Assalam-o-alaikum pakwheelers. I am back with the new episode of Liana adventures and a DIY fix
Well I started smelling gasoline in my car's engine bay but couldn't see any leaks. Later that day, my car threw an error code for the first time in almost a month. This time it was again a P0340 i.e., Camshaft Position Sensor Circuit Malfunction. This was ridiculous because I had just replaced my sensor with a brand new one so the problem had to be something else. My car was taking almost 4-5 seconds to start and I had to keep cranking the engine over during this time. And then it would start on apparently less than 4 cylinders. Coils were also brand new so I was sort of baffled!
1: So I took the engine plastic cover off and took out the coils.
2: Then unscrewed the spark plugs one by one and examined. I had returned from a long trip the previous night (almost a 40km ride) and because of that, the spark plugs were coming out with perfect sand brown color. Ideal.
3: As soon as I pulled the spark plug from cylinder 2, I smelled a strong fume of gasoline. And I examined the plug only to find it swimming in gasoline. That fuel injector had been leaking and filling my cylinder with petrol.
4: Took the spark plug out from cylinder 1, and the same story was repeated. But in this case the situation wasn't that bad as it was in cylinder 2. The plug was just lightly damp with petrol and apparently this injector was leaking comparatively less as compared to cylinder 2.
5: So I went to the market and bought a pair of brand new fuel injectors. Pulled the fuel injector rail and cleaned it with carburetor cleaner. Pulled out the old fuel injectors and replaced with brand new ones. Then fitted the rail back in its position and tightened all the bolts.
6: Connected my scan tool to the car's OBD2 port and cleared the code. Once clear, I let the engine bay dry completely as there were some traces of petrol here and there due to the mess and I thought it's better to start the car when its completely dry, just to be on the safe side.
7: After 2 hours with hood open all the way, I started the car and it started beautifully.
8: So the lesson learned from this episode for me was: A bad fuel injector can cause hard starting due to fuel pressure loss in the fuel rail and can cause good fuel injectors to fire late whereas the bad ones flood their respective cylinders, causing the ECU to throw CamShaft position sensor error. And when you get this error on your car, don't rush things and replace the sensor, rather check for a leaking fuel injector or a bad spark plug first.