94 Maxima - Check engine light on for the 1st time ever.

Almost 20 years is quite a long time for a car these days. At the end of last year, the "average age" of cars in New Zealand was about 13 years old, but New Zealand is considered to have one of the oldest average ages. A quick Google search seems to indicate that the US average age is about

My car is a 1994 as well. Apart from the usual things like cambelt replacement, numerous tyres, a couple of batteries, etc, the only thing that's "gone wrong" was a few weeks ago it needed a new starter motor. :-)

The prbolem with modern cars is the more and more useless electronic gadegst and gizmos they add, the more there is to go wrong and the more difficult and / or expensive it is to fix. :-(

Even something simple like replacing the car's radio is near impossible. They used to be a standard size and you could slot in any make or model radio you wanted. These days they are pretty much all custom-made control consoles. :-(

I won't get into a "they don't make em like they used to" debate but wanted to comment that I'm surprised the check engine light came on for a misfire on a 1994 anything.

What were the ECM trouble codes?

GW

I did not check the codes at the time of the failure.

I was driving at 60 mph or so, the check engine light came on, but I did not notice any changes in the car. When I got the the next traffic light, I realized that the engine was misfiring, so I thought of a defective spark plug.

When I checked the injector with an stethoscope, there were no clicks present as in the other injectors. Being able to measure the injector's coil continuity, and having the electrical pulses from the ECM, then I diagnosed it as a stuck injector.

Today when reading the codes from the vehicle, the only code I found was related to the knock sensor, 2 start-ups ago.

There are injector leak and injector circuit trouble codes listed in the trouble codes list in the service manual.

I wish now that I had checked the codes at the time of the failure, because now I am intrigued as to what made the CEL come on.

AS

Geoff Welsh wrote:

It's good that you actually noticed the miss. I wouldn't be totally surprised if the light came on because the (un-smart old style) ECM figured the oxygen sensor was stuck lean...when in fact the engine was not getting enough fuel due to the bad injector. There's a whole bunch of people in the world who would have pulled an O2 code, replaced the sensor and not fixed anything.

Anyway, it's academic now.

Great work, good to read it! GW

Yes, good point, burning lean, tripping the Check engine light.

Thank you.

AS

Geoff Welsh wrote: