Intermittent misfire on '99 Villager

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OK I'm desperate here and I know there are a couple of Villager/Quest owners on this forum. For over a month I've had a misfire on the van. When it started, it was an occasional sputter/miss which would quickly go away and the van would again run normally. The problem grew worse and the guys on my V/Q forum said it was the distributor...which are notorious for going bad on the 99-02 vans. After replacing the entire distributor, wires and plugs (plugs weren't very old at the time), the problem was different but still there. I now have a misfire under load...SES light will flash (not good for the cat) indicating a severe misfire and the van will run very rough. Even when the van runs "OK", it's not right...doesn't seem as smooth as before. I finally got a stored code indicating a misfire on cylinder 2 (vs. a random misfire). Thinking it MAY be a clogged/plugged injector I had a fuel injector cleaning performed. A short drive up a couple of hilly roads yesterday produced some noticeable missing...but not enough to trip the SES light...was better than before but still there. I'm thinking the #2 injector? Getting to the bottom of an intermittent misfire can be maddening (and expensive). Any insights are welcomed...going broke and crazy trying to get to the bottom of this problem.
 
Send me your injectors, i will do a good Bitog solid and test them for free, just pay the postage.
If they are okay thats fine if not i will let you know what can be done about it.
PM me if your interested.
 
I'm following this. As I've got similar problems on my '01 Villager. Gonna start with a new NS60, then take it from there.

You pulled the Fuel pressure regulator hose off to make sure it wasn't pouring raw fuel into the manifold? Pull that little hose, let it idle for a few minutes, make sure no fuel comes out.

Yours is a '99, so it Still has a EGR valve. That may need cleaning.

You've got the correct NGK plugs in there right?
Throttle body's clean? MAF sensor cleaned with MAF cleaner?
 
I had the same problem with my 97 quest. It would idle so rough you could feel it while sitting in the van. So i replaced plugs,wires,dist cap & rotor and it still idled rough. The i suspected the distributor but this one has a different distributor than the 99 up quest so i replaced all 6 fuel injector with remanufactured ones by gb remanufacturing from rock auto and it has been running great ever since. I would just get the new injectors don't bother trying to clean them it wasn't all that expensive to buy all 6 injectors about $26 each + $15 each core charge that you get back if you send them your old injectors but be careful these injectors are very easy to break and they don't give you core credit for broken injectors. It's best to remove the whole fuel rail and tap the injectors out from behind with a wooden or plastic dowel rod so you don't break the plastic top of the injector thats how i did mine.
 
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see that number 2 injector failed. If you don't have the ability to check resistance on it or even listen to it (comparing it to the others) then Trav is the first guy I'd look up. That's a darn generous offer he's extending!
 
Our '00 with over 150k miles hasn't experienced that problem. I wonder what it could be. I guess we lucked out.
 
Just swap #2 injector with another one. Say #4 for instance... and if the trouble code says theres a misfire on #4 then it's probably the injector.
 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Just swap #2 injector with another one. Say #4 for instance... and if the trouble code says theres a misfire on #4 then it's probably the injector.


.......you don't own a FWD revised VG33E.......do you
confused.gif

One does not simply "just swap injectors"
Its easy to ohm out the front 3, the back 3 are trickier.
There's supposed to be a writeup on how to on the V/Q boards through the harness, so you don't have to pull the plenum. But I haven't found it.
 
Believe it or not, the first shop took out a set of NGK iridium plugs which can't have more than 10,000 miles on them and replaced them with Autolite double platinums. I don't think that made much difference and I'm not up to reinstalling the NGK's (still have them). They installed new Belden wires under their lifetime warranty so I'll consider it even. I have NOT cleaned the MAF sensor...will see to that. This afternoon I drove the van all over town and on the highway...ran great...best it has since the trouble began. No stumbling or missing and a smooth idle. It remains to be seen how long that lasts but is it possible that the injector was clogged and the cleaning did the trick? Time will tell but for now it runs great and I'm not doing anything else unless it starts acting up again. I am going to get the oil changed as it has had a bunch of injector cleaner (tank and intake) run through it recently...Thanks to all for the input...
 
I just had to update and close this issue. As it turned out, the distributor I installed was faulty (yep, replaced all of those parts for NOTHING). Thanks to a Ford guy on the Villager/Quest forums (I know...I need to get out more) who knew that there was a bad batch of the units from the manufacturer and sent me a replacement to "try", I fixed the problem.

Kudos to Richporter for their follow-up on my problem after I notified them. They sent a new distributor to the Ford guy (I kept the one he sent me). Apparently the faulty distributors were manufactured in 2012. The company quickly corrected the problem when it was discovered but a number of these ended up on wholesaler's shelves and are still being sold (in fairness, the wholesalers have no way of knowing that they're faulty). As I was told, there isn't any way to KNOW that a new distributor is faulty unless you replace it. I've taken the van on 2 long trips since replacing the distributor and it runs great.

I'm apparently not the only one that was "chasing" the misfire problem oblivious to the fact that the new distributor they just installed was no good. Lots of money and frustration wasted.

For those affected, Richporter will replace the defective units with a new one at no charge...no questions asked. I was impressed with their service and quick response.

Considering how much I have into it, the Villager is going to be parked here for another couple of years.
 
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