P0302, Dead Car, Stranded in the Middle of nowhere, HELP!

This is super long, but appreciate any time spent reading/contributing.

 

Ok so I'm not in the middle of no where anymore. But need some help on what to do here:

 

Some background.

For the past several months, I have been getting P0302 intermittently. I'd get it, clear it, get it again, clear it, etc...Car wasn't idling roughly or anything and I needed to put new spark plugs in soon anyways.

 

So I put the new spark plugs in, and the car is a-OK.

 

Well P0302 comes up again so I think ok...let's swap injector 1 and 2, thinking if the code moves I found the problem.

 

So I do this swap this past friday. I notice when I pull injector 2, I get a release of pressure, and if I shine my light in the hole I see gas kinda bubbling.

 

I vaguely remember the pressure release when i looked at the injectors before, but never the bubbly gas...but then again, I never shined a light in there.

 

Anyways, do the swap friday night, car starts, everything seems ok. Saturday morning I drive from DC to Williamsburg, VA. Again, no problems whatsoever.

 

Sunday we're checking out some things in Williamsburg, around town...no problem.

 

Finally get back on the road and about 15-20 miles on the way back, with the cruise control set to 80, the car starts surging right around 80, like it can't quite get to 80 and keeps trying. Car gets to 80, stays there...and then the OH SHIT flashing check engine light comes on and I pull over immediately.

 

As a come to stop the engine kind of up and burbles and dies. I try to turn it back on...chuga chuga chuga chuga. Doesn't start and I smell gas under the hood, but can't actually see gas leaking anywhere.

 

Tow truck comes...so lucky that a shop was open on Sunday and a local mechanic gets to work.

 

After describing what happened, their initial reaction is that the engine flooded and one of the cynlinders is filled with gas.

 

So the mechanic pulls the spark plugs, and sure enough, three are dry, Cylinder 2's plug is wet with gas.

 

Just after the mechanic blew out the gas from cylinder 2 is when I left and grabbed a rental car to go home, so I don't know what else they did.

 

Anyways...so what are some of yours guys thoughts on what is going on here?

 

To recap.

Intermittent P0302

Replaced all spark plugs

P0302 returns

Swap injectors 1 and 2 to see if code moves

Drive 120+ miles without incident

Cylinder 2 floods

 

The mechanic is saying that the injector is probably the culprit here.

I was getting P0302...and then swapped injector 1 and 2...so that would mean that the old injector 1 must have went bad?? But I wasn't having any problems with that before.

 

I honestly could have botched something in the swap...accidentally damaged the injector some how.

 

However, would I have been able to drive 120+ miles no problem if I messed up the swap...could it have been a slow accumulation of gas in the cylinder?

 

Or...injector just failed/broke and it wasn't anybodys fault, it was just time for that injector.

 

Not quite sure what the prognosis is going to be tomorrow...but I want to see if I can get some ideas on what to do next.

 

They are going to run a flow test on the injector I think.

 

If it is the injector...is it wise to just replace all 4 while the guy is in there? I probably can sell the old ones as cores to recoup some of that money back.

 

I am more puzzled how I could drive so far, and then it dies..would have thought it would have died a lot sooner.

 

Anyways...HELP!

I would only replace the one bad injector. Now.

 

Then think about the others, later.

they might also want to try a compression test.

they might also want to try a compression test.

 

While they are in there, it wouldn't be a bad idea.

true. don't want to be a debbie downer but if there is low compression in that cyl (broken ring lands or burnt exh valve) then it would be wet with fuel since the injector would still be spraying as much as the other cyls, but that cyl wouldn't be burning it off.

N - stranded = no bueno. Hope this works out. Several are reporting similar problems but I'd get a compression check and follow-up with a leak-down if that is inconclusive. As Max indicated though, injector is likely the culprit if the CC and LD register negative - so as a minimum would plan to replace that for the time being.

So they got it running last night...definitely need to replace the injector. I asked them to do a compression check and they will do that now. What should the result of the test be? A certain level of PSI?

 

What would be considered an inconclusive result of the compression check...which would then trigger a need for a leakdown test.

 

I am not even sure what a leakdown test is...

 

I'll go ahead an order the injector since it needs to be done anyways and is suspect. Hopefully the other stuff comes out ok.

leakdown is going to tell you if you have burnt valves, or better descrition is, it will tell you if problem is upper end or lower end. Most common probems are ringlands in the lower end and valves (burnt or lash issue) in the upper. Im hoping thats not the case, neither is a cheap fix. but sadly enough it seems like theres a post a week on here lately about someone needing a rebuild.

Change that oil!

If I'm reading the 2005 fsm right, it looks like your compression test numbers should ideally be between 142psi-171psi. But as BarManBean said, you just don't want to see any drastic differences in the test numbers.

You definitely don't want to see 35/98/98/125. Ask me how I know.

If you flooded the motor there is a chance a ring has been damaged, unburnt fuel is going out the exhaust, problem for the cats.

 

If it was me, I'd want to know if I scored a cyl wall. I'd replace the one bad injector.

 

Everyone jumps in and suggests a compression test, but in this case I'm not certain it's going to tell you what you want to know.

 

Why'd the cyl fill with fuel? It has NOTHING to do with compression or leaking.

 

You either weren't getting burn or your injector was dumping too much fuel into the cyl. Could be both, based on what you said, I suspect bad injector. I'm becoming a fan of a bore scope camera which would show a lot without opening up the motor. Keep in mind you can score a cyl wall and still make decent compression. Can't go 'wrong' with the test.

Update!

 

After a major mix up with parts...I headed down to Richmond and got 2 new injectors from a dealer there.

 

The shop did do a compression check and said everything was within spec. Like rob-2 said...the real question I have is how did that cylinder fill up like that. It could have been a slow death? I have been getting misfire codes for awhile. But the mechanic was pretty sure it was the injector...mentioned it was bleeding down

 

Anyways, I wanted to replace injectors 1 and 2 since I messed with them/swapped them around etc...I could no longer trust either one of them fully. Of the two new injectors I got from the dealer, one of them was bad! The car was "skipping" and smoke was constant out the tailpipes

 

Left with no other choice, the shop put in the "good" "old" injector (maybe it was the good one...honestly they were both on the tray and it may have been the "bad" one...again, I wanted to replace both because I'd lost faith that they were good) and the car ran just fine, no skipping, no smoke, etc.

 

I took the car back to the dealer in Richmond where I got the injectors and they gave me a fresh injector and off I went back up to NoVA. The car ran just fine all the way up to NoVA, no issues. I didn't drive the car today and tonight I swapped out the old injector with the new one and the car ran just fine. No skipping or smoke. I followed that up with an oil change.

 

So far so good. Injectors 1 and 2 are brand new, and never had a problem with injectors 3 and 4. I will just have to see over the next week or so if anything abnormal happens. You never can really tell without tearing things apart, so hopefully it doesn't come to that.