2000 Villager Misfire

[mikeSONICGSR]

My wife let the gas get down to only 7 miles left. Got gas and when she started it up it started to shake and idle crazy. She could drive but something just didnt seem right. Took it to Autozone and it threw a Misfire on Cylinder #3 and Knock Sensor. So I replaced all the spark plugs and wires and added a fuel injector cleaner and it still has the same problems.

Should I do the distributor next?

The only thing I did notice is when I pulled out the wire on cylinder 2 it didnt seem to make much difference and when we pulled the spark plug back out it didnt have much gas on it, so could the valve be messed up?

Thanks for any help!

[tempfixit]

DO not worry about knock sensor code, caused by misfire.

Have you tryed moving plug and wire to see if the miss follows suit????

Use a wooden rod and listen to injector to see if it is clicking like the others.

Is injector getting power to it.

What brand of injector cleaner did you use???

How many miles of vehicle????

What condition is the distributor cap iin???? I am thinking a faulty fuel injector. I would try some B12 fuel injector cleaner with about a quater tank of gas.

[mikeSONICGSR]

It has 154000 miles, the distributor looks to be in good condition. I used STP fuel injector cleaner. All thwire had spark coming out of them.
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[ricebike]

might as well throw a new fuel filter on it, just for preventative maintenance

having fuel level that low may have sucked some sediments from the bottom of the tank to clog either the fuel strainer inside the tank or partially clog the fuel filter...

i guess the timing belt was changed already at the recommended interval of 105,000 miles?

[mikeSONICGSR]

I don't know about the timing belt. I only bought 3 months ago so I am not sure of the maintenance that was done on the van.

[mikeSONICGSR]

Besides a haynes manual is there any online resources for "how to"? I am going to check the fuel injectors, also can I mix that b15 with the STP treatment?
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[tempfixit]

Have you checked out the online factory service manual thread on the top of villager page (just aboe your thread)

You can check out the camshat senor and optical sensor in the distributor. Remove the rotor and the cover below it and under neath is the optical sensor. If there is any brownish looking dust on it that is a indication the bearing is bad.

I would not worry about the timing belt as these are NON INERFERNCE engines so if belt breaks no damage should be done to pistons and valves. Many villagers and quests out there with 180-190k on these belts.

PM sent

[ricebike]

tempfix,

i was told that the 3.3L engines of 1999-2002 nissan quests/ mercury villagers are INTERFERENCE engines!

the earlier mercury villagers that has the 3.0L engines are NON-INTERFERENCE, so you can run them until they break without any internal damage...

can you verify if the 3.3L engines are non-interference?

on nicoclub.com, they say otherwise

[mikeSONICGSR]

Well, I started it up yesterday and it started out rough gave it a little gas and the shaking stopped. I am guessing the cleaner sitting in there overnight cleaned out the injectors or filter because it is running fine now.

[tempfixit]

ricebike;

I have a 99 villager with a 3.3 engine in it that I bought last summer. It has 195k on it and when I bought I knew the timing elt was broke. I installed a new tensioner , timing belt, water pup and thermostat.

The first thing I did was remove the old belt and installed new one, put the large washer on the crank against the crank sprocker and installed crank bolt with its large washer that goes against harmonic balancer and attempted to start it. It started like should so I completely assembled everything and it has been running just fine.

I know it is stated somewher that it is no interference but cannot find at this time, but when Ford and Nissan combined on the vehicle Ford insisted that the engines be non interference. I do not know if the Quest after 2002 are non interference or not,

Here is another free forum on these vehciles.

[email protected]

Glad it runs better mikeSONICGSR, was that from the STP cleaner or did you also add the B-12???

[mikeSONICGSR]

It was the STP cleaner, 2 bottles... I belive the 98 unerring villager have the non-interference engine.
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[Ranga]

I have a 2000 villager which was misfiring in a similar way with the code PO 304 and so I assumed that either the plug or plug wire or the distributor cap might be faulty and so replaced them with no change. Then I checked and found that the #4 injector was not working and the realised that there was no current coming to it to fire it. In the end it turned out to be the ECM which was faulty. I have not changed it yet , but as and when I do , I will let you guys know if that worked or not.

['90 Escort Man]

Ranga, what was the final fix, ECM?

[ricebike]

yay!

tempfix, you are correct! these are non-interference engines! glad FORD had made NISSAN modify the head/cams so they can be "free-wheeling"

such a relief that the group you posted had proof in their "files" section stating so!

I just forgot about this thread until Ranga and others bumped this old topic recently...

['90 Escort Man]

Hope the following may help, and I will post if my last fix works.

2001 van was running rough, and computer kept throwing the code for cylinder 3 misfire. I started with half can of B12, then wires, plugs, cap and rotor. Replaced the injector for cylinder 3, still dead. Assumed bad 'new' injector, so returned and got another, but took injector from #6 and put in #3, then 'new' one in #6 (removing the upper intake isn't the easiest job). Computer throws multiple cylinder misfires, and cylinder 3 is still dead (shadetree inspection of all 6 plugs). Leading up to the swapping of the bad injector, there was a few hours worth of work swapping plugs and wires to different positions to see if any of those were bad, but all were good, and still are.

Now on to the ecm, which can't be found in local junkyards, will have to order a reman unit from local parts store.