What are signs of an injector going bad?
 

I posted here a few months ago about how, if I let my truck sit for two weeks or more, it'll barely start. You have to crank and crank it and it'll start, run REALLY rough, spew a lot of white smoke, and die. This happens 4-5 times until it finally will start to run, roughly. Then after a minute or so it smooths out.

With winter here, I'm driving the truck more. I had just driven up to the laundry room not even an hour before and it's been running pretty much fine for the past few weeks. But this time, I started it, and it ran really rough. It spewed a lot of white smoke, but after about 30 seconds, it smoothed out and has been fine since.

So I'm really wondering what the problem is. Could I have an injector going bad? A lift pump? Something worse?

Rob

miss
 

I had #1 injector go bad on me just before the warrantee went out. My symptoms started out like an occasional miss. By the time I got home, it felt like I was driving on 5 cylinders. Oh, cause I was. That injector was dead in the closed position and IIRC produced no smoke.

Other ways an injector can go bad is being stuck open or cracked, dumping too much fuel into the cylinder and producing smoke. This fuel washes the oil from the cylinder walls (no oil, not slick, scraping occurs). Fuel washes past the rings and accumulates in the oil pan diluting the oil. If you check your oil and it is "making oil", you have a problem.

Hmm... okay so an injector isn't the problem I guess. Dang, that means it's likely in the pump. Crap that's gonna be expensive.

I changed the oil just recently and if anything, it seemed like maybe it was down a quart (at most). Definitely hasn't been gaining oil.

Rob

Lift pumps are much cheaper than injectors.

Absolutely! But could this be a lift pump?

This morning... it started fine, but whenever I go to idle, e.g. clutch in to come to a stop or whatever, the RPMs slowly bounce between 600 and 1000 RPM.

Edit: Speaking of lift pumps.. I checked eBay. Cheapest one I'm seeing is an "Airdog" model for $370, with prices going up to around $700. Also, where does this thing live? Some of the text on these pumps says it lives in the fuel tank.

Rob

It could be an injector solenoid, the FCA, high pressure relief valve, or something else.

Do you have a way to monitor rail pressure?

No; I've been wanting a rail pressure gauge, but they're like $250.

Ultra Gauge $69

Where can I find one of those??

Wow, that's cool! Ordering one now...

I really like it, lots of little gauges (the mpg stuff is even less accurate than the overhead, thank you Dodge) but it works well.

Ordered! Hopefully will see it around Tuesday, then can try to figure out what's wrong. Will mount it on the dash next to my a-pillar gauges. Thanks for telling me about it!!

Rob

Can I read rail press. off of the OBDII on a 04.5? If so I think I'll get one of those.