Fuel Injectors

[cu63d]

Hi

Been a regular reader for a while now, but I was wondering if anybody has any advice.

I have a X reg (2000) 1.8 vvti Avensis GS. About 6 months ago my engine management light came on so I took it to the Toyota garage and they said it was low pressure on the fuel injectors and suggested I put some fuel additives in to try and clean them. They cleared the fault, I added the additives and all was fine.

However last week the light came on again, the car was due it's MOT, so I popped it into the local garage (thinking nothing of the engine management light) and it failed for high emissions (very high). So off I went back to the Toyota garage. Same fault found, however I was being quoted between £600 to £1200 to get the injectors replaced and he said it would probably be cheaper to get an engine from a scrapyard. I thought this was a bit steep and just asked him to clear the fault. The mechanic was adamant that this would not solve anything, the light would come back on straight away and it would still fail the MOT. After a "discussion" the mechanic bloke cleared the fault and the light stayed off. I went back to the garage where I had the MOT and he re-did the MOT. The car breezed through with the emmisions being well below the max allowed.

I am a bit confussed as to my next course of action. How much are the fuel injectors? Can the injectors cause high emissions? Why were the emissions ok after the fault was cleared?

Any help or advice appreciated as I know nothing about cars other than they have 4 wheels and an engine.

Cheers

[uumode]

I'm not an expert either, but usually it's a fault with the ECU when engine managment lights come on and off or the EGR (Exhaust Gas Return I think) valve which takes some of the exhaust gases and feeds it back into the engine again and burns up the nasties which would have been otherwise expelled.

Or it could be a faulty cat somewhere that isn't doing it's job. I must admit I haven't heard of injectors causing it - surely it's the engine management that is injecting too much fuel. Or possibly the injectors aren't injecting the quantity of fuel that the engine managment is telling it to?

[Black Knight]

Somethings throwing the ECU into back-up (also known as get me home mode). One of the first things it does is throw massive amounts of fuel into the cylinders to make sure the engine fires and keeps running. That'll be why it was failing emissions

[uumode]

some info from a similar post

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53665

[cu63d]

Thanks for the help.

I'll still have to sort this injector problem out though. Any ideas on prices? According to the Toyota garage it was banks 1&2 with the same fault, so I guess I may have to replace all 4.

[thiambal]

Thanks for the help.

I'll still have to sort this injector problem out though. Any ideas on prices? According to the Toyota garage it was banks 1&2 with the same fault, so I guess I may have to replace all 4.

From reading the posts I would say there is some doubt over whether the injectors are responsible.

I would try and get a second opinion before you spend loads of money changing something to no avail.