I’ll give it a try tomorrow and report. Thanks for your help.
Intermittent vehicle/engine shake and vibration with check engine light present
- Thread starter lloydster
- Start date
I’ll give it a try tomorrow and report. Thanks for your help.
Buckaroo
Member
Start with the easy stuff....
Find attached ignition wire routing diagram which designates cylinder numbers (nod to TheDurk). Check your wires to make sure they are routed as indicated and visually inspect the wires, particularly the one going from cylinder 3 to cylinder 6.
Cylinder 6 is the rear one on the driver side which is a little difficult to get to. Check that the spark plug boot feels like it is fully seated on that plug. Then pull the spark plug on cylinder 6 and give it a visual check. Also visually look at the plug boot. Look in and make sure there is a spring in there. Also check for carbon tracking on the boot (see The Google for definition). Then pull spark plug from cylinder 4 and visually compare the two. Then swap them - reinstall the one from 6 into 4 and vice versa. Clear the codes and see if the problem comes back on cylinder 6 (P0306) or moves to 4 (P0304) indicating issue with plug. If so, replace it.
As octanejunkie suggested, at the same time as the spark plug swap, also swap the coil pack from cylinder 5 and cylinder 3. Again, as you remove the coil packs, check to make sure that the waste spark wire on the cylinder 3 coil pack is fully seated before you remove it. If the problem moves from cylinder 6 to cylinder 2 or perhaps 3, that would mean the issue is the coil pack. If so, replace it.
If the issue stays with cylinder 6 after all this, you dig further. Do you have a volt meter? If not, you might consider buying one like this....not too much money and very useful in auto work and elsewhere around the house....
https://www.amazon.com/Multimeter-C...TF8&qid=1505909646&sr=8-5&keywords=volt+meter FYI....this just went on lightning deal on Amazon for $11.98.....scalding good deal...ends at 2:40pm EDT....I just bought one myself to give as a gift and would have bought 3 but they wouldn't let me
Buckaroo
Find attached ignition wire routing diagram which designates cylinder numbers (nod to TheDurk). Check your wires to make sure they are routed as indicated and visually inspect the wires, particularly the one going from cylinder 3 to cylinder 6.
Cylinder 6 is the rear one on the driver side which is a little difficult to get to. Check that the spark plug boot feels like it is fully seated on that plug. Then pull the spark plug on cylinder 6 and give it a visual check. Also visually look at the plug boot. Look in and make sure there is a spring in there. Also check for carbon tracking on the boot (see The Google for definition). Then pull spark plug from cylinder 4 and visually compare the two. Then swap them - reinstall the one from 6 into 4 and vice versa. Clear the codes and see if the problem comes back on cylinder 6 (P0306) or moves to 4 (P0304) indicating issue with plug. If so, replace it.
As octanejunkie suggested, at the same time as the spark plug swap, also swap the coil pack from cylinder 5 and cylinder 3. Again, as you remove the coil packs, check to make sure that the waste spark wire on the cylinder 3 coil pack is fully seated before you remove it. If the problem moves from cylinder 6 to cylinder 2 or perhaps 3, that would mean the issue is the coil pack. If so, replace it.
If the issue stays with cylinder 6 after all this, you dig further. Do you have a volt meter? If not, you might consider buying one like this....not too much money and very useful in auto work and elsewhere around the house....
https://www.amazon.com/Multimeter-C...TF8&qid=1505909646&sr=8-5&keywords=volt+meter FYI....this just went on lightning deal on Amazon for $11.98.....scalding good deal...ends at 2:40pm EDT....I just bought one myself to give as a gift and would have bought 3 but they wouldn't let me
Buckaroo
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Alright. Little update. So this morning I went out bright and early and did a coil swap and pulled/inspected/reset all my plugs (I didn't swap any plugs at this time). Everything looked good visually. Car started great and I there were no codes. However, I knew this issue was only present after driving for a bit and then starting it soon after turning it off. So I drove to work (about 15 minutes), turned the car off and came back to about 5 minutes later, turned it on and the shaking/sputtering/code (p0306) came back.
After that I tried switching the 6 and 4 plug. Same thing. Problem and p0306 still present.
Need a little help trying to figure out where to go next. I keep reading about fuel injectors, but that seems like a decent project that I don't want to do if that's not definitely the issue.
I do not have a volt meter, but I will be sure to pick on up asap.
Edit: Volt meter ordered.
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Buckaroo
Member
Good job! You are getting some potential causes out of the way. If you had the voltmeter, I would suggest you test the resistance on the waste spark wire running to #6 to rule that out. But let's proceed to do some basic things on the injector which may very well be the culprit. You want to get a long screwdriver (or equivalent) and put it on top of one of the other injectors and put your ear to it. You should hear a steady, high frequency clicking. That's what a good injector sounds like. Now listen to the #6 injector when your T4R is running good and make sure it sounds the same. Then, listen again when the problem sets in. If you don't hear the clicking - bad injector. It is very common that the coils in these injectors will operate fine when cold and then fail when they heat up. FYI....I am concerned that you will not be able to get to the top of that #6 injector because of the air plenum...don't have mine here at the moment so I can't look at it. Let me know.
FYI...the whole thing about no issue, shutting engine off, restarting with issue sounds exactly like my past injector problem. However, don't jump to conclusions.....
Buckaroo
FYI...the whole thing about no issue, shutting engine off, restarting with issue sounds exactly like my past injector problem. However, don't jump to conclusions.....
Buckaroo
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Problem Solved!
Just wanted to let everyone know that with some behind the scenes help from Buckaroo, I was able to diagnose and fix the problem with my Runner.
The issue was indeed a faulty fuel injector in my 6 cylinder. When I got everything all taken apart the engine was still pretty warm so I ran a resistance test. The 2 and 4 injectors read ~15 ohms, while the 6 ran ~80 ohms. Bingo!
I dropped in the new fuel injector, changed the crush washers on the fuel rail, put it all back together and so far so good. I've done cold and hot starts and have had no issues. It seems to be running a bit smoother overall and I think I can put this one to rest.
Thanks again everyone for your help. This truly is a great community to be a part of.
:thanks: :grouphug:
Just wanted to let everyone know that with some behind the scenes help from Buckaroo, I was able to diagnose and fix the problem with my Runner.
The issue was indeed a faulty fuel injector in my 6 cylinder. When I got everything all taken apart the engine was still pretty warm so I ran a resistance test. The 2 and 4 injectors read ~15 ohms, while the 6 ran ~80 ohms. Bingo!
I dropped in the new fuel injector, changed the crush washers on the fuel rail, put it all back together and so far so good. I've done cold and hot starts and have had no issues. It seems to be running a bit smoother overall and I think I can put this one to rest.
Thanks again everyone for your help. This truly is a great community to be a part of.
:thanks: :grouphug:
I never understand why people don't follow up. It really helps others with issues see that there was a fix that worked.
I got an Echlin one NAPA. I'm sure I'll catch some heat for not using oem, but I couldn't find one in the area and I wanted to get one in sooner rather than later. I plan on sending them all to witchhunter at some point to get cleaned, but I couldn't afford to have my vehicle down for a week or so at this time.
When I did the replacement, I also replaced the orings on the 2 other injectors on that side. As well as the crush washers on the fuel rail. I used this walk through and also this FSM (injector info starts around page 947) for torque specs and other specifics.
For anyone worried whether or not they're capable of doing this job I would say you most likely are. I had no experience working on cars before owning my Runner, which I got 2 months ago. If you have the tools (you don't need that many) and can keep track of all the parts (I put the nuts and bolts of each step in their own baggies), then you should be fine. It took me a little over 3 hours to do the job, but it was by no means a hard job.
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