Hi All,
Having issues with our wagon. Driving home, had CEL come on, lost power, and had a bunch of misfire codes come up. Cleared codes car seemed to be running fine. Added 2 bottles of Jectron cleaner on 1/4 tank of gas, and drove car around town for a while. easy driving, plus some hard acceleration, no more codes. My wife drove car and got stranded. Checked codes again all above stated codes plus P0303. Cleaned K&N, and MAF. let car idle, after a while code P0301 came in. Cleared codes, reved car a few times and at~ 2500 rpm codes P0300, P0302, P0301,P0300, P0301, AND P0302 came in. Cleared codes, and slowly increased revs to ~2500 and CEL came on. Now reads P0300, P0302, P0301. Replaced MAF with Ebay one about (was a Bosch item) 2 years ago, also replaced CPS about a 1.5 years ago, replaced plugs at 100K, and drivers side pre cc o2 sensor 6 months ago. Any help would be appreciated. Wagon has 180K miles.

Mike
P0301-P0303 relate to the passenger side bank correct? Also is # 1 at the front of the engine or the back?

 

have you replaced the spark plug wires? they commonly go bad. did you make sure that they are properly snapped onto the spark plug. they should click when you put them on the spark plug. thats the first thing i would look into.. or bad EGR valve. the valve tubes clog up pretty bad around 100k

 

Chassis 221,
Plugs should be fine, changed a long while back. How can you tell if the wires are bad, can you check resistance? Where is the EGR on this engine, is it something that can be cleaned? Which side is the cyl 1-3 bank on? Thanks,

Mike

 

1-3 is on the passenger side USA, 2 ohms is the spec but usually can get away with 3 ohms without noticing, EGR is on the passenger side back of the engine and if you remove it it can be cleaned out...as long as the egr valve is still working. how are your catalytic converters? if there clogged youll get misfires on the side of the engine with the clogged cat.

 

Chassis 221,
How can you tell if cats are clogged? Will it change that rapidly, one minute fine to next minute going into limp mode? This makes me think some sort of sensor or electric part. How can you tell if EGR is working? Thanks for the help,

Mike

 

So I researched my code reader a little more, it is a Inova 3100 A, and checked the freezeframe data. Yesterday while car was in park it threw codes P0300, P0302, P0301. The freezeframe data was for code p0300 it reads as follows:

Fuel Sys 1 = 0L
Fuel Sys 2 = CL
Calc Load = 24.71%
ECT = 176 deg F
STFT B1 = 0.00
LTFT B1 = -3.91
STFT B2 = 1.56
LTFT B2 = -3.91
MAP = 13.58 in Hg
Eng RPM = 2500
Veh Speed = 0

Today I cleared the codes, and drove slowly around the block CEL came on almost immediately. Codes as follows P0300, P0303, P0302, P0301, P0300, P0301, P0302, P0110.

After I got in the driveway with the car still running I pulled the plug for the MAF and it died immmediatly, hence code P0110.

Freezeframe data came from P0300 it is as follows:

Fuel Sys 1 = 0L - Drive
Fuel Sys 2 = 0L - Drive
Calc Load = 60.78%
ECT = 59 deg F
STFT B1 = 0.00
LTFT B1 = -3.91
STFT B2 = 0.00
LTFT B2 = -3.91
MAP = 21.56 in Hg
Eng RPM = 1825

let me know if there is any other data that needs to be pulled. I havent checked the resistance for the plug wires yet due to problem occurring without any work on ignition sys. If it points in that direction I will definitely check though. Will try and look at EGR if I have time before work.

 

Ordered 3 new O2 sensors from autohausz az the other day. Rolling the dice on this a little, but figure the 3 that haven't been replaced are either marginal to bad anyway. Should get them in a day or 2. I'll let you know how it goes.

Mike

 

Received my new O2 sensors today. Borrowed the borescope from working hoping to be able to inspect my cat through the O2 bung. Unfortunately no such luck, our borescope is fixed, and I wasn't able to see the face of the cat. I test ran the car with the old O2 sensor connected, but not screwed in. Car ran great, reved to 3800 rpmwith no problems. So no fuel issues, etc. Installed the new pre cat sensor started car, and for about 30 seconds it ran great. Then it went back to the bogging, and threw the same codes. I'm leaning towards a plugged cat, but I'm going to install my new down stream O2's first. I'm hoping like hell that the readings between the up stream, and down stream O2 sensor are so off that it's triggering the misfire codes. I'm not really expecting that just hoping.

As far as the cats go, what causes the plugging? In all the vehicles I have had, that has never happened. In this case its not like their just causing you to fail emmissions, but failing so bad the car can't even run. If it turns out to be the cat, what do I watch out for after replacing it? I don't want to replace it, and then have it fail due to some other problem. I did take some pics of the pre cat O2. It looked like it had a grayish residue on the tip. Any input would be appreciated.

Mike

Who is the cheapest source for new cats?

 

Replaced the remaining 2 O2 sensors. Disconnected the battery for 30 minutes, probably more like 45. Started car and just let it idle, after a few minutes the CEL came back on and the only code I received was misfire cyl 1 P0301. I repeated, and same thing. I'm still leaning towards cat, but will swap coils from bank 1 to bank 2 for cyl 1. Which one is cyl 1? At the front of engine or the back?

Mike

 

cylinder 1 is front passenger side. to check if you cats are clogged usually they will rattle when driving and at idle...this is usually the first sign of the cats going bad. but that doesnt mean that its not clogged either. unscrew the O2 sensor from the exhaust and just leave the hole open and start the car and see if it runs better.or loosen the exhaust from the manifold and see too. if it still stalls out with the exhaust off then your cats are probably not clogged.