i have a 97 se with about 185,000 miles on it and the past few days my ses light keeps coming on and off intermitentally. i scanned it the other day and it read misfire in cylinder #3 and lean mixture bank one. im guessin the misfire is probably related to the lean mixture. i tested #3 injector today and it seems to be workin fine. its getting a signal to fire and it seem to be shooting as much fuel as the other injectors. i know this because i did a pressure check and we have a tool at school that allows u to fire each injector singly and it seemed to drop the pressure the same amount as the other injectors did. i did plugs and wires about 1500 miles ago. i also tested all the coils then and they were all fine. primaries were a little high but not much. i do have another whole set of coils, not brand new, but i could swap those out. or i was also thinkin bout switchin out injectors between #3 and another cylinder and then see if i get a misfire in w/e cylinder i put that injector in. but if anyone has any ideas to help me out thatd be great. thanks

Check for vacuum leaks. Also check the plugs and see if they look different.

misfire seems to have gone away. still throwin the lean mixture bank 1 code though. our scanner at school has a option where you can look at the fuel trim and see what the cats are reading while the car is running. for the cat readings it varies between about 80 and 900 or so. any idea what these numbers mean or what i should be looking for? i would really like to figure this problem out on my own without taking it to the shop. couldnt find any vaccum leaks either. havent checked the plugs yet. any other ideas?

and what exactly is bank 1? is that the reading before the cat or is the the front side of the motor or what? thanks for the help

Bank1 is before the cat. That signal will go up and down, that'* normal. I'll see if I have a scan showing that.

Here you go. The blue line that'* jumping all over is the bank1 O2 sensor.

thats probably what the graph would look like on the readings i was getting if i graphed em. what should standard fuel pressure be? and if my fuel pump wasnt working properly and not pumping enough fuel, could that cause the lean mixture?

Fuel pressure should be around 40 or 48, in that area. That would effect you more at higher speeds. Lean mostly comes from a vacuum leak. Have you cleaned your MAF? Do you have access to a tuner?

ok fuel pressures good then. no i havent cleaned the maf. ill try to do that tomorrow? do i just spray it with compressed air or what?

and kind of. i know a guy who has an hp tuner or w/e but he wants to charge me like $150 to tune my car. not worth it in my opinion. is that the type of tuner your refering too?

Ya, you can use air if you want to wreck the MAF. Use MAF cleaner only.

Ya, HP tuner is what I'm talking about. The reason he needs to charge you is because each car needs to be licensed, and that'* $100, plus the software is $500 to start with. It'* the software I use and very powerful.

ok. and im guessin you can pick up MAF cleaner at an auto parts store?

do you have to license it even if you have it all set up on a laptop in your garage? my buddy races dirt track and has his hp tuner all set up on his laptop in his garage.