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Stupid car


racer808

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Alright, dumb question, googling has gotten me limited answer to my question, but.  My kids Nissan 2003, it sits for extended periods sometimes cause he makes really poor choices sometimes..  Anyway, every time I have to jump it shortly after it does this jerking when driving around, throws a code & it is always "Cylinder 2 Misfire".  I replace coil then it happens again if we have to jump it.  We realized last few times after he drives around the jerking stops & the check engine light eventually resets & goes away so I haven't changed coils.  I have tried swapping coils around but we can't get it to act up then to see if the misfire changes cylinders   So the question:

I typically connect the ground to the battery post on both vehicles then do the positives.  Googling around most say say to connect the positives first, ground to battery post on car doing the jumping & ground to metal elsewhere (not on battery) on jumped car.  Does this really make a difference?  Can this be what's throwing the code & actually causing a coil issue?  I did start wondering if this ins't en electrical issue at but I don't think it is & I haven't had time to investigate much further.   

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I dont see any correlation between jump starting and a cyl-2 misfire, so that odds. If you have moved coils around and its still only #2, the issue is likely the plug, injector or ignition control circuit. I dont know if an 03 nissan has injector fault codes or IC fault codes. Are you scanning with a universal OBD II scanner or a factory scanner? There may be additional codes stored that a universal OBD II cant read. 

Edited by MLA
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I worked at a car dealership and have done it both ways thousands of times... there might be a scientific response to which way is "correct" but either way works. In your situation, I would check to see why the battery is going dead. Maybe have the battery checked for free at a parts store to see if it's any good. Don't be fooled by that code either, it might be triggered because of the low voltage and goes away when the battery recharges. Example, in Toyota if your gas cap is loose the check engine, traction control, and abs lights go on. My 4 runner sets for months without being started and then fires up no sweat. I would bet you have a bad battery. 

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19 hours ago, Gavin17 said:

My last cylinder misfire code (wife's car) was caused by extra oil in the cylinder due to a valve cover gasket leak.  

Was it random?  I thought that was possible too but that this only happens after jump starts then goes away and runs fine still has me looking electrical.  How do we know if it’s a head gasket?  

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Sounds like a bad battery to me if it only happens when battery was so low that it requires a jump and continues until it is charged.  Replace battery and add a mounted trickle charger so that you can keep battery fully charged while it is sitting.

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8 minutes ago, oldjeep said:

Sounds like a bad battery to me if it only happens when battery was so low that it requires a jump and continues until it is charged.  Replace battery and add a mounted trickle charger so that you can keep battery fully charged while it is sitting.

Yep I'd do this first. I only posted about my oil leak to say other things besides injectors can cause misfires.  Your issue doesn't sound similar. 

I'd replace the battery and pull the number 2 plug and inspect it.  

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It takes much less battery power to fire a fuel injector than it does a coil pack. So when trying to start it on a low or dead battery you are probably flooding one or several of the cylinders. Once you get it running you probably now have a fuel-fouled plug that eventually cleans up enough to fire once it's warm. Have you looked at the plugs at all? This should be easy to diagnose by inspecting the plugs. 

Its also possible that you have a bad injector that is leaking fuel into the cylinder when it sits undriven for a long time. So the jump start isn't causing it so much as the long sitting is. 

In either case if you arent running on all cylinders when initially started that will show up as a misfire. The ECU is always looking at data from the crank position sensor. It has a window of time based on the current RPM when it expects the next tooth on the crank timing wheel to pass the crank pos sensor. If that doesn't happen it registers as a misfire code. Based on specifically which tooth in the count it was it can identify which cylinder it thinks was the culprit. 

Edited by Brett B
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Continuing on the battery questions........

Maybe when he makes those bad choices you should either hook the car up to a trickle charger or disconnect the negative cable.  Might be a bad battery.  Could also me that the car has some sort of electric draw when it sits.  Not noticeable just over night, but kills the battery if it sits longer.

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in an earlier generation of computer controls some of the base settings are augmented by learned traits.

the computer would need to meter some stuff under normal driving conditions then store those learned items for use in subsequent ignition cycles.

that could be consistent with what you have described.

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The positive terminal was the culprit.  It felt snug to the post but wasn’t as tight as I thought it should be.  Changed that out fired right up and sounded better than it has in a while.  Went and drove it around runs good and the code cleared itself.  

I did have it on a trickle charger which is why I thought battery was bad even though it tested fine, just wasn’t making a good enough connection on the positive.  All good now though 

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The positive terminal was the culprit.  I think you are correct for the starting issue but I would be surprised if the number 2 injector is not working up to par. Otherwise you would not have seen cylinder 2 be the constant misfire cylinder. If you are not getting a code I don't think I would do anything more but I agree with MadMan its leaking or poor atomizing. With a good hot spark its not misfiring. But no code its good to go! 

 

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