Well, driving home a couple nights ago, car seemed to act a little weird, but nothing out of the ordinary on the way home from work. Get home, go inside and eat dinner, come back out to go visit with friends, notice it's idling a little weird. Start driving, definitely feels like a miss or something, exhaust sound seems different too. Then the codes pop up.
I'll try to cliff note this as best as possible. Basically, got a P0174 (Bank 2 lean) and first P0301 (Cyl 1 misfire), Ultragauge was showing the fuel trim for bank 2 being way up there, about 20-25%, bank one was showing usual -1-5%. At one point, came to be a 0300, multiple misfire, but after that cleared, kept on resting on 0301. So, got to investigating. Driving it, in gear stopped, obvious shake, you can hear popping in the exhaust somewhat randomly. Accelerating, little less power than before, will pull full RPM range, but takes a little longer. Gas mileage seems to have dropped, probably because it's dumping fuel in bank 2 to compensate for lean condition... Things I did/checked:
Power balance test, disabled coils, then disabled injectors, nothing obvious with either, cyl 1 a tiny bit if anything.
Both upstream 02 sensors replaced, figured the fuel trim was bonkers, maybe it was failing on the one side, and might as well do both. No change.
Moved coil 1 to cyl 3. No change.
Moved plug 1 to cyl 5. No change.
Moved injector 1 to cyl 2. No change. (I figure by using different cylinders for each and leaving them there, if the misfire comes up on any of them I know which is bad. 2 birds with one stone type of thing)
Change fuel filter, maybe it's clogged, cheap fix, about due anyway. Nope.
Fuel pressure, (thank you Ford for removing the schrader valves), after acquiring my scanner, maybe this is the issue, weak fuel pressure, not getting to the #2 rail and cyl 1 for some reason? Check the pressure, nothing less than 37.5 psi. Not that either.
Bad gas? Dumped a bottle of HEET (recent rain, maybe gas cap is leaking water in, one of the fast fill ones), fuel injector cleaner, and topped it off with fresh gas, half tank full. No improvement...yet.
Power to coil and injector plugs was fine, compared with other cylinders.
Propane test for vacuum leaks, doused entire intake with tuner wash, doused again with MCCC since it's a little thicker and foams up a bit thinking that would make an obvious change in idle if anything was leaking. Nothing.
Finally say screw it, grabbed the compression tester from autozone. Figure if it's misfiring on 1, fuel and spark seem to be legit, maybe something mechanical. Well...rounding to nearest 2.5: 1-145 2-165 3-165 4-160 5-175 6-182.5 7-197.5 8-185
So, after doing the compression test, did a leakdown real quick on #1, moved the crank to tdc, luckily it was on compression stroke, gave a listen, intake is quiet, couldn't get my ear too close, but exhaust was quiet, didn't hear anything or see any bubbles in the coolant, typical blow by in the oil fill. Also did the compression test with some of the MCCC since it was convenient, and it's designed to clean the combustion chamber anyway, got it to about 150.
Didn't drive it at this point to double check to see if the fuel injector was fouling up, so I did at this point, seemed to start driving a little better, drove it nice, gave it a little hell, 60mph, 30mph, didn't seem as bad, the bad gas theory was kinda fitting, but get home, start it up again, code comes back, still rough idling.
So all in all, in spite of the clean slate on the last oil analysis, and not hearing any noises, only thing I can think of, tensioners are really worn out and it jumped a tooth? At this point that's the only thing that makes sense, unless anyone else has a better idea? Could bank 1 really be that worn out? Possession?
Really sucks because I have to drive it until I get the trans back in the Aspire, which will probably be Friday...
Anyway, post up any other things to check, suggestions, "this is it"'s if you have them, I think I pulled enough hair out over this one....
Edit: MCCC = Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner - essentially Seafoam on steroids, thicker and foams up on contact. Forgot to throw that in there...
I'll try to cliff note this as best as possible. Basically, got a P0174 (Bank 2 lean) and first P0301 (Cyl 1 misfire), Ultragauge was showing the fuel trim for bank 2 being way up there, about 20-25%, bank one was showing usual -1-5%. At one point, came to be a 0300, multiple misfire, but after that cleared, kept on resting on 0301. So, got to investigating. Driving it, in gear stopped, obvious shake, you can hear popping in the exhaust somewhat randomly. Accelerating, little less power than before, will pull full RPM range, but takes a little longer. Gas mileage seems to have dropped, probably because it's dumping fuel in bank 2 to compensate for lean condition... Things I did/checked:
Power balance test, disabled coils, then disabled injectors, nothing obvious with either, cyl 1 a tiny bit if anything.
Both upstream 02 sensors replaced, figured the fuel trim was bonkers, maybe it was failing on the one side, and might as well do both. No change.
Moved coil 1 to cyl 3. No change.
Moved plug 1 to cyl 5. No change.
Moved injector 1 to cyl 2. No change. (I figure by using different cylinders for each and leaving them there, if the misfire comes up on any of them I know which is bad. 2 birds with one stone type of thing)
Change fuel filter, maybe it's clogged, cheap fix, about due anyway. Nope.
Fuel pressure, (thank you Ford for removing the schrader valves), after acquiring my scanner, maybe this is the issue, weak fuel pressure, not getting to the #2 rail and cyl 1 for some reason? Check the pressure, nothing less than 37.5 psi. Not that either.
Bad gas? Dumped a bottle of HEET (recent rain, maybe gas cap is leaking water in, one of the fast fill ones), fuel injector cleaner, and topped it off with fresh gas, half tank full. No improvement...yet.
Power to coil and injector plugs was fine, compared with other cylinders.
Propane test for vacuum leaks, doused entire intake with tuner wash, doused again with MCCC since it's a little thicker and foams up a bit thinking that would make an obvious change in idle if anything was leaking. Nothing.
Finally say screw it, grabbed the compression tester from autozone. Figure if it's misfiring on 1, fuel and spark seem to be legit, maybe something mechanical. Well...rounding to nearest 2.5: 1-145 2-165 3-165 4-160 5-175 6-182.5 7-197.5 8-185
So, after doing the compression test, did a leakdown real quick on #1, moved the crank to tdc, luckily it was on compression stroke, gave a listen, intake is quiet, couldn't get my ear too close, but exhaust was quiet, didn't hear anything or see any bubbles in the coolant, typical blow by in the oil fill. Also did the compression test with some of the MCCC since it was convenient, and it's designed to clean the combustion chamber anyway, got it to about 150.
Didn't drive it at this point to double check to see if the fuel injector was fouling up, so I did at this point, seemed to start driving a little better, drove it nice, gave it a little hell, 60mph, 30mph, didn't seem as bad, the bad gas theory was kinda fitting, but get home, start it up again, code comes back, still rough idling.
So all in all, in spite of the clean slate on the last oil analysis, and not hearing any noises, only thing I can think of, tensioners are really worn out and it jumped a tooth? At this point that's the only thing that makes sense, unless anyone else has a better idea? Could bank 1 really be that worn out? Possession?
Really sucks because I have to drive it until I get the trans back in the Aspire, which will probably be Friday...
Anyway, post up any other things to check, suggestions, "this is it"'s if you have them, I think I pulled enough hair out over this one....
Edit: MCCC = Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner - essentially Seafoam on steroids, thicker and foams up on contact. Forgot to throw that in there...