Petrol injector servicing

Poor ideal, stalling at intersections, sluggish acceleration, high fuel consumption and hard starting are just some of the symptoms of dirty or warn injectors, we have had a number of customers come in saying their car is not performing well they have tried injector cleaner in the tank which helped for a while but now same or worse or how unhappy they are with the last mechanic that serviced the car as it still performs badly even after they did a tune-up and service.

Modern vehicles are not the same as 10 to 20 years ago when tune ups consisted of checking and adjusting ignition and fuel systems, modern system have very little or no adjustments, a replacement of spark plugs at most and some of them are only every 80 to 100 thousand Km service intervals.

Modern vehicles with all their emission requirements rely on everything being inspec and the injectors atomizing and delivering the fuel to each cylinder exactly the same.

Once all checks are done and decided the injectors are the problem or preventive maintenance is to be carried out there are three ways of doing it, injector cleaner added to the tank, an on vehicle injector clean or remove injectors and clean in an ultrasonic cleaner.

So, what exactly are injector cleaners? It should be noted that fuel injector cleaners typically fall into two categories: dissolvents and detergents. Polyetheramine (PEA) is a dissolvent. It breaks down carbon deposits and impurities in fuel lines, pumps, injectors, and more without leaving residue behind. It’s a potent ingredient. They blend the best fuel injector cleaners with PEA.

Whereas dissolvents break down and dissolve carbon deposits, detergents force those deposits to detach and exit the fuel system. There has been some debate on detergents’ effectiveness and ability to remove deposits efficiently.

A good fuel injector cleaner can help improve gas mileage, vehicle performance, and lower maintenance costs by keeping the engine clean. A clean engine delivers more power and better performance because it doesn’t have to work as hard.

A word of caution if an injector cleaner additive is added to the tank we recommend replacing the fuel filter after the second full tank of fuel or there abouts, as the additive will attempt to clean any types of dirt in the tank, lines and filter even start to break the filter down as the first dose is usually a strong one.

Second way of doing it is an on vehicle flush, this consists of plumbing in a remote system to feed the injectors with a high concentrate of injector cleaner usually in the engine bay after the fuel filter and allowed to run stationary until the cycle is complete.

Thirdly the injectors are removed and placed in a flow tester then ultrasonic cleaned and retested, although more timely we feel this to be the better way as the actual flow and spray pattern of each injector can be checked. It only needs a 5% difference sometimes less to cause running issues and possibly the engine light to come on. In the tester they can also be tested for leakage which can accouter for hard starting due to fuel leaking into a cylinder after switch off plus this situation can cause dilution of the oil from the fuel passing the piston rings

Direct injection injectors from a BMW showing a difference of 8%

Some standard injectors being tested after cleaning now with in 1%