Injectors

[Peter Darkin]

My Avensis T4 Tourer D-4D let me down recently.  Driving at about 55 mph on slight downhill grade in moderate traffic a warning 'check parking brake' appeared. I appeared to have lost propulsion, the brake was obviously off and as nothing else appeared wrong I put the car out of gear and the engine stopped turning immediately. Engaging gear failed to start the engine. I was able to turn into a side road and coast to a halt.  The engine would not restart and the car had to be recovered.

Using the diagnostic plug the only message given was 'engine will not start'.  Further investigation showed slight fuel leak on No. 1 injector.  Injectors were removed and sent to specialist for examination. Report was that No. 1 injector had failed due to corrosion and that the other three were showing signs of failure.  4 new injectors were installed and car returned to normal operation. Vehicle is 8 years old but had only covered 62,630 miles. Serviced according to manual.

A paper read at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Poland examined the subject which put the problem down to water in the fuel.  Although supermarket derv is used, previous vehicles, Passat and Montego were run on the same fuel and both exceeded 150,000 miles without any problems.  Having spent my life on the petroleum industry, I can confirm that the only difference between major oil company derv and supermarket derv is the additives that they add.  The fuel is not substandard.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of problem ?    I assume that the engine is programmed to shut down if an injector fails rather than go into limp home mode.

All comments welcome.

Peter Darkin 

[john p williams]

Average of 8,000 miles is low for diesel usage. What was the average mileage of the Passat and Montego?

[TonyHSD]

I can’t comment on the Diesel engine and your case but I witnessed a really bad quality fuels in Uk in the last few years. Shell has worsen its petrol quality a lot, and the fuel really differs between the different garages ( locations) even though of the same brand. I drive Auris hybrid and this car is sensible about what fuel is in. Now I am adding petrol additives almost every time to prevent bad knocks on cold start due to moisture in the fuel mixture, happens exclusively after visit to that Shell garage. Very likely bad fuel to cause all that trouble. 

[jimtaxi]

I have put 248000 mls on a 2.2 d4d with no injector issues I regularly used Shell or Esso the car was used as a private hire taxi with mileage covered 4 years 6 months. I also used injector cleaner regularly. I also put 189000 in a 2.0 d4d using same fuel etc. Other drivers in the fleet reported numerous injector issues with various manufacturers. I can only guess that the dubious sources of supermarket fuels can bring contamination into play not just water but high levels of silicon.Also bio additives can play havoc with seals etc.

[john p williams]

1 minute ago, jimtaxi said:

I have put 248000 mls on a 2.2 d4d with no injector issues I regularly used Shell or Esso the car was used as a private hire taxi with mileage covered 4 years 6 months. I also used injector cleaner regularly. I also put 189000 in a 2.0 d4d using same fuel etc. Other drivers in the fleet reported numerous injector issues with various manufacturers. I can only guess that the dubious sources of supermarket fuels can bring contamination into play not just water but high levels of silicon.Also bio additives can play havoc with seals etc.

That`s a good deal more than 8k per annum !