When you start over on Diagnostics

[Ray Pierce]

:silly:
This is just to blow of some steam. Steam is really too hard of a word. To explain this I had to paint the setting …I’m working on an Acura TL that is giving me some massive grief. It’s partly cause of the owner. And partly my own schedule. I work out of my home. Normally not a big deal. One car/ one day. No driveways blocked,..neighbors stay happy.
So this Acura, Long time friend, who is a struggling single mom with 3 kids (one who is a VERY NEW driver) I get the call “Help My car wont start!!!” Long story after 3 days of work, had contaminated gas. got started,ran, test drove and all was good. Week later another call “my car is running funny” Now at my house, car has a misfire, and the Random P1399 misfire code. Last week during my diag, i put in NGK plugs, and tested the coils strength with adjustable spark tester. over 20K. I also cleared the EGR ports/holes. Did a pressure drop test one every injector, and noid light every connector all were good/working. Yesterday I pull the plugs out to see if any one looks worst than the others. All looked the same. So I put them back in and changed the position of all the coils So then when the engine was running I used the SmartTac, to look at the spark KV/Burn time. 11kv/1.6ms on all 6 so I know ignition should be good. WHY is this misfiring? Fuel still crappy??? I called the mom, and asked if the tank of fuel been ran empty and refilled? I saw it was sitting at a 1/2 tank. She said yes it has. So I’m still leaning towards bad gas. I purchase some fuel tank cleaner, and a water cleaner. I all of it poured in, and filled the tank up with with gas. Now the misfire is worse. Not much else I can do for the day I returned the car back to the customer free of change, I suspect the cleaner is forcing the left over contaminate through the fuel system. OR IS IT?? Now I’m second guessing myself. This Acura has 204,203 miles on it. I know that these have a history of have valve adjustment causing a misfire, as well as the EGR getting plugged will do the same. After the fuel was added, it for the first time was giving me P030X code, I cleared and rescann to find a different P030x code. Still the P1399. I take GREAT pride that I have ALWAYS been the “GOTO” guy But i think I may have to punt. I do have the time to fix this.. but does the owner have the money. I’m stuck with guesses, and I know I’m better than that. At what point does a repair/diagnostics become a quest to conquer? I know I will win this battle. But at what cost?

Topic

[angelo paloumbis]

check resistance on the fuel injectors. i believe that honda injectors need to be 10.5 ohms or higher. eric correct me if i am wrong. i have seen a shorting injector, (for example on cyl #4 cause a code P0305 and P0306. all i can attribute that to is that O2 on that bank was seeing extra fuel being injected and leaning out that bank causing cyl 5 and 6 to lean out)

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