Thread: bad injector?

I figured I'd start my own thread on this. I own a 97 200sx se-r and I'm here because i suspect a bad injector, though it was said they usually don't go bad... i've replaced plugs, wires, dizzy cap and rotor, fuel filter, cleaned throttle, pcv etc with throttle body cleaner, ran sea foam in gas tank. i have a code for a cyldiner 1 misfire. when i pull out from a stop the car sputters and hesitates then accelerates, but not without "dead spots" in the rpm band. you can feel it as kind of a random miss, sometimes are worse than others, tho idle usually seems ok, doesn't dip often or stall, but at one point it did. this car has had the sputtering problem since we've owned it, pulled plugs and found oil so we changed the vc gasket with spark plug seals, was fine for a day or two then same issue. a year later to a month ago i started her up, went inside to get a couple things and she sounded like she was running on 2 cylinders, came back out the second time and she had stalled. started her up, started up fine, started driving then she started losing power and died. so i restarted her and this cycle kept repeating til i made it around the block to switch out cars as i was running late for work. i judged fuel filter where she would always start up fine right after stalling out, so i did that. once again for about 2 days she ran perfect, then started missing again. got her scanned to find the cylinder 1 misfire so i changed the basics as stated above, none helped except the throttle body cleaning which again, 2 days then back to running like piss. i ordered an injector as i can't think of anything else it could be. yes i know egr valve is common and friends ave suggested fuel pump, but none of those would cause a miss just in cylinder 1. the only other things that i think could cause this would be something internal, but theres no smoke at all, which i would assume from piston rings allowing oil past or leaky headgasket or valve seal. also i could guess maybe there was something in the intake runner clogging the air to make it run too rich but i have trouble seeing that... the last symptom she has is when i start her up there is a gas smell and my friend behind me said it smelled like i was running rich as hell, but anytime after you can't smell gas at all, only at startup... any guesses besides injector? also is there a good diy thread (preferably with pictures) or a good guide for a low port injector change? ive never done that

no one? bump

bump

Pull the plug off the suspected injector and see what happens. If nothing happens you may have found a dead injector. If the car runs worse move on to next injector.

I had a similar issue with the 1.6 in my XE, turned out injector #1 shit the bed and at less than 80k miles. I verified this by powering it with a 9 volt battery and listening for a "click". No click = dead injector.

it's more like a random miss, not like 3 cylinders always running so i don't think pulling the plug would point it out, almost like it sticks most of the time but not all the time

sounds ignition related to me.. try changing the distributor or take it apart an clean it or something... the obd2 distributors seem to go out more frequently imo then the obd1s

my buddys altima would do this, it'd run fine for a while then stall out an not want to start again but let it sit over night an it'd run for the rest of the day or for a few drives or whatever but then be back to running like shit.. turned out there was oil all over his crank angle sensor disc an when it would sit the oil would drip off enough for it to run for a while until it got too covered again to read, it would start with the hesitation first tho like you describe.

it's got an obd1 dizzy on it

How does your 97 have an obd1 dist? Maybe theres more to the story you should be telling

really idk, like that when i got it. didn't find out til i tried to change the cap and rotor a few weeks ago and i ordered a 97 rotor for my 97 car, but found out the hard way it does not fit! took it back and explained and tried the obd1 rotor and it works. idk why it's on there, maybe my engine was replaced and the whole thing is an earlier engine, but i do know it's low port and i'm not looking forward to changing the injector tomorrow. i've seen pics of oil leaking in the dizzy, but the #1 plug connects to the top of the dizzy so if one cylinder was missing for that reason i'd expect #4 as it goes top #1, back #2 bottom #4 and front #3 but the only code i'm getting is cylinder 1 misfire, no others. i truly believe at this point it's the injector as nothing else makes sense to just single out that one cylinder with everything i've replaced.

Got pics? Something sounds fishy.. either someone wired an obd1 dist in the obd2 harness. Or its a obd1 harness with some kinda step up adapter...

Are there 4 or 5 spark plug wires? The 5th is for the coil on obd1b cars, obd2 have internal coils..