Just like a carburetor and spark plug in modern petrol engines, the fuel injector is an important component of a diesel engine vehicle.
These vehicles are equipped with fuel injection systems (fuel injectors) that act as mini spray guns to deliver the just-right amount of fuel to the automotive combustion chambers.
In simple words, a fuel injector is an electronically controlled mechanical device that sprays (or injects) the right amount of fuel into the engine.
The fuel is then mixed with air to form a mixture for ignition.
Fuel injectors are not only important to deliver the right amount of fuel for combustion but also for dispersing the fuel with a particular spray pattern at the right angle and at an accurate pressure.
Fuel injectors can be categorized into various types based on how they work and their location.
Some of these include:
- Throttle body injectors
- The central port injection system
- The multiport fuel injection system
In addition to the above, many more types are available, but those are much more complex and rarely used in modern-day engines.
Like other vehicle parts, monitoring and cleaning these fuel injectors at regular intervals is essential so that your engine functions pretty well.
Failing can lead to fuel injector failure, which then requires you to replace them completely!
Why do Fuel Injectors Go Bad?
As such, there can be various reasons for diesel fuel injectors getting clogged or failing completely.
Most of the time, these are often clogged due to the dust, oil, or debris deposited inside the injector or filter.
Especially when you use poor quality fuel in your truck or car, it develops a heavy varnish build-up in the fuel injectors, making them clogged.
Over time its nozzle, nozzle needle, and armature get contaminated which affects the pressure and supply of fuel to the engine severely. As an overall result, the performance of the engine gets reduced.
Continually using a low-grade contaminated fuel with additives can even corrode and rust your vehicle’s fuel system, which can further cause major problems down the road.
Clogged Fuel Injector Symptoms
At times when the fuel injector gets faulty or clogged, it becomes very hard to run your vehicle smoothly.
The key to keeping the injector in good running condition is to diagnose the clog or failure early.
There are instances seen when people do not understand the basic difference between faulty, dirty, clogged, and leaking injectors.
To diagnose the problem right, you need to know about them in the very first place.
1- Faulty Injector:
A fuel injector is considered faulty when they do not function well as per their design
2- Dirty Injector:
An injector is considered to be dirty when additives and hydrocarbons (along with carbon and engine gunk) restrict the flow of fuel and disrupt the spray model.
3- Leaking Injector:
These can cause severe problems if not fixed early.
The odor of the fuel felt in and around your vehicle, increased fuel consumption, hard starting, etc., are a few symptoms that can help you diagnose a leaking injector.
4- Clogged Injector:
An injector is considered to be clogged when the amount of carbon, fuel residue, and gunk inside the filter basket or injector chokes the system to such a level that it does not allow the fuel to flow through.
Diagnosing a clogged injector is sometimes tricky as it seems like a bad, dirty injector.
Few common symptoms of a clogged fuel injector that may help you diagnose the problem are:
- Starting issues
- Engine stalling
- Emission failure
- Decreased acceleration
- Increased fuel consumption
- Engine detonation or failure, etc
The vehicle giving less mileage can also be a major sign of badly clogged fuel injectors.
In any of these situations, you need to get them cleaned professionally so that you do not waste the expensive fuel anymore.
Above all, it is also essential that you use premium quality fuel to reduce the problems and to maintain the good condition of your engine.
How to Clean A Dirty Fuel Injector?
At times when the problem in the vehicle engine is created by dirty or clogged down fuel injectors; the only way to restore them is by getting them cleaned as soon as possible.
Well, for fixing the issues successfully, you can either take the help of a professional service provider OR get the job done manually in a DIY way.
The following are the best ways you can use to clean the clogged fuel injectors without spending much cash.
1- Manual Cleaning Method
Manual cleaning of the injectors is only advisable for the users who are experts in dealing with engine parts.
To clean the fuel injectors by hand (without professional help or expensive equipment), you need to have a fair understanding of the car engine layout and its various components.
- To start with, you should first disassemble your specific engine model and take out the fuel injectors. You should take the help of a user manual to get an idea if required.
- By using proper homemade solvents or cleaning agents like Sea Foam, you can then clean the injector to remove all the debris and gunk.
- After cleaning, let the injector dry and then reassemble the engine components again as per the manual layout.
Care that cleaning the diesel engine injectors manually requires a proper set of skills. It can be highly messy and risky for users who do not have the proper knowledge.
Being a novice, you should avoid it completely if you do not want to get into creating further issues that can be hard to solve.
2- Using a Fuel Injector Cleaning Kit
This can be a good way to go if you want to clean your engine fuel injectors without removal.
In fact, using a pressurized fuel injector cleaning kit (like OTC, Run Rite, etc.) can help you to clean the injectors most efficiently without wasting any time. Also, these have fewer chances of failure.
A fuel injector cleaner kit generally includes a canister, a hose, and a gauge to determine pressure.
It also includes a cleaning agent made up of solvents and additives that needs to be run through the engine under high pressure.
The common steps that you may need to follow are as follows:
- Locate a fuel injector
- Take out the fuel pump and join it with a return line
- Now disconnect the pressure regulator vacuum line
- Connect the cleaning kit to the fuel pressure test port
- Now open the fuel tank and let the cleaning process start
- The solvent under high pressure gets injected into the dirty injectors
- Also, start the engine so that the cleaner starts cleaning the injectors
- The engine turns off by itself when the solvent is used completely – this takes about five to ten minutes
As the last step, rearrange the fuel pump and put back the fuel cap on the engine. You can now turn on the engine to verify whether it is working properly in a normal way.
While cleaning the injectors, care that they do not have any exposure to the fuel directly from the tank. As the DIY cleaner kit contains flammable solvents, it can be highly risky.
Although the above is a basic procedure, you may additionally need to follow the instructions provided with a specific cleaning system kit that you are going to use for cleaning the fuel injectors.
If you follow them right, you can rest assured that your car engine does not cause any problems (due to dirty fuel injectors) further again.
3- Using Ultrasonic Fuel Injector Cleaning Machine
Unclogging heavily soiled and waxed injectors is not an easy job that can be done through manual cleaning.
However, testing and cleaning them ultrasonically (using ultrasonic energy and waves) can help you to fix the issue in just a few minutes.
This proven method guarantees the effectiveness and remarkable results that can not be attained by using any other method.
How Does The Ultrasonic Fuel Injector Cleaning System work?
An ultrasonic fuel injector cleaning machine makes typically uses a professional-grade ultrasonic solution to clean the deposited debris on the injectors.
Contaminants present inside the pintle valves or seats of the injector are hard to clean with a normal scrubbing or washing process.
The stubborn grime can, however, be treated and removed efficiently using an ultrasonic cleaning action.
The process generally uses powered transducers and high-frequency sound waves (up to 40 kHz) that are passed through a biodegradable ultrasonic cleaning solution.
The high frequency creates cavitation (due to microscopic bubbles produced) in the heated solution.
These bubbles, when collapsing against the soiled injectors, develops a scrubbing action making the contaminants lose, which then get removed easily.
Why Is Ultrasonic Cleaning of Injectors Most Preferred?
One of the best advantages of using an ultrasonic cleaner for fuel injectors is its cavitation cleaning action that reaches into the smallest of nooks and crannies to remove the dirt and grime.
By scrubbing hard even the most complex areas, the ultrasonic fuel injector cleaning device can help clean the places where the brushes cannot.
When it comes to choosing a cleaning device, experts suggest that a portable home-based ultrasonic carburetor cleaner is not much efficient in inflow testing and cleaning the clogged fuel injectors.
And for this reason, your normal bench-top ultrasonic fuel injector cleaner (used for carbs and other industrial parts) should not be used for cleaning the injectors.
You can instead use an industrial-grade ultrasonic injector cleaning and testing system in case you want the job to be done professionally.
When to Use a Fuel Injector Cleaner?
Obviously, the cost of cleaning an injector is far lower than fixing a broken-down engine due to injector failure. You will certainly not love to take this chance!
Regular clean-up of the fuel injectors not only helps to get better engine horsepower but also improves mileage over time.
But one question we keep getting from our users is: When should I use fuel injector cleaner, and how often?
We recommend using a fuel injector cleaner once you have diagnosed the signs and symptoms of clogging.
The frequency of cleaning, however, depends on the type of transmission you have and the mileage you have attained.
Unless you have any specific problems related to performance, you can use:
- Gas-injector cleaners every 1500 miles
- Diesel-injector fuel cleaners in every tank
When Should You Replace A Fuel Injector?
According to John, a repairman in Slovenia, your fuel injectors in a vehicle can last for about 50,000 to 100,000 miles.
The exact time frame may, however, depend on factors like the quality of fuel you use in your car, replacement of the fuel filters, services performed, etc.
Most of the time, the dirty fuel injectors do not need replacement with the new expensive ones.
Studies even showed that only one in one thousand injectors need replacement due to complete failure.
Fortunately, you can now recondition them to function just like new ones by following the methods mentioned above.
If, however, your injectors need cleaning too often due to frequent malfunctioning, it is good to test and get them replaced by a professional rather than cleaned.
Carburetor vs. Fuel Injection: Pros and Cons
Over the past few decades, automobile engines have undergone a considerable redesign that incorporates more computer-controlled components along with newer means of regulating fuel.
The introduction of fuel injection offers both advantages and disadvantages over the traditional carburetor. Some of the benefits along with the disadvantages include the following:
Cost
If there is one downside to fuel injection, it is the cost compared to carburetors. Because fuel injection requires complex computer controls, repairing it is also difficult compared to the simple carburetor.
This means if you are stuck alongside the road, you can repair a carburetor with a few tools. A fuel injection engine will probably require a tow truck to the nearest auto shop.
Fuel Economy
Here, the fuel injection engine is superior compared to the carburetor because the fuel can be precisely controlled.
This means lower fuel emissions which result in using less gas to achieve the same mileage. As an added bonus, fuel injection engines also emit fewer pollutants as well.
Performance
Another advantage of fuel injection is the greater power and overall performance of the engine itself.
This is because while carburetors are accurate, they are not as precise when it comes to changes in atmospheric pressure or the temperature of the fuel itself, which plays a strong role in how the engine performs.
Overall, while carburetors have advantages in terms of their simplicity and low cost, they are simply no match for fuel injection.
While carburetors will still be used on smaller engines such as motorcycles, snow-blowers, and lawnmowers, they are being fully replaced for most vehicles.
Getting The Most Out Of Your Fuel Injectors
Cleaning the injectors helps to maintain the performance of the engine by giving the utmost power to it.
You can add to it by doing everything you can to prevent debris and gunk from reaching the fuel system.
Here are a few tips for you to follow:
- Always insist on purchasing high-quality premium fuel from the reliable stations
- Avoid filling up the fuel when a station is just receiving a new shipment. This will avoid any impurities getting into your truck that may not have been settled yet.
- Take the proper steps to keep your fuel system clean. Change the fuel filters on a regular basis and avoid purchasing the cheap aftermarket parts that are not meant for your specific vehicle model.
- When storing your vehicle for long, it’s good to ignition and start your engine occasionally. This will avoid corrosion in the fuel system.
Fast & Easy Fuel Injector Cleaning Guide
Difference Between Carburetor And Fuel Injector