http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1201546949

anyone had this happen before?

 

Better question,why did your injector plug melt?

 

eek...
that's what happens when your injectors die and short out electrically.. sucks for you.

buy a new injector harness and injector and if you're lucky, it didn't fry the ECU.

 

Hmmph..so the injector shorted out,fed back on the harness and melted it? wow,never seen that before on any vehicle..

 

that's my guess anyway.
either that or the harness connector got a bit loose and started arcing and sparking every time the injector fired. it'll eventually carbonize and burn to a crisp.. seen that happen many times with headlight sockets, but never with an injector.

 

Well i can definitely see that happening on the old type injector connectors, as they are notorious for bad connections.strangely though,the plug in the pic looks like the newer Deutsch type connector.

 

Deutsch = douche.

 

fixed..

 

whichever floats your boat.

 

Guys - I just don't know about the injector connector itself causing the issue because .................

1. The design of the ECU and the typical duty cycle of power supplied to the injector

2. The fact that the actual wire's insulation does not appear to have discolored and gone brittle as I normally see when arcing on a loose/bad connection.

IMO there is simply not enough electrical energy involved to cause this damage ................ and from what I gather the injector/motor is still working OK too?

I think that this damage was caused by either chemicals or an open flame applied to the outer surface of the connector.

 

but the thing is... the car is hitting fine on all 6. THAT'S what's confusing me so much. i've pulled the #3 plug before and the difference was immediately noticeable. but it feels to be running on all 6. that is cyl#5 with the melted connector for those who are wondering. I just noticed it today but the car runs no different than it did, say, ever.

short story:
i went outside to remove my a/c belt for the winter, because the stupid tensioner pulley bearing is shot, as well as possibly a bearing or two inside the compressor itself. I looked up after taking the belt off and starting the engine, at the cyl#2 injector area, and saw some gas on the fuel rail... so i shut the engine off and started talking to internetautomar on AIM. Then i went outside to take pics of it. Fuel evaporated, never leaked again, as far as i saw.. and i let the engine run for a good 5 minutes, waiting for the fuel to leak again. Never happened. So since it was daylight out i decided to poke my head around my engine bay, see if anything was glaringly out of whack, and saw the plug and took pics of it.
/short story

 

remember my car has a mystery engine. dunno why the heck anyone would swap the connectors out, b/c the car is a '90 and the harness does not appear to have been unwrapped or anything... but ALL the connectors are the push-tab type, not the wraparound-metal-clip type. the one on cyl#3 has a broken tab so it slides off if i pull on it, but doesn't just like... fall off even over bumpy roads and potholes and stuff.

 

Well - to confirm me being wrong, why don't you pull the funky injector plug off and post a pic of the actual connector side of the plug and injector itself - my bet is its quite clean and making good contact but you will not know till you investigate it properly.

 

What's the possibility of the fuel leak being ignited by a bad or shorting injector? Ima just saying....

 

The only thing hot enough to melt that plug is a fuel fire (with which you'd see soot all over the place) or an exhaust gas leak hitting it.

 

good point

 

good idea, but the fuel leak (which comes and goes) over cylinder 2, and the exhaust leaks are on cylinders 2 and 6. the melted plug is on cylinder 5. so unfortunately that isn't a likely cause. I am 90% sure that all my rear studs are OK.

 

 

 

Some kinda short happened there.. It happens. I'd replace the plug.

 

yeah i know i know. sometime when i have a second and it's not pitch black outside i'll pull the plug off... if it will even come off... but i work long hours, into the night, and this weekend is going to be hectic as hell, if not MORE hectic than hell, (brother needs valvecover gasket done sooner rather than later... best friend needs axles done asap, i don't get off until like.. 5 on saturday AND i'm out of town next week)

 

You might want to make sure you have a back up ready before you pull the fried injector plug. Things have a way of falling apart (read: brittle) once you remove them.

 

That sure is good advice, yet I am willing to bet the only real damage is to the rubber "boot" that sits on the injector harness plug (looking at the pic) and hence my earlier suggestion as to the cause.

 

Your car is weird /end thread.

lol j/p that axle wouldn't happen to be that probe would it?

+1 on the spare though, I'm sure it wont end well if you don't have one on hand. Though if you do have one it'll probably be no big deal...

~Alex

 

ya it is the probe (VC gasket is a 5SFE 3rd gen Camry)

i am possibly going to have a replacement connector handy in a few weeks so i guess i'll let it be until then. but the melting MUST have happened recently. i think (and hope) i'd have noticed it long ago if it was that way for a long time.