Injector on the way out???

[SprintED]

At recent service one of the injectors gave some readings indicating that if was on the verge of "going out of spec".

We are planning to run it until this injector dies, but in the meantime would like to hear from anyone who has had injector issues etc... Not sure what to expect as far as behavior from the injector in question or rest fuel system.

Van is a 2005 with 45,000 miles (only)

Ed

[talkinghorse43]

I've had two fail. The first @ ~30k miles smoked a little at idle and ran a little rough at idle. Very soon it started to surge a little at idle in drive and also at just above idle. The second took about 15k miles to fully fail and was replaced at 99k miles. It sometimes ran rough at idle at first, then it started to surge sometimes at idle and just off idle, then it was surging under those conditions all the time. Because the first smoked at idle, it was easy for the dealer tech to diagnose and it was replaced without fuss. However, the second failed slowly and tested OK the first time I took it in for replacement (~12k miles before it finally was replaced), so I had to pay. Also, Doktor A could find no faults either. When the second had fully failed, all the dealer tech had to do was listen and feel the surge and he was convinced an injector was bad.

My recommendation is to let it go until it's obvious something is wrong. I can see no downside, except rough running at idle, to waiting (mileage didn't suffer, oil analysis is OK, oil consumption is almost nil).

[SprintED]

Talkinghorse...

Thanks for the info....how much did they nail you to replace the injector if you don't mind me asking?

I figure I better start saving $$$ now!

Good to hear about the MPG being unaffected...I have been getting crappy MPG for the past 4 months and was starting to wonder if a somewhat toasted injector may be at fault.

On my recent trip to Portland my best tank was 17.3 MPG at 75 mph with an empty van. That number used to be around 20 mpg.

Ed

[talkinghorse43]

Except for the time they couldn't find anything wrong ($150), both were replaced under the emissions warranty. But, the second was just under the wire - 160 some miles below 100k miles.

[mgace2500]

it would be nice to have someone post some pictures of an injector change.i read something about the o-ring going bad and leaking.some good instructions would be nice too for us who love to work on our vans ourselves.i know someone on this great site can help.

[abittenbinder]

Originally Posted by mgace2500

it would be nice to have someone post some pictures of an injector change.i read something about the o-ring going bad and leaking.some good instructions would be nice too for us who love to work on our vans ourselves.i know someone on this great site can help.

Identifying a compression leak at an injector seat is something you can do at your home shop but replacing a defective injector or repairing an exhaust leak at an injector seat is not quite a DIY backyard job. There are potential pitfalls- such as, but not limited to, seal ring stuck on the cyl head seat(requiring special removal tool), cleaning of the bore and the injector nozzle opening into combustion chamber and the refacing of seal surface (requiring a special reamer), lowering of engine to allow access to rear injectors, DRBIII coding of the ECU for the new individual injector's tolerance codes, special thread reaming of hold down bolt threads in head to clear carbon and allow proper seating of bolt, and recognizing and repairing possible hold down thread issues in the cyl head.

Proper diagnosis of injector fuel metering issues is made simpler by various system tests using the DRBIII or SDA and utilizing fuel bypass quantity tests using the Miller Tools 9545 test vials which mount to the individual injectors. Doktor A