A bad injector can wreak havoc on an engine and will have to be replaced immediately to restore functionality. The fuel injectors are a very vital part of your engine and without out them the proper amount of fuel will not be delivered.
Yes, it's true that replacing old, worn fuel injectors is an easy way to improve an engine's efficiency. If you have an older vehicle with a set of worn fuel injectors, replacing them will help your engine run like new. You may even notice that your vehicle accelerates better.
Age and condition – if the injectors are old or worn out, a clean may not be enough to restore performance and could do more damage. Severe clogging may mean they need to be replaced anyway. Costs – cleaning fuel injectors is cheaper than replacing them.
If you have one or more faulty fuel injectors — due to wear or mechanical or electrical issues, driving for a long time can cause several problems: Stalling or failure for your car to start. Flooding of your engine. Pre-ignition of your fuel.
There's a good chance you will need to replace them at least once or twice. Fortunately, replacing your fuel injectors isn't typically a huge expense, unless they are part of a larger engine issue. Taking proper care of your fuel injectors will help prevent bigger problems.
"Fuel injectors have an atomizing nozzle that distributes fuel evenly for optimal combustion and efficiency." Now, a vehicle will typically have one fuel injector per cylinder, with a lifespan of between 50,000 and 100,000 miles, or about 80,000 and 160,000 kilometers.
In general, they're expected to last a pretty long time. Both Bosch and Delphi, two major manufacturers of automotive components, say their fuel injectors have a life expectancy of 1 billion cycles. Essentially, that means that the fuel injectors should last as long as the car does.
A damaged fuel injector will not only causes issues with driving, but the effects will persist even as the engine idles. Instead of a smooth engine idle, it will be rough and irregular when the fuel supply is abrupt. Reduced fuel efficiency is another signal of a damaged fuel injector.
Experts blame the excess alcohol and additives in most gasoline products because they cause premature failure of fuel injectors. It pays to know your fuel and stick with it. Other than only getting high-grade gasoline, you must also change out the oil frequently and replace bad fuel filters.
Although fuel injectors are individual, they are designed to work as part of a team with the other injectors. So, if you're wondering if you can replace just one injector or all, the answer is almost always to replace them all. Typically, the labor to replace one or all of them is the same.
Common causes of injector failure
While many things can cause breakdowns, the most likely cause of premature failure is fuel contamination. Fuel contamination occurs when debris in the fuel gets past the filtration, destroying the sealing surfaces. Think microns, smaller than a human's hair-sized, clearances.
Yes, a bad fuel injector can damage your engine so badly that the vehicle cannot run again until it is fixed. Normally before a bad fuel injector would cause damage to your vehicle engine it would give you so many signs and symptoms like the one, we have discussed above.
Not just are large sums invested into developing a quality product, the advanced machinery required to manufacture quality fuel injectors are not cheap either. As such, inferior manufacturers are not able to achieve the same precision and quality in their cheap fuel injectors.
Replacement Schedule for Injectors
In normal driving conditions, the Fuel Injectors should be changed every 50-100k miles.
The customer can look out for a deeper, gravely engine sound, engine chugging, the whole vehicle might have a slight shake or vibration.
One of the obvious symptoms of a clogged fuel injector is the lighting up of the "Check Engine" light in your dashboard. The fault codes usually associated with a clogged fuel injector can range from misfire codes to lean codes.
Replacing a Fuel Injector is definitely not cheap. It will differ quite a bit based on where you live, what brand you want to use and where you install it. But you can expect to pay up to $350. The parts themselves are up to $200 at most, so the rest will be installation and labor related to this process.
Average Cost of Fuel Injector Replacement
However, on average, you can expect to spend anywhere from $500 to $2,500 for this fuel injector replacement. Some individual fuel injectors can under $40 each while others are several hundred apiece.
Do Fuel System Cleaners Work? Yes! When used regularly, fuel system cleaners can help work to remove harmful deposits and keep new ones from forming. They are especially important for engines running on gasoline containing Ethanol and fuel-injected engines.
With your fuel injectors safely removed, you can now clean them individually. Using a soft-bristled brush, you can apply your carburetor cleaner to the outside. Use a fuel injector jumper in order to open up the fuel injector, then spray your cleaner through each side of the fuel injector.
Purchase new injectors designed for your specific engine and dip the tips in fuel before reinstalling the injectors and fuel rail. As a note, replacing fuel injectors can be a tough and dangerous DIY job. You may be better off having a professional do this one.
One of the best benefits of replacing your fuel injectors is that it decreases engine-related vehicle breakdowns. It prevents excessive component wear by balancing each cylinder's fuel delivery. This will cause the stresses of the engine to be more evenly distributed throughout the entire engine block.
Dead fuel injectors cannot be repaired and should be replaced with the exact same unit.