Okay, so as some of you may know, my car has had cold start problems since I got it. Never really ran right when cold, and even when warm had its effects. So I took it to the local shop for foreign cars this week, and after having it for a week, he says that my injectors are bad, they're sticking open and are just dumping fuel. He said the fuel pressure was out of wack as well. Solution is: New Injectors, Spark plugs, Coil packs and if he gets down and anything else comes up wrong (gaskets or anything) that will need replaced as well. So my question is, does this sound like it could be a possibility? Not sure whether to trust them because this isn't 100% a Z shop, they're actually more dedicated to Volkswagen. I don't want to sell the car if its something maybe a little more manageable. If this is the likely problem I think it'll be time for me to walk away from it. New injectors, coils and spark plugs aren't really in my budget now. Thanks everyone
A week sounds an excessive amount of time to arrive at those diagnostic conclusions. Quite frankly, to replace all the injectors, plugs & coil packs doesn't appear to be an accurate diagnosis at face value. Perhaps you should ask how they determined that the parts are defective? It would not be uncommon to replace all those parts & still have driveability issues because the wiring/connections to the components may require attention.
Agree with East Coast Z. A cold start issue maybe one of those issues, not all and will be a very expensive exercise. I had a customer recently that had been to another shop and they replaced the injectors, AFM, PTU and after spending over $1400 it was not fixed. I checked it out for about 15 minutes and diagnosed the problem as failed oxygen sensors. Swapping out parts as a process of elimination is a valid form of problem identification, providing you are not paying for the good parts they are swapping out! I had a '97 TT in about 6 months ago with a similar issue as yours. Turned out to be a leaking fuel pulsation dampner. Remove the inlet plenum balance tube and see if the RHS plenum chamber has a pool of fuel in it.
Thanks for the help guys. I just dropped it off with him last week, I don't know when he even started working on it. We had a pretty good talk about it, and he told me when I start the car they are getting stuck open, and flooding the cylinders. He said he had fixed one like this many years ago and the problem might go away after, or it might not. He recommended me to sell it unless I wanted to dump a bunch of money in it. One problem is in my area I'm the only person within a good distance with a TT. So swapping parts with a known good one is virtually impossible (I guess I could purchase from an auto shop and take it back if its no good, but with my recent experience with auto shops, its a hack job to even get their parts to fit). I've replaced a few things already and checked using a multimeter some of the other things. Since this is a 96 US Spec, I'd rather not dump much more money into it at the end of the day, due to the lack of tunability on this car. Part of me wants to let her go to look for something easier to tune anyways. I guess when I get it back I'll have a look at the dampner. According to him the Injectors are shot. Not able to be reflowed or anything. I can't get really deep and dirty into this thing either, because its my DD, and I don't have the tools necessary to do a lot of the work myself. One last edit, I have taken it to a Nissan "Z Tech" (lol) and he said it was because my air intake was too big, and it wasn't getting enough fuel when it first started, which I concluded is ridiculous because it has a MAF, and it works well. I even took the cone off and tested it with less air. Same thing. I also replaced the spark plugs a few hundred miles ago, so it doesn't make sense it would need new ones now. I'm starting to think he didn't know what he was talking about as well. Ambient temperature has some effect on it as well, which doesn't conclude me to how it is injectors. I also talked to him yesterday, before he did a "final test" as he called it, where he told me that he thought my processor in my ECU was weak, because my coolant temp was getting good resistance but it didn't help.
1 Injector getting stuck and dumping fuel in, sure. All 6? unless there is something wrong like a bad batch of fuel i dont think so.
Try the water temperature sensor (One with two wires) They are prone to getting damaged, also check soldered connections and wiring to sensor. Cheers Martin
He said it was quite possible that you could get water in your gas here (and of course that ruins injectors) But I've ran 93 in it ever since I got it, and I don't think theres ever been just water dumped into it. And I have replaced the temp sensor for the ECU. According to him it has resistance all the way to the ECU. The harness in the car from an eyeballs view is actually very sound. Not a lot of tampering. Overall the car is in pretty good shape. In my opinion, I've always thought it was either the IACV, or a fuel pump stuck on. Some pump makes a squealing sound when you turn it on to the "acc" key position. Just never really had the chance to test for either of these things. Got tired of fiddling around with everything and took it to him
i would listen to the guys on this forum. The people on this forum know these cars best. i have used their advice to fix my Z many times. Just a story about so called dealer experts. My brother had a Landrover discovery that developed a flat spot after about 30K of driving it. He decided to take it to a landrover dealer (Experts in this vehicle you would think). They first replaced Spark plugs - no change. then leads - no change then rotor button, - no change then distributor cap - no change. total spent so far Including labor $800 After all this they said "it must be the distributor then. That will cost you $300." At this point i googled the problem myself. Turns out there was a Service bulletin on this very same issue. After paying $10 to download the bulletin the problem was fixed with a modified rotor button ($70) So if a mechanic told me to change an entire sub-system (like the fuel or ignition sub-system) i would not do it. i would listen to the people on this forum or take it to a forum member recommended mechanic. MichaelZ
Your 1996 Z is fitted with an OBD2 Diagnostics System. OBD2 is vastly superior to the OBD1 system in our Z's. You need to get yourself an OBD2 reader. I would recommend the OBDLink MX Bluetooth. http://www.obdlink.com/mxbt/ They also have a Wi-Fi unit but is problematic in it keeps losing connection. The unit plugs into the DDL & transmits to your cell phone & computer in addition to other devices. I would imagine the service centre has plugged in a scanner & more than likely codes have been logged indicating ignition misfires, hence the suggestion to replace spark plugs & coil packs. There may be codes logged concerning the fuel injectors also & that could be why they are suggesting to change those as well. You should be able to diagnose & repair your Z with the OBDLink, 1996 NISSAN Factory Service Manual, a good digital multimeter, some basic hand tools & a bit of patience. Of course there are things that will affect driveability that will NOT be logged as fault codes in the ECU.
