Fuel injector replacement?

JDaPP · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:52 pm

Have had a slow fuel leak from the # 4 injector (and maybe #3) Took it to a local Diesel shop and they said that it appears to be leaking from the body of the injector. They are recommending replacement. Is replacement as easy as remove and replace or is it more complicated than that? Does it need to be programmed? Good place to purchase? Can it be rebuilt? There is a Bosch injector shop right next to the shop.

geordi · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2016 8:01 pm

Remove and replace is the basic process, they are a complete unit. One hold down bolt (10mm) and the 17mm nut on the hard line. Then just the return line (fragile!) and the plug.

I'd ask the Bosch shop to test them first, since they are right there. If you need to replace, I have a box of loose injectors that are all expected good - they were all in service when the engines left service for unrelated reasons.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JDaPP · **Posted:** Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:15 pm

Thanks. Shop is willing to do everything for $420 (labor + part) so I am going to let them have a crack at it (they work on liberty crd). As I am time limited right now. Bosch wanted $335 to rebuild it so seems fair.
If #3 turns out to leak I will probably hit you up for one of the ones you have.

undrgnd · **Joined:** Sat Mar 26, 2016 4:47 am **Posts:** 194

Hey, with the leak, when placing a screw driver to the metal fuel line, does the banging sound hollow??

Georgi, do you know the answer to that? It's just weird to me that the injector on the tip sounds like a normal injector but the actual injector body and metal fuel pipe sounds hollow? Also how much are you selling a good injector for??

JDaPP · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2016 10:35 am

Haven't tried banging on the fuel line. When I get it back I will see what I can do.

papaindigo · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2016 12:01 pm

Before spending that kind of money I'd want a bit more than "appears" to leak from the body of the injector given that the most common leak points are at the base (bad crush washer) or fuel line attachment point. Easy enough to check:
1. clean off the area - on warm engine apply engine degreaser; let sit a bit; rinse off with hose (do NOT use high pressure); dry off area.
2. once good and dry; crank up with hood open and engine cover off; use dry paper towels to check for leak points.

If:
1. at base - remove injector(s) replace "O" ring(s) and crush washer(s) - probably can get from Bosch shop if not idParts has them for $9 per set.
2. at fuel connection - tighten as needed.
3. if in body see Bosch shop.

Total personal time invested maybe 1 hr. but I do like to check the simple first.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2016 1:31 pm

Concur with all and appreciate the input. Did 1&2 multiple times and it still leaks, that is only reason I took it to shop as I was out of ideas. This would be the third set of crush washers + orings. Even borrowed fuel injector seating tool but wanted to get second look before I did that.

Don't like spending the money but considering id parts want $429 just for the injector and I really need it up and running pretty quickly. If #3 is leaking I may hit gerodi up but I suspect it may just be spill over.

geordi · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2016 2:00 pm

One thing to do with all this in-and-out for the injectors - Has anyone cleaned the seat at the bottom of the hole? A copper brush from a shotgun cleaning kit will do a nice job of scrubbing, and then use the soft mop drenched in brake cleaner to finish the cleaning. Same for the bottom of the injector where the crush washer sits - DO NOTHING TO THE TIP other than wipe it with a paper towel and your fingers! The holes are extremely small and precise, you don't want to hurt them at all.

As for selling the injectors, I gave JDaPP a price of $275 shipped. I have a stack of them at the moment so if anyone else needs some, I'm happy to oblige.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:49 pm

I did clean out the hole when I was working on the head. The fuel injector seat tool has a cutter that is design to get it nice and flush, I just decided to get another look before I went that route. Your idea is certainly a good one if you are starting from scratch.

geordi · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:56 pm

I'm not a fan of that cutting tool because the head already is thin enough, and the last thing you want to do is create any new problems down there. In general there shouldn't ever be a need to remove any aluminum anyway, nothing that might get down there is harder than the aluminum, so a copper brush (softer than aluminum) should be plenty and then the mop to wipe it away.

You are sure you don't somehow have a second washer down the hole, right? I've seen it happen. If the bottom of the hole isn't shiny bright silver, something else is in there. I suppose it is possible that the injector body could somehow have started to unscrew itself and is leaking from where the tip clamps in... But that would be highly unusual.

I heard of one other injector that had some "breakage" or "leaking" problem, but the person reporting it was extremely unreliable as a source of information and I'm not really sure what she was on about. These injectors are built to withstand far more than the 25k PSI they can receive in normal operation at full pressure, so having one just break in the middle is next to impossible. Something else is going on. Even at idle they are accepting over 5k PSI.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:28 pm

I am positive there is not another washer down there. It also pretty clean in the hole and I have tried everything else so don't know what else it could be at this point. I didn't have the fuel injectors looked at when I had it apart before and maybe that was a mistake but assumed they were working before. Either way I was pretty much out of options and the shop is charging me for ~1.5 hours of labor + the rebuild, so I will see what they come up with and post here when it is complete.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Wed Dec 07, 2016 6:03 pm

Won't get it back till next week. Bosch had to order some parts, wasn't able to get all the details because Bosch tech had left for the day.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2016 4:08 pm

Picking it up this afternoon. I will get full story but issue was with the injector itself. Mechanic says Bosch tech essentially had to completely rebuild it.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Fri Dec 16, 2016 12:33 am

Got it back, unfortunately Bosch tech was not there to get exact story but invoice says fuel injector was leaking from body. Inspected and rebuilt. It is not leaking now so it must have fixed it. When I was messing with it the leak was clearly happening below the crows foot as I was not able to see any fuel leak above the valve cover. Prior to this I would get some sense of stalling as I came to a stop, similar to when I have air in the fuel system (that is what made start looking for the leak). That is all gone now.

I realize this is an uncommon failure but since I know I personally changed the washers, cleaned the port, and tightened the fuel lines (and did it with the other ones with no issues) +Bosch actually inspected the fuel injector and ruled that it needed to be rebuilt, I am inclined to believe that I had a rare case of the fuel injector leaking. Based off of how long it took to get the parts I am guessing this is not a common issue....

If someone else where to have this problem I would recommend getting an injector from geordi because having Bosch rebuilding it was not as quick as I would have liked, which was the main reason I went that route to start with. Bosch/shop had said a 2-3 day turn around installed/out the door.

undrgnd · **Joined:** Sat Mar 26, 2016 4:47 am **Posts:** 194

Hey good news. What exactly was the reason you thought it was leaking in the first place ie what was the car doing??

Cheers

Chris

JDaPP · **Posted:** Fri Dec 16, 2016 10:15 pm

Mostly I saw it because I changed the head gasket this summer and I have been super paranoid about every sound, smell, etc.so I check the engine regularly. It is actually starting to stress me out...the other tippers were:

- As I came to a stop the engine would sound like it was going to cut out. Once stopped it would be fine.
- engine sounded a little louder at idle.
- smelled diesel when I opened the hood.

These were all very similar to when the fuel filter head wiring failed/air was getting in the fuel. So I suspected an air leak somewhere. In fairness this may have been doing this prior to head gasket as I usually have the engine cover on so I wouldn't have seen it/I was less paranoid. Even with the cover off I really had to look, as the diesel fuel was filling in the recess in the valve cover, after a longer trip it had overflowed enough to see, at the point I started really paying close attention.

undrgnd · **Joined:** Sat Mar 26, 2016 4:47 am **Posts:** 194

Thanks for letting me know

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Dec 18, 2016 8:23 pm

Two of the fuel injectors were fouled in my resurrected CRD, the crud was stuck on pretty good.

I put them back in and poured a quart of marvel mystery oil in fuel tank, 4 consecutive fuel fill ups, over 2000 miles..... problems gone.

If MMO hadn't fixed the injector problem, then I would have replaced them.

Try that first, no sense of disposing good injectors when they only need a little internal carbon cleaning.

Fuel injector replacement?

Who is online