# A Dead Cylinder



## Brent (Aug 17, 2004)

I did a quick search on this, and came up with nothing so I'll start a new thread. My car is a 93 Sentra XE 1.6 Liter. Pretty much I was driving one day, about an hour away and parked the car. It sat for some hours, and when I come to start it back up its shaking and idling low, power is cut in half, like I'm 1 cylinder short. I figure it's just moisture in the ignition system and it will go away when it drys up. About 45 minutes home, it clears up! Good to go, right?

A few days later, I'm up at my grandparents. Come out to start the car to leave and the same symptons. Drive it anyways. This time it lasts till I get home to take a look at it. No moisture in the distributer cap or burn marks in the wire, I replace the plugs and nothing happens so I call it a night. Next morning, it's running like a champ. So I drive to the store and get a cap rotor and wires, put them on and the car is good. The old ones were 1yr old, so they needed replaced I guess. Few hours later and get ready to leave for the lake, and we're back to crap again. ARGH! So now I do some diagnostics.

While running, if I pull the wire off the non running cylinder, nothing happens. If I pull it off a good cylinder, duh, the car is about to stall. There is spark from the cap to the wires. Put a spare plug on the end of the wire and fire it up, the spark plug is working. Take the one out of the car and do the same test, the plug is working. So there is spark everywhere it needs to be, but not working. This is bad. Take the valve cover off, check the cams, everything looks fantastic. Valve cover back on and I'm at a loss of what to do. With the plug off, the cylinder sounds like it's getting compression. However when I take the plug out, it looks wet. I don't know what to make of it guys, but I'd hate to be the only 3 cylinder in town. Please any suggestions?


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## Kindfiend (Oct 13, 2004)

You could have a bad injector, plug wire, spark plug, or connection somewhere inbetween. Since the problem is intermitent, I would lean towards a failing injector. A compression check wouldn't hurt either.


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## Brent (Aug 17, 2004)

Ok well I dont have the tools for an injector or compression check. Guess this means I have to go to the shop eh?


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## maroonse_r (Aug 9, 2004)

injectors are easy to check for but you have to have the tool to do it. its just a light that plugs into the injector wire. don't remember what its called


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## Twiz (Aug 24, 2004)

maroonse_r said:


> injectors are easy to check for but you have to have the tool to do it. its just a light that plugs into the injector wire. don't remember what its called


Noid light... you can use a multimeter instead... but not a digital one... That's when the dial multimeters come in handy. I highly doubt it's the electrical harness. I'd say the head gasket is shot but you should run a few more tests to determine the cause. Check to see if there's any coolant in that cylinder and check if the coolant has changed chemically.


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## Brent (Aug 17, 2004)

Well I found someone with a compression gauge and we got 170 pounds, real good. Also checked the harness to the injector and a good 14 volts. So I've take the whole intake plenum apart and pulled the injector out, applied 12volts to it and no click. Applied it to a different injector and definately clicking. Its a bad injector. I can get a new one from Advanced Auto Parts for $79, is that a deal?


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## Kindfiend (Oct 13, 2004)

Brent said:


> Well I found someone with a compression gauge and we got 170 pounds, real good. Also checked the harness to the injector and a good 14 volts. So I've take the whole intake plenum apart and pulled the injector out, applied 12volts to it and no click. Applied it to a different injector and definately clicking. Its a bad injector. I can get a new one from Advanced Auto Parts for $79, is that a deal?


Glad I was right! j/k Yeah, 79 bucks is normal for a new injector. Good job on finding the problem!


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## Twiz (Aug 24, 2004)

I knew I was right too... lol yeah right... injectors run for about $60 a piece but $79 is okay too if you need it badly. Are you sure this is your problem ? You can always switch injectors in between and try them out. The engine makes that diesel engine noise whenever one of the injectors' shot.


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## Brent (Aug 17, 2004)

Yeah the new injector fixed the problem. What a journey to fix this one. Thanks guys.


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## blackmaxima88 (Mar 20, 2005)

yeah I just went through that with my '94 Limited Edition a few months ago. it was misfiring really bad and I blamed it on a recent rainfall. good thing is I have an identical 94 XE in good running condition too. I swapped the plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and it still missed. then I swapped ECUs and distributors and it still missed. then I started pulling wires for injectors and it turns out injector #4 was shot. a little further testing with an ohmmeter confirmed it (a good injector measures 10 ohms, this one had an open circuit). about $70 later at advance auto parts, and $5 later at a nissan dealer for a new collector gasket, and a few hours of turning wrenches and cursing, I had the new injector in there. completely cleaned out the intake manifold while I was in there, and installed a new valve cover gasket. runs good as new at 216,000 miles. and the XE is still running strong at 150,000. 

Dan


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