but after it warmed up everything ran fine, I'm like WTF.

So I had to call into work with no ride and I'm trying to figure it out. I've done a few of the tests in the FSM but no luck narrowing it down. While out in the garage fiddling around with it i noticed the injectors make a ton of noise (I heard this was normal) and when I rev it a little when its decelerating you can hear a bit of either timing chain or valve train slapping again. Also on a side note I cut the car off about 5 minutes ago but smoke it still slowly rolling out the exhaust, I know its cold out but that doesn't seem normal to me.

Any help or suggestions?
Thanks

Sorry for the novel didn't realize it got that long, just wanted to include all I know.

Check coolant level first, if it's down a lot, your HG might be leaking, also pull injector clips and see if there is a change in RPM, once there is no change, that cylinder is the issue. Do this first. If it sounds like a WRX, you have a cylinder not firing at all.

Coolant is still where it was at when I topped it off last weekend. How do you get the plugs off the injectors they are quite stubborn. Is there a button on the button you press in or just pry it off with a flat head or something. Thanks. It only seems to run like a wrx some of the time so not sure whats up with that.

If it's sometimes, it's probably spark related, pull your spark plugs out and check to see if one is darker than the other. You have to push the plug down and then push the top clip inwards and pull up.

Check and make sure you dist rotor isn't falling off & check you distributor. What kind of wires & plugs? Sounds like something in the ignition system for sure.

Pulled all the injectors one at a time and all of them made a difference in how it was idling. Checked the plugs they look as expected for some with about 10k on them. I pulled the distributor cap off and checked the rotor is fine again for one with about 10k on it. The cap how ever looked worse than the one I pulled off about 10k ago so I swapped them back for now till I can get a new one. It looks like the contacts for # 1 and 3 were worn really bad. I took the car out for a test drive and everything drove like it used to (how ever still not happy about the noise of stuff slapping around under the valve cover towards the timing chain end). I suppose its good for now till something happens again. I keep this thread posted. Thanks.

sounds like you may have it figured out. Anytime you deal with a misfire it is paramount to first determine if it is a "common" problem, or specific to 1 cylinder, as the two different issues will lead you down a different path of diagnosis. Three basic things to check with a single cylinder misfire are, Injector Pulse, Spark, and Compression. Always inspect the plug for signs of a rich or lean condition to help get an idea of what you may be lacking. Multiple cyl. misfires will share a common cause, Fuel Pressure, MAF reading, ECT, vacuum leak etc.