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The middle cylinder in the front is not firing. Tried a spare coil and new spark plug. I strongly suspect a clogged fuel injector. It looks like it's easy to access from the top. Do I need to remove that metal tube that is partially above it? Do I just unscrew the two Injector mounting screws and gently twist the Injector out? Any other advice for doing this?
Thanks for the replies. Is it more common to get a plugged Injector, or a bad electrical connection to it? Is it alright to do the one, or all three on that fuel rail?
A clogged injector is actually pretty rare unless you've been running totally junk gas for 25 years, which is fairly unlikely in the US.
If you have a 1989-1991 Maxima, the more likely scenario is you have the "old style" injectors which are notoriously unlreliable/known to fail. In this case, if you replace just the one injector you will surely be forever replacing one injector at a time as the rest fail in the future.
If you do have an 89-91 Maxima, a more prudent course of action would be to convert to the much more reliable updated 92-94 (might actually be 93-94, I can't remember as I don't have a VG) injectors/connectors.
If you already have a 92-94 Maxima, then you should be fine just replacing the one bad injector.
Here is a good image showing the "old style" vs "new style" injectors. These are actually 300zx injectors but they look identical to ours. Look at the top purple and yellow parts where the harness clips on. Which style is yours (ignore the color look at the physical build)?
He says he swapped coils so that indicates a VE. I'd probably pull the plug, disconnect the coil and crank. Then smell/see if there's gas in the cylinder. If no, then see if the harness to the injector is getting power when it's supposed to fire the injector.
If no, then you might have to pull the injector. They will be stuck so be patient
I just went through this with my 1998 and here are a couple things to know:
The injector may not want to come out. This is very common. You may have to pull out the entire fuel rail to get really good grip on it and it may take two people which is a much bigger job depending on which injector is giving you a problem.
You may prefer to have the suspect injector tested first. They are very stout and are very repairable. A really good vendor is RC Fuel Injector @ http://www.rceng.com/index.aspx . They do a great job and are easy to work with. I had them clean and calibrate all of mine. It isn't cheap but it can result in a pretty nice boost in performance and efficiency. They provide a before and after report which can tell you where your injectors were performing and how they will now.
OP - since you have a VE, here's a good tip for you to keep in mind for future use. The VE injector is identical to the 4th gen VQ injector. This means if you ever hit up junkyards you can pocket injectors from the easily-accessible front injector bank of 4th gen Maximas (which are plentiful at junkyards) to use as future backups for your VE.
I also have a personal preference method for getting injectors out of the rail without breaking the injectors (and they will break if you twist and grab on them, especially if you use pliers).
I take two allen head wrenches on each side, make sure they both fit snugly into the notches on each side of the injector. Lift the injector right out once you have both allen head wrenches inserted in each notch on the side. Really, you can use just about any tool/item that fits into the notches like a screwdriver etc. But I've found allen heads work perfectly as there's a specific size that fits like a glove. I have tried doing it this way before with a Phillips screwdriver and it tends to break out the area above the notch.
Here's the spot I'm speaking of. Do it on both sides simultaneously:
You guys are awesome. I have the 1993 Maxima. The mechanic that replaced the three Injectors in the rear, is going to look at it tomorrow. I only run high quality unleaded supreme in the car. I do suspect that the front three Injectors are the original ones, making them 22 years old.
I'll let you know what he says the issue is. The car is in fantastic shape, looks like new, and usually runs great. I do occasionally get that "timing chain tensioner" ticking that this particular engine is known for. I also run Mobil 1, 10-30 Synthetic in it. Any other suggestions to keep her humming?
I do occasionally get that "timing chain tensioner" ticking that this particular engine is known for
Lifters and/or timing chain issues are very routinely mis-attributed as the sources of ticking on the VE30DE. In reality it's almost certainly more likely the occasional ticking is your VTC assemblies.
You can simply ground those as a permanent fix if you wish (with a slight power loss, but isn't non-embarrassing silence worth the ~10 hp loss? )
A clogged injector is actually pretty rare unless you've been running totally junk gas for 25 years, which is fairly unlikely in the US.
If you have a 1989-1991 Maxima, the more likely scenario is you have the "old style" injectors which are notoriously unlreliable/known to fail. In this case, if you replace just the one injector you will surely be forever replacing one injector at a time as the rest fail in the future.
If you do have an 89-91 Maxima, a more prudent course of action would be to convert to the much more reliable updated 92-94 (might actually be 93-94, I can't remember as I don't have a VG) injectors/connectors.
If you already have a 92-94 Maxima, then you should be fine just replacing the one bad injector.
There's really not much of a discrepancy between square and oval failures. I've replaced many more ovals than squares. Although I have owned more 3rd gens with oval connectors than square, but virtually every one has needed an injector or three.
Lifters and/or timing chain issues are very routinely mis-attributed as the sources of ticking on the VE30DE. In reality it's almost certainly more likely the occasional ticking is your VTC assemblies.
You can simply ground those as a permanent fix if you wish (with a slight power loss, but isn't non-embarrassing silence worth the ~10 hp loss? )
Just heard from the mechanic. It's the fuel injector. $125.00 parts & labor. That leaves me with just two of the original Injectors to replace. And luckily, they too, are up front and easy to access. I'll probably do them myself. Do you think it's advantageous to occasionally run some Seafoam or other fuel additive in the gas system, or is that just a load of sales hype?
VTC = variable timing camshaft. Your intake cams have the VTC assemblies on the timing chain side of the cam. Each VTC has a solenoid, and when the solenoid is activated by the ECU it pressures the VTC assembly with oil and advances the intake cam timing by 10 degrees. Nissan did this to increase midrange torque and high end horsepower.
There is a spring inside the VTC sprocket that starts to rattle over time, some theorize due to oil galleys getting clogged over time, essentially "starving" the VTC assembly. While that can certainly contribute, I have come to believe that the biggest culprit is simply the spring is either too short from the factory, or it fatigues over time and can no longer keep proper tension (hence the rattle).
Since this is a rare engine, and many mechanics/shops rarely even worked on one, most people mistakenly think VTC rattle is "lifter noise" or some other problem, simply because they are totally unaware/never even heard of a VTC. That isn't to say that lifter noise etc isn't possible on these cars, but almost without fail when you hear ticking/rattling/clacking on a VE30DE, it's the VTC.
Nissan actually fixed the issue on 1994 SE's. I suspect the bulk of the change is that they used stiffer/taller springs in the assemblies. This is bolstered by the fact that the rebuild kit Nissan sells (sold) for the VTC assemblies happened to come with two different sized springs - a 2.6" spring, and a 2.8" spring (under the same part number, with total luck of the draw as to which size you'd get). Over time, people who rebuilt their VTC's figured out that those with the 2.6" spring failed again very quickly, and also noticed that the rebuild kit 2.6" spring was the identical height to the original spring they removed. Whereas people with the 2.8" spring reported no virtually re-failures of the VTC assembly after being rebuilt, and they also noticed the 2.8" spring was taller than the original springs they removed.
Anyway, so this is why I suspect the 1994 VE's came with this taller spring in the VTC assembly and why they by and large do not have the failure issues like the 92-93 VE's.
So this grounding we speak of was figured out by a genius member we used to have here back in the day, Craig Brace, and what it does is ground out the VTC solenoid to essentially disable it and stop all the clattering. It is perfectly safe, can be done in not even 5 minutes, easily reversible, and the only drawback is you lose a few hp and SOME people over the years report a slightly rougher idle. But like I said, it's easily reversible so no harm no foul if you don't like it. Some people even hooked theirs up to a switch so they could just switch it on and off to only silence them on cold morning startups or at idle at traffic lights when the clattering is embarrassing.
Here is a good video Hadman made years ago showing the difference between clattering VTC's and permanently grounding them:
Grounding them is very easy. All you need to do is connect the yellow wire on ONE of the VTC solenoids to ground. That's it. You can see in Hadman's video his setup. The easiest spot to ground them is right there at one of those 10mm bolts right over the water spout.
If it developed suddenly out of the blue, I would think there's little chance of it being a compression issue. How is the harness connector on that injector? How is the ground? For that matter, how is the harness connector on that coil pack?
False alarm. Slapped in new Injector, still missing. Time for a compression check?
Kiron
Before replacing the injector did you test the resistance on it? Is it misfiring the same as before the injector was replaced and is the misfire on the same cylinder as the one you just had the new injector put in? I'd start by checking the obvious plugs, coils, wires and injectors. Could be a possibility that the injector isn't seated right in the rail. Do you get any raw fuel from the exhaust? You could also check your plugs to see if all are burning well or if your running rich or lean.
Just got my "93" Maxima back. It's running great now. It seems that this particular model and year, takes a particular injector for each different cylinder. They are color coded for each cylinder, according to Nissan. We removed the newly acquired refurbished one, and replaced it with the correct color coded Injector that Nissan recommended. It runs like new now. I guess each one has it's own spray or dispersal pattern??? I've only got two more of the original Injectors, which I will be replacing soon.
Just thought I'd let you all know what corrected the problem. How do you feel about Lucas Injector cleaner of Seafoam added to the gasoline on occasion in an attempt to help keep them clean?
If your going to have all new injectors there shouldn't be any need to dump additives into your fuel just gas up with 91+ octane which already has additives sometimes dumping too much product isn't always the best solution unless it's needed.
If your going to have all new injectors there shouldn't be any need to dump additives into your fuel just gas up with 91+ octane which already has additives sometimes dumping too much product isn't always the best solution unless it's needed.
Just got my "93" Maxima back. It's running great now. It seems that this particular model and year, takes a particular injector for each different cylinder. They are color coded for each cylinder, according to Nissan. We removed the newly acquired refurbished one, and replaced it with the correct color coded Injector that Nissan recommended. It runs like new now. I guess each one has it's own spray or dispersal pattern??? I've only got two more of the original Injectors, which I will be replacing soon.
Just thought I'd let you all know what corrected the problem. How do you feel about Lucas Injector cleaner of Seafoam added to the gasoline on occasion in an attempt to help keep them clean?
Thanks
Russ
There is no color coding/different injector for each cylinder.
It's possible Nissan may have color coded the injectors only for the purpose of grouping sets of 6 together with the closest flow rate.
I think the VG injectors came in black or blue dot in the "old" style injectors, and yellow or green in the "new" style injectors. But , every single VE injector I've ever seen has a yellow dot and thus requires no color "matching" - other than making sure they're all red.
I wonder if perhaps you had a new style VG injector (or the mechanic did?) which could give you a dot color mismatch. Did your mechanic install a pink injector?
Unless your mechanic installed a VG injector accidentally, I would blame the fact that it was a rebuilt injector over any other theories.
There is no color coding/different injector for each cylinder.
It's possible Nissan may have color coded the injectors only for the purpose of grouping sets of 6 together with the closest flow rate.
I think the VG injectors came in black or blue dot in the "old" style injectors, and yellow or green in the "new" style injectors. But , every single VE injector I've ever seen has a yellow dot and thus requires no color "matching" - other than making sure they're all red.
I wonder if perhaps you had a new style VG injector (or the mechanic did?) which could give you a dot color mismatch. Did your mechanic install a pink injector?
Unless your mechanic installed a VG injector accidentally, I would blame the fact that it was a rebuilt injector over any other theories.
Was at the yard today pulled 12 injectors off 4th gens
9 were usable here's how I did it (with camera out off hand my left hand is holding / pulling up on injector. To avoid tool lose and injectors taking flight.
Was at the yard today pulled 12 injectors off 4th gens
9 were usable here's how I did it (with camera out off hand my left hand is holding / pulling up on injector. To avoid tool lose and injectors taking flight.
No they're no easier. The sole reason we mention fourth gens is because they're so plentiful at junkyards. So you can just pull front bank injectors from fourth gens all day at the junkyards.
Fourth gen injectors are the same as VE injectors. Not VG.
05-26-2015, 06:49 PM
Go for it.
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