The exhaust system putt-putts like it's a 50yr old card, and the exhaust smells very bad. There is no power, a 80's station wagon with an elderly couple flew by me at a stop sign today. The gas petal feels pretty darn soft, slam on the gas, or even give it more than a slow acceleration and it "gurgles", the engine makes alot of noise but doesn't do much(expecially for moving).
One of the injectors went a little while ago, so I thought that might be it. They all ohm out right, I took it to a mechanic and got a fuel injector flush, he said they were all spraying correctly, so that doesn't seem like it anymore. He did say that one of the connectors needed to be replaced or cleaned, but I can't get it unattached(broke a little peice of plastic clip is on, but even that didn't get it any looser).
(I brang the car to the mechanic orgininally, and he didn't find anything unusual, said it's just an "old car", even though it didn't run like this 5months ago..)
What to do? I don't have hardly any money right now, but the car runs like crap. I now have some very basic knowledge of cars, and a voltage/ohm tester, but is there any way to limit the possibilities to one or two things untill I have enough money to have someone run an engine diagnostic?

 

running all these electronic diagnostics won't always give you a definite answer...have you had any leak down or compression tests done?? your problem could lie lower than the injectors or anyhting electrical...

 

No... is there any way I could check that myself? :S Would bad compression be easy or hard to fix? could it be cheaper than $90 to check?
:L

 

you need a compression or leak down test kit...not too expensive, $30-40 I think...but a NICE shop shouldn't charge too much too check it and give you the numbers. "bad compression" could mean anything from a cracked cylinder wall to something not right in the heads...so no, those aren't cheap fixes! determining low compression is only the beginning of the deal...going on from there could mean anything from a new/used motor to needing new/rebuilt head(s).

 

I just thought of something... since the exhaust has been having sputtering, the engine shakes like it's possessed. You can feel the shaking in the car even with brand new engine mounts. Would a compression problem cause the engine to jump around (tutt-tutt-tutt- kinda moves convulsively)?
What is the best way of taking off the injector connections and cleaning them(expecially the ones down in the front)?
thanks-

 

take off the upper manifold, should be easier for you to access/pop off the little metal retainer clips

 

Do I have to buy a new "seal" for anything? I haven't cleaner the throttle body yet because I read you have to get a new rubber seal for it,(and damn, I've messed so much allready, I don't feel compfortable doing anything beyond "a 12yr old can do it... and even then..)
If not, then do I just take off the bolts and unplug everything, and reverse to put it back on?
Do you think buying the FSM even if I allready have the haynes, would help me much?

 

I think you would be better off to check out more common and cheaper problems first.

Idle the car at night and look for spark jumping between wires, off wires, or even out of the boots. Mine did that a while back and the car acted just like you're saying. Got so bad the car would barely run at all and had very low power.

Then check timing. You also could have a timing belt that's skipped a tooth though...

 

if you said it's jumping around and you can feel the shaking in the car that sounds like it's missing

 

Just checked it, no sparks jumping I bought new NGK plug wires about two weeks ago, trying to solve the problem, but although the car ran a little nicer, it didn't really help with the problem.
I've never seen a car pinging, or with advanced/retarted timing, so I don't know how to tell if that might be it. BUT, I was reading somewhere, that the ECU will retard your timing is there is, I think it was, detonation?
My problems happened like a switch being turned on when I changed the plugs, maybe something fell in them? What I also find strange is it starts shaking once the car warms up, like right when the RPM change happens. I'll turn on the car in the morning, it'll run fine. I let it set for a minute to warm up, wait a few minutes. The rpm meter suddenly changes(I think it drops, might go up), and the engine shaking starts.
Do you think that would probably mean it's an electrical problem?

 

you say that the exhaust has a foul smell? i would check the catalytic converter. it might be clogged. i had a similar problem with my 300zx and it turned out to be the cat.