Poor fuel quality —The main reason your fuel injectors become clogged and unable to do their job is the quality of your fuel. If your fuel has too much excess debris or impurities, those by-products can get into your fuel injectors, making it harder for them to work.
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.
An abrupt loss of engine power is a somewhat obvious sign of a fuel injector failure. If the fuel injector is clogged, the fuel supply will be irregular too. When the fuel level fluctuates drastically, the high and low rpm's will cause the engine to move in surges rather than slow and gradual movements.
"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.
There are many reasons for faulty fuel injectors but the three most common issues are clogging in your car's fuel injectors, leaky and dirty injectors. You should remove the fuel injectors and clean them up before putting them back in for your car to function optimally.
On average, you can expect to pay between $350 and $850 to replace your fuel injectors. The range of costs depends on a number of factors. Smaller vehicles with fewer cylinders requiring less expensive parts will come in at the lower end of the spectrum. Larger, high-performance engines will command a higher price tag.
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.
Fuel injector problems can eventually lead to a breakdown, or in extreme cases, an accident if your engine fails while traveling at speed on the highway. Be sure to treat the problem before that happens.
If a fuel injector fails or is clogged, it can cause a reduction in fuel delivery, resulting in poor lubrication that can cause damage to engine bearings, pistons, or cylinder walls.
Fuel is pumped directly into the injectors which, in turn, spray fuel directly into the cylinders or into an intake manifold. Your vehicle needs this fuel to start and run. Carbon deposits are a natural byproduct of combustion engines. Consequently, your fuel injectors will become clogged by carbon deposits eventually.
The most common fault codes associated with a clogged fuel injector are P0171 and P0174, which indicates the engine controller is seeing a lean condition. It is also possible to see fault codes for a rich condition if the injector is leaking or not atomizing correctly.
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.
Consistent Misfire
The presence of one or more faulty fuel injectors will lead to a misfire condition that is relatively consistent in nature. This will often lead to a noticeably rough idle, vehicle shaking, or even a certain degree of hesitation under higher periods of throttle demand.
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.
Fuel Injector Cleaner Benefits
In short, when used regularly, fuel cleaners work. They can help remove harmful deposits, prevent new deposits from forming, and enhance vehicle performance. Fuel additives can improve gas mileage, reduce long-term maintenance costs, and they're affordable.
One you may not have considered is a damaged or worn out fuel injector – it's a massively common issue, and we talk to customers all the time about it.
As mentioned earlier, when the injectors become clogged, they lose their ability to supply the necessary amount of fuel or create a proper spray pattern, but worse yet, the corrosive nature of carbon deposits literally destroys fuel injectors over time.
Injectors are prone to clogging due to the hydrocarbons that fuel contains. The injectors' nozzles become eventually clogged or blocked because of hardened deposits. Leaks can also happen and cause trouble.
Most popular Injector cleaning methods:
Injector / Injection Cleaner (Pour into fuel tank) Rail Induced Injector Cleaner (Used by repair shops and most dealers) DIY Injector Cleaning. Ultrasonic Fuel Injector Cleaning.
Replacement Schedule for Fuel Injectors
Today's injectors are more robust than older examples and should offer several years of service. Regular maintenance and fuel injector cleaning can help prolong the lifespan to around 100k miles.
Replacing a fuel injector seems like a daunting project, but with a little skill you can do the job yourself and save serious money. Shops charge a huge amount for fuel injection work. If you know that you have a bad injector, the job can be done at home.