"NaturallyAspirated" (NaturallyAspirated)
10/07/2013 at 14:33 • Filed to: Nissanlopnik
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"NaturallyAspirated" (NaturallyAspirated)
10/07/2013 at 14:33 • Filed to: Nissanlopnik | 0
| 10 |
My sister asked me to look at her car on Saturday, a 2010 Nissan Versa hatchback with the 1.8l. It's only got a little over 60k miles on it. It's running really rough at idle and threw a SES light. I hooked up my scanner and the only stored code is P0303, Cyl 3 Misfire.
I took it for a test drive, and although the idle is significantly rough, once you get the revs up it smooths out.
I didn't have enough time to really get into it, and since it's a late model car it has a plastic cover over all the interesting bits of the engine.
The main problem I have is that the ODB2 code isn't really specific enough for me to know what to replace. Everything from the spark plug, coilpack, fuel injector, intake manifold gasket, even rings or head gasket could cause this code, and since my sister doesn't have a ton of money right now, I'm hesitant to just start shotgunning parts.
Anybody have any advice?
dogisbadob
> NaturallyAspirated
10/07/2013 at 14:37 |
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Aren't plugs supposed to be replaced every 60k anyway? Was the CEL ever blinking?
CalzoneGolem
> NaturallyAspirated
10/07/2013 at 14:38 |
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Clean all the connections from coil pack to plugs.
MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
> NaturallyAspirated
10/07/2013 at 14:38 |
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I would recommend pulling the plugs to check those. Not only the cheapest part to swap out, probably the easiest too. Over 60k and you might as well anyhow.
nataku83
> NaturallyAspirated
10/07/2013 at 14:39 |
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Almost every modern car I've seen with this error has used a coil on plug ignition and one of the coils failed. I don't know anything about the Versa, but if it is coil on plug - try swapping the coil on 3 with one of the other coils and see if the CEL code follows the coil to the different cylinder. Should only take a few minutes to do, and if it doesn't make a difference, you know to keep digging.
Meatcoma
> CalzoneGolem
10/07/2013 at 14:42 |
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plugs or plug wires imo like CalzoneGolem said.
Basically, it's one of three things: loss of spark, air/fuel ratio, or loss of compression.
505Turbeaux
> NaturallyAspirated
10/07/2013 at 14:42 |
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again +1 on the coil packs. Pull all the packs and see if you see white "dust" on the boot that goes into the head. This is evidence if you cant see any rips in the boot or cracks in the plastic part of the pack. Just went through this with a succession of volvo 5 cyl
Squid
> NaturallyAspirated
10/07/2013 at 14:49 |
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The question is, are the plugs in there the fancy platinum plugs or standard copper ones that need replacing every 30k miles?
Pull plugs and asses condition of them, if they are cheapo copper plugs just replace them because they are less than $2 each. Get out the owners manual and reference the part number for the plugs and that will tell you what you got.
Also try finding a factory service manual on google, it will give you a pin point test to follow, they are time consuming but help eliminate the parts throwing at the car.
A possibility could be that the coil is bad and not firing but I do believe that may give a separate code. The injector may be clogged, but you really need to get those plugs out to asses the condition. While the plugs are out it would be a good time to do a compression test, if the dry numbers are bad, follow up with a wet test to determine if it is a piston ring problem or a valve problem.
Has she ever overheated the car or run it really low on oil?
Never throw parts at it unless you have at least done some diag, well the plugs are cheap enough to just go on and do. Also, if she continues to drive it with the misfire, she is risking damage to the catalyst which is stupidly expensive and can get burned up quickly.
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Squid
> Squid
10/07/2013 at 14:52 |
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oh and while you are doing this, make sure to mark which cylinder each part came from so you can try to keep the problem in the same cylinder or use it to identify if the coil is at fault by moving it to a different cylinder. That is only true if it is COP, if it has traditional wires, they are toast at 60,000 which you should just replace them along with the plugs.
desertdog5051
> NaturallyAspirated
10/07/2013 at 14:56 |
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When my CEL came on and it had a miss, I took it to Autozone and they read it and it was coil on cylinder 4. Free. Went to NAPA and got a coil. I don't care for AZone electrical parts
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NaturallyAspirated
> nataku83
10/07/2013 at 14:56 |
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Good call, they are indeed COP.