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Questino about engine damage?

2K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  amc49 
#1 · (Edited)
I took my 2011 hatch in this morning for it's 100k mile tune-up at the local Nissan dealership. After they finished the job I was pulling out of their lot, and didn't even make it to my lane of traffic on the other side of the road before my car was jerking and acting like it wanted to die. The check engine light immediately began blinking, and I made a u-turn right back into the dealership lot. They said the mechanic who worked on my car didn't allow the carb cleaner to fully evaporate which is what cause the jerking and CEL to be triggered. Anyway, they said they took care of it and since then I haven't had any problems, but I'm almost 100% sure my car is driving rougher now than it was this morning before it's tune up. :crying:

I've never known carb cleaner to cause any issues like that, have you? I mean, people spray it into running engines all the time right? I don't know for sure what the CEL code was, they got to it and cleared it before I had a chance to hook up my ODB scanner.

What do you guys think could have been the problem? Did I get bamboozled? And without me knowing what the CEL code was, how can I hold them responsible if it was in fact their fault? And also, if I only drove the car that way for less than 1 minute, would that be enough to cause noticably rougher driving across the RPM spectrum but mostly between 2-3k?
 
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#2 ·
Well I guess I now know why I don't do '100K tuneups'.

It would help to know just what they were spraying the carb cleaner at.................if engine running normal not much use for it. Maybe cleaning the MAF?

I myself have never squirted it into any running engine ever but then most think I am the oddball bird as I use virtually no additives for anything at all ever.

If MAF was still wet then sending the air/fuel into the toilet for a minute could make it run rough until that all gets burned out. Didn't help your cat any if so though, gross dealer incompetence once again rears its' ugly head.

Be aware that your butt dyno being switched 100% on can possibly fool you too. It's natural to find other issue once your suspicion gene has kicked in.

It may well be that you just need to drive car more to clear it out.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Ok after looking at my service receipt, it was Fuel Injector Cleaner, not carb cleaner. It's listed on the receipt as "Decarb" and all I remembered was the "carb" part. My apologies. :)

Also, my car sat running in their service bay for several minutes while I was paying the cashier. Am I wrong in thinking 2-3 minutes of the engine running would me more than enough time for the cleaner to evaporate?
 
#5 ·
I cleaned my pcv valve that was clogged in my honda odyssey with carb cleaner. I also shot it into and down the hose that connected to it.

When I went to start the van, nothing. Second time I held the starter and it would idle if I held the starter. After tapping the gas a few times it started to rev and I released the starter. You could smell carb cleaner in the air.

I kept reving and the car felt normal so I stopped and let it idle and went about my business. :smile
 
#6 ·
Everybody wants to de-carbon engines now because all the lemmings want it.....................crazy stupid. Like the seafoam thing, they think it's doing something. Extra charges for it when no old school ever did that except in the sticks. I have never done it on a car ever as far as the engine, engines are SUPPOSED to have carbon inside them, past a certain point it actually makes them run much better rather than worse. Yeah, TB aircrack and small orifices like the PCV valve and EGR need to be kept clean but silly things like intakes and piston tops, I'm laughing here.

Carb cleaner does not dry quite as fast as MAF cleaner (both are the same other than the MAF product has more VOC in it to dry faster) but should still be dry pretty quick (5 minutes?). Unless they flooded parts with it.

If the fuel injector cleaner was inserted before the MAF and with the intake ducting still mostly in place, well, that retards evap and might still be there an hour later.

Nobody said they had to be smart about it and dealer guys are often the worst. Many of the premium mechs have gone elsewhere, the word of the day now on dealer car repair is $9/hr. The higher paid ones don't perform that low level work.

Could have been a vacuum line the cleaner was squirted into, the engine runs rich as long as the cleaner is in it but then mech forgets to put vacuum line back on and as soon as the cleaner is gone to run lean then the engine spits its' guts out.

One never knows.
 
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