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My 95 1.6L seems to be randomly dropping a cylinder, both at speed and at an idle. It lasts for 5-10 seconds and then full power is restored for 2-3 minutes. You can feel it drop out at highway speeds, like it just lost its power. Then it'll kick in again and off you go. If it drops out when stopped, the idle drops to about 500 and there's barely power enough to pull away. I've already done the cheap stuff that needed to be done anyway: plugs, wires, distributor and rotor. Before I start dropping money on things that don't need to be done anyway, I thought I'd ask some opinions.

I guess right now, I'm leaning toward a bad injector/injector electronics. Since it's random and only seems to affect one cylinder, I'm thinking it's probably not the fuel pump or fuel pressure. I'm not burning oil and not losing coolant. Nor am I running hot. So I don't think it's a bad head gasket, but I could be wrong. Compression problem? Would that be intermittent like this?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.

any CEL's?
have a compression test performed
check to see if all injectors are firing(easiest way is to pull them and turn the key and watch them spray)
check your timing
when you say replaced distributor do u mean the cap or the whole assembly?

Do the compression test.
The injectors are held into the fuel rail by compression. If you remove the bolts on the fuel rail, the injectors will pop out of the rail... Not safe.
Could be a stuck vlave.
Timing would be consistent, not intermittent.
Do a spark check. Start at the plugs, if there's a problem then check the distributor, then the ignition coil.

My bet is on a failing headgasket. O_o It could be leaking between the cylinders and not losing coolant or oil.
I don't like betting against mx-3 members...

If you have a stock intake tube (between the air meter and throttle body), check it around the bellows for cracks. I've had the same issue on BPs as well as my Protege5 and every time it was leaky intake tube.

kcbhiw wrote:If you have a stock intake tube (between the air meter and throttle body), check it around the bellows for cracks. I've had the same issue on BPs as well as my Protege5 and every time it was leaky intake tube.

I second that