VIDEO: Mass Air Flow Sensor Failure Patterns
A contaminated mass air flow sensor cannot measure the amount of air flow correctly. This video is sponsored by NGK & NTK.
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You Have An Oxygen Sensor Code, Now What?
With hundreds of diagnostic codes for oxygen sensors, it is no wonder technicians face a daunting task when identifying the cause (or causes) of an oxygen sensor-specific trouble code. Knowing how to accurately interpret location codes is the first step in the diagnostic process that can be used along with fuel trims and catalyst efficiency.
5 Tips For Vehicle Storage
Improper long-term storage can lead to engine and cylinder surface rust, as well as carburetor and fuel issues. Preparing for long-term storage is the best rule of thumb in case of an emergency or a change of plans.
What is an Import Car?
When I started working on cars in the 1990s, repairing import vehicles was far different than domestics. If you looked under the hood of a Nissan pickup, it might have eight spark plugs for four cylinders. In 1990, Toyota put an engine on its side and placed it under the passenger seat of a minivan. Volkswagen even made a V6 with a single cylinder head.
Leading Causes Of Ignition Coil Failures
It may be surprising to learn that the leading causes of ignition coil failures have nothing to do with the coils themselves. Ignition coil damage is often caused by underlying issues never addressed in engine misfire repairs. Issues like spark plug gapping, leaking valve covers or moisture intrusion.
The Effect Of Flash-Over On Ignition Coils
When diagnosing ignition components due to misfire codes, inspect the ignition coils, coil-on-plug boots and spark plugs as a complete system. The leading cause of an ignition coil damage claim is spark plug flash-over. Checking the inside of coil boots during routine plug maintenance can lead to fewer come-backs, less time spent on diagnostic repairs,
Understanding Misfire Codes And Ignition Coils
In a perfect world, a flashing check engine light for DTCs P0301 through P0312 would always be solved by installing a new ignition coil. If this were true, technicians wouldn’t need countless hours of diagnostics training. The reality is that a misfire can be more than a missing spark from an ignition coil.
Tech Tip: Ignition System Service in a Changing Market
Distributors started disappearing from engines back in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the automakers began to phase in distributorless ignition systems (DIS) followed by coil-on-plug (COP) ignition systems. Everybody said distributors and eventually spark plug wire sets were going away. Well, here it is more than 20 years later and auto parts stores still carry a hefty inventory of distributors, caps, rotors and spark plug wire sets. But in addition to these parts, store shelves are also stocked with DIS coil packs and COP coils.
Current Trends for Ignition Systems
As automotive technology moves forward, ignition systems are becoming more and more entangled with other systems on the engine. The current generation Nissan Maxima 3.5L V6, which was introduced in 2004, has a fairly conventional coil-on-plug (COP) ignition system. The individual coils are driven by the powertrain control module (PCM) using the input signal from