not sparking on all 4

[fry 0]

This morning I started my car and it sounded quite rough like it was running on 2 or 3 cylinders. I remeber looking through my cars history to find that it has a bill to fix "only running on 3 cylinders" problem. My main worry is that this is terminal and means I have to fork out on a new motor just when I want to get it resprayed !! Its a 1.8 16v with 140000 miles on the clock !! Yeah it is a lot, is it to be expected at this mileage or could it be something simple like plugs and leads? One day I would like to put a 1.8t engine in but not this soon !!!

Thanks in advance for any replies

 

cheers

 

phil.

[G60 0]

could be plugs, leads, injectors, bad injector harness.. could be anything.

 

off-topic.. (don't read if you're in a hurry)

my friend has a 240sx.. about a month and a half ago the engine starts making this awful rattling and grinding noise. i say don't drive it, find out what the problem is first.

 

and he continues to drive it.

 

and it starts running on 3 cylinders about 2 weeks ago.

 

so i say you're dumb i'm going to find out what that noise is i bet now you've blown a cylinder. i could tell the noise was from under the valve cover so i took it off and wow, chunk of metal. timing chain guide had busted loose and was rubbing/bouncing off the timing chain! so i pull this metal piece out hand it to him and say now you've probably blown your engine because you didnt want to take 5 minutes to take off your valve cover.

 

at this point i'm pretty sure this chain guide has caused the timing chains to jump a tooth or two, resulting in a blown cylinder.

 

my buddy tends to enjoy pissing money away so he took it into the stealership before i could test spart plugs/injectors...

 

turns out the stealership found that all that had gone wrong was the #4 injector. completely unrelated to the metal chunk. new injector and he'll be back in business.

 

moral of the story. it could be anything. just dig in... process of elimination and figure out what is failing. if you're not so mechanically inclined take it to a shop and have them figure it out... but then replace the part (injector/spark plug/anything simple) yourself so you only pay the diagnostic fee. :lol:

 

his bill was $280, and he still owes $220 for the injector replacement ($500 total). that included an oil change and diagnostic but i mean.. the injector can't be more than $80-100. he could have done it all himself in an afternoon. hell, couple beers and a puff and i'd have done it for him :roll: