was having troubles with a cylinder 1 misfire and narrowed it down to the fuel injector. I went ahead and replaced the fuel injector and the car was running great! no more codes and a smooth running engine.

the car was driven and had run out of gas. after filling the gas, the battery had gone dead, so we had to connect to another vehicle with jumper cables to get it to start.

after starting the car, it was running really rough and lots of white smoke and a gasoline scent was emitting from the exhaust. the car will barely run now and shut off. not sure if this is because of the battery failure, or perhaps rust filling up the fuel lines and clogging injectors?

now we have a P0300 code for random misfires and it's obvious the car is not running on all cylinders.

do you think rust could have clogged the injectors? or something worse? I only replaced one injector.. and Im hoping the rest are not destroyed now.

thoughts.. ideas?

TIA

1996 Maxima

 

The fuel pump relies on the gas to cool the pump.
When you run it dry it's likely the fuel pump burnt itself out.

Solution: replace the fuel pump and use a new o-ring on the tank when you pull it.

 

I'm skeptical about the fuel pump being bad. It seems the the engine is getting more than enough gas as it is coming out of the exhaust.

I would check the fuel pressure regulator or maybe even the MAF.

 

thanks for your replies. Im a bit worried that I caused another issue when I was replacing the fuel injector, however, it was a pretty easy job, so I don't see where the issue could be there.

it's just curious to see how running out of gas could cause so many issues.

There is a lot of white smoke and gas coming out of the exhaust.

I'll take a look at the MAF and fuel pressure regulator. although, Im not sure how to check them vs. just replace them.

I obviously did disconnect the MAF when performing the install of the fuel injector as I had to remove the UIM. maybe I damaged that ?

 

Try running some fuel injector cleaner through the car, some have had success witth that alone but no garantees. You could also try seafoaming the car.

MAF should be ok unless you touched any of the internal stuff, or dropped it. Messing with the tiny screws on top is also a major no no. Overall it sounds like your fuel system simply got some dirty crap sucked in that was sitting on the bottom of the tank for over a decade.

 

MAF should be OK.. I did not drop anything nor mess with those screws.

problem is that car is barely drivable.. I could put maybe another gallon in it with some cleaner and try and run it at idle. when I disconnect the battery from the jumper cables, the engine starts to pop and basically dies.

 

How long since the fuel filter was last changed? Perhaps replacing that and then doing the above would do the trick?

Based on the circumstances id say its still dirty fuel lines/injectors, or one hell of a coincidence in timing and other factors are at play. Start with the likely scenarios first and if that fails, start looking elsewhere (like maf, etc). I wouldnt count the fuel pump out yet either.

 

it's probably been awhile. however, I feel like it's getting too much fuel, or at least not burning it.

just tried with the fuel injector cleaner. the car will start and run slightly chunky. however, after it warms up, it runs really rough at idle or while under throttle and lots and lots of white fumes and gas spits out the back! finally it will stall out.

if there are any obvious ideas, I can try them. otherwise we are going to sell this car for parts. it's in good shape and probably a minor fix. but we are moving and need to get rid of it.

 

how many miles are u at now? Its probably a minor problem.. stick to it d;

 

230k

 

Sounds like either the pintle caps on the injectors broke free and now excess fuel is getting dumped, or the injectors need to be cleaned. Have you pulled the injectors to inspect them?

By your description of smoke and whatnot put the exhaust, your primary focus should be the injectors.

Keep in mind 230k is starting to get to the point where these cars start to show their age. Most certainly they can can go farther, just you should be wary of getting caught chasing an endless trail of unrelated problems popping up one after another.

 

thanks for your input. perhaps the one that I replaced broke free? I tightened down the caps to force it into the position. is there more to it than that?

 

now looking at a video, I think I removed the pintle cap before I installed it! when I took out the old injector, there was no plastic cap, so I removed the one that was on there. maybe the old cap was still stuck in there?? shoot! not sure if I can recover from this one, if so. I did not remove the fuel rail, so getting that old cap out of there will probably require that??

 

If the old cap wasnt present, it means at some point it became brittle with age, cracked into pieces, and got sucked into the engine. No worries about retrieving it, as it was annihilated almost instantaneously - dinky little plastic cap vs VQ internals, the VQ wins every time.

Pull the injector and make sure that the pintle cap is installed, along with all the other needed hardware like orings. You can pretty much count on the other injectors also missing the cap, which is good because you now know that is almost certainly the root of your problems. You can buy all that hardware seperate btw, no need for new injectors unless you can get them cheap enough.

 

I'll do this today. I had taken a pic when I pulled the old injector out. I can see an orange pintle cap sitting in the fuel injector cavity. think I can pull it out wig needle nose pliers?

 

This problem is a reoccurring theme. I keep saying around here that at 200k, our injectors should be serviced with new new o-rings and pintle caps etc.

 

yep, you sure can. If the valve is partially open, you may only get once chance at this...don't bump it or away it goes!