The fuel or the fuel-air mixture enters the engine via the injectors or injection nozzles. With every single combustion cycle, however, dirt is deposited there. This is especially true if you drive a lot of short distances or if the fuel is of poor quality. In addition, if you drive a petrol or diesel-powered vehicle that has direct injection, the injectors will become dirty even more quickly. This is due to the fact that these often protrude further into the interior of the engine. As a car owner, after a certain engine mileage, you are faced with the choice of having the injectors cleaned or working with an injector cleaner for petrol or diesel engines yourself. In order to really clean the injection nozzles properly, they have to be removed. Below we discuss the facts as well as the cost of injector cleaning.
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How to check and check you the injector function? When should you clean the injectors
In order to make an informed decision about whether you should clean your fuel injectors, you must first inspect the injectors. During engine operation, the particularly fine fuel injection nozzles are not only exposed to high temperatures, but also to high pressures. The resulting wear can lead not only to increased deposits, but also to leaks. The outlet openings, which only have a diameter of 0.2 millimeters, also clog very easily. For this reason alone, you should pay close attention to the change intervals of your fuel filter and refill your tank before it is completely empty.
If one or more injectors fail or no longer function properly, there are a number of possible symptoms. These include an unexpected drop in engine performance, black exhaust fumes or blue when cold starting, engine overheating, knocking noises on the cylinder, the engine becomes restless and misfiring occurs, error messages in the memory (injection quantity) and increased pollutant emissions. If you notice such problems, it may be worth carrying out a test with an injector cleaner in order to first clean the injectors without removing them.
How and with what can an injector be cleaned
Depending on the type of vehicle and engine, there are different ways to clean your injectors. There are also different experiences with injector cleaners for petrol engines. In principle, cleaning sets for injectors are also offered nowadays. A common method used by garages only works if you remove the injectors. Your injectors are then cleaned using ultrasound, with numerous positive experiences. After ultrasonic cleaning, however, it is crucial that the nozzles are subjected to high pressure before they are reassembled in order to press out the loosened contaminants. The guide value is 50 bar for petrol injectors and 600 bar for diesel injectors. However, you should bear in mind that in addition to cleaning the injectors, you may also need to replace certain wear parts or install new injectors. Your specialist workshop will give you more detailed information after they have been able to carry out an intensive engine diagnosis.
There are also various injector cleaners for petrol and diesel engines on the market. In addition to products that can only be used after dismantling, the company also offers tools that can be used to clean them without dismantling. We generally advise against attempting to remove the injectors yourself. This usually requires not only a lot of experience and special tools, but also a sure instinct, because these components are often baked. It can even happen that you have to drill them out to change them. Inexperienced hobby mechanics often damage the components in this context or even cause serious consequential damage to the engine.
In addition to cleaning the injection nozzles after dismantling, there are also special additives that you can add directly to your tank. This allows you to clean your injectors without dismantling. Such a procedure does not require a visit to a specialist workshop, but its effectiveness is limited. So it can be assumed that such an additive is sufficient for around two thousand kilometers. After that, you need to periodically repeat the procedure. Nevertheless, such a procedure can be worthwhile for you to loosen and prevent light soiling. Intensive cleaning in a workshop is usually recommended after 100,000 kilometers, although this should be repeated after every 60,000 kilometers.
How high are the costs to clean the injectors
If you visit a specialist workshop, which first removes the corresponding injection nozzle, you must expect a workload of half an hour to one and a half hours for assembly after prior disassembly, depending on the vehicle. At an average hourly rate of around €100, this alone results in costs of €50 to €150. The advantage of this approach, however, is that a technical problem can also be identified quickly. If one of your injection nozzles no longer works at all, this injector is usually simply replaced with a new component. The corresponding material costs are €50 to €300 per nozzle. However, in some cases it is possible to save money by having the injectors repaired. In general, the injection nozzles must be re-taught in the engine control unit after they have been reinstalled. This is the only way this heart of your engine can do its job properly again.
Conclusion
Injector cleaning is a procedure that should be performed regularly to prevent long-term engine problems. This is especially true if your engine has direct injection. In addition to visiting a specialist workshop (this is recommended for injector cleaning after around 100,000 kilometers), there is also the option of adding a special additive to your fuel for cleaning injectors. These products perform well, but they have to be used more frequently.
A tip from CarTipsandmore: If injector nozzles have to be replaced, it is usually not necessary to replace all injectors at once. As a rule, the individual injection quantities are therefore determined via the engine diagnosis in order to localize the defect. Under certain circumstances, your specialist workshop will nevertheless advise you to also replace the other injectors, since the components are of course all subject to the same wear processes.