SR Help...Urgent!

[Nissandriver714]

My car's still parked near my school, at a friend's house so I need to get it running properly again to go to school. Please help. Here's the whole situation:
Last night, after some semi-hard boosting I decided to open up the hood and let me engine cool down a bit. While I was looking around the hood, I saw a ground cable from the negative terminal (extra one, extended to the firewall) not being tied down properly. Anyways, I decided to pick it up and tighten it a bit. Stupidly, as I was holding it and kinda yanked it out for more room, it accidently dropped on the postive terminal, this made a spark and since my car was still on, it immediately shut down my car. I started it up with no problems. Everything runs, but later on in the night, it required a bit more grinding before the car starts. The next morning, when I tried to start the car, it also required a bit more grinding also. Anyways, once it started it runs fun. So I drove to my school and parked for a couple of hours doing paperwork, when I got out, tried to start the car, it was getting hard to start. Cranks, but not starting. After a while, I tried to step on the gas and crank at the same time, it starts, but sputters bad. It was running extremely rich with smoke coming out like crazy. I can litteraly smell the gas. Lots of smoke. I can only drive it a couple of blocks to my friend's house to park there and figure something out later. It idles really rough and seems to be shaking alot. Smokes alot and smells like gas, especially when I'm accerelating. What could cause this? Does it have anything to do with me dropping the negative on the postive terminal while the car's running? I need help to diagnose it and suggest solutions, please help. Sorry for the long story, but I wanted to be as detail as possible. This is a redtop in an 89 btw. Walbro fuel pump, full exhaust, upgraded turbo. It ran perfecting fine less than a day ago. Thanks in advance.

[nightwalker]

sounds exactly like a fried MAF. could be other things too. A lot of shit happens when you do something like that. Sucks, cause you're going to have to go through your electrical system step by step. Better hope your ECU is still fine.

[Nissandriver714]

Forgot to add, it still runs now, but just extremely horrible, lots of smoke and extremely rich. It was running fine this morning before I head out to school.
If my ECU is fried, would the car still start/run? Help me out guys, I need the car for school.

[nightwalker]

yep, I had a fried ecu and the car ran just like your did. But don't immediately jump to the ecu. It could be other things.

[Dweezil]

sounds like a fried battery or alternator. My DSM ran the same way before the alternator went.

[BSeay]

The hard starting sounded like mine when the starter went, it wouldnt start one morning before school so i changed it and bam brand new...

But you could have fried a couple things because of the way that the spark came it could have done a whole world of damage...good luck!

[ISTOTOSAO]

Just like nightwalker said it sounds like your MAF. Also check your intake tubing. Mine poped off at the throttle body after a hard accel and it ran like the maf was bad. Good luck

Steven

[scottie]

Check all the fuses in your box to see if any of them blew. If not I would start by getting a volt meter and checking the voltage your battery is delivering. Once you know its 12v or above, then you can start looking at other things like the maf voltage. You can usually tell when the battery is getting less juice when you start the car. If so replace your alternator because its not recharging the battery when you drive the car. The only thing I can think of that would cause your car to run rich and sputter is 1) Bad Maf 2) Bad ECU. From my Power FC my MAF voltage is roughly 5v when it is revved up. My battery reads 12.8v. Sorry I cant be of more help. If it makes you feel better I did the same thing on my RX7 and I had to replace the alternator and battery.

-scott

[Nissandriver714]

So far, I don't think it's the battery or alternator because the headlight's still strong and the alternator's still charging to keep the head lights strong. I'm gonna try to diagnose it better this sunday, because I got class on Saturday. I have 2 questions if anyone can answer them, please help me out, it would make it alot easier.

1. If the ECU is fried, will the car still start and run? (even though horribly)
2. Is it possible that one or more of the coil packs/spark plugs are not igniting thus expelling unburnt air/fuel mixture when the exhaust valve opens? Thanks

[sepulchral]

its not the mafs

prolly fried ecu

[Ghettokracker71]

1. If the ECU is fried, will the car still start and run? (even though horribly)


For the second time,YES. Somebody already posted yes.

Take it to autozone and have the battery,and alternator tested. Pull every single fucking fuse(yep!) and check them.

Good luck :bow:

P.S. stock MAFs for that thing are cheap,its the same as the SOHC KA

[Var]

i supposed the transistors for one or more injectors melted shut so the injector keeps spraying. 100% duty cycle

prolly not but i like to take wild guesses at problems like this

[speeddreamz]

Ignitor chip, might have went bad, even tho it worked after the fact for a little while, it could be your ignitor chip. Ignitor chips can be found off a q45, the newer version they got two of um.

Insure you are gettin spark/fuel. Check your fuses like everyone else said.

I doubt its the maf, if it is the maf you can take it off the sensor, give it gas, it will turn over but die.

I'd recommend having a friend put a bottle over the fuel hoses crank for one second, let the gas into the bottle, make sure they don't keep cranking it though. Also watch out when unplugging the hose.

Also check spark, take off coil pack, put a screwdriver in the tip, you'll hear it spark or u can look at the spark arch from the coilpack to the tip of the screwdriver.

I seriously think its the ignitor chip which will cause no spark!

[Nissandriver714]

Where is the ignitor chip located at? What do I trace it from to find it? Thanks

[Mike22bSTi]

It's on the passenger side of your engine bay, find the harness comming through the firewall from your ECU, and follow it, you'll run into the ignitor chip.

[speeddreamz]

sometimes its on a diff side depending on how ppl do the wiring. Its around the size of a deck of cards, with 2 connectors on each end of the cards. 1 connector has 4 or 5 plugs, the other has 5 or 6, but i know one side has more than the other. Sometimes it'll be connected to a metal bracket, thats how it comes off the clip! Like dude said above me, just trace your main harness, you can't miss it !

[Nissandriver714]

UPDATE: This morning after class, I went and check up on the car. Took the sparkplugs off, the third cyclinder (when standing in front of car) is filled with gasoline. The other 3 cyclinders seem to be dry. I proceeded to test out all the spark plugs and coil packs, all of them had spark. What could be wrong? Suggestions?

[Nissandriver714]

2nd Update: So I went back and to do more diangnose on the car. Turns out that the 3rd injector was spraying gas whenever I turn the ignition to the 2nd click. Only this injector stays open all the time, and the rest is close. Is this what's stopping the car from starting? Or is it the cold-start injector (if exists). Help me out please. Thanks. Also, looking for 1 stock sr injector. Thanks

[sr240mike]

Your 3rd injector is stuck open. There is no cold start injector. Find a stock injector and replace it, Hopefully that will fix it. This may sound ghetto but it worked for me once before when I had an injector that stopped firing ( and not stuck open like yours). Apply 12v directly to the injector from battery to "jump it" for lack of better words. Hopefully the ecu is not fried like others suggested.

[Nissandriver714]

Problem has been solved. I went down to sr20store and bought myself an injector and replaced it. It runs perfectly fine now. Thanks very much to all that helped.

[sr240mike]

Right after I post. Guess what happens. My #4 injector sticks open. Damnit. Anyone in the bay area please email me if you got sr20det 370cc injectors. [email protected]

[sleep]

i supposed the transistors for one or more injectors melted shut so the injector keeps spraying. 100% duty cycle

prolly not but i like to take wild guesses at problems like this

Wow dude you hit the nail right on the head

[sr240mike]

Are you being sarcastic? Or was that the answer to a problem that you had. His answer wasn't that far off. I've seen shorts in an ecu that caused the exact problem westborough described.