Click on the link of the specific brand of your car for maintenance tips and typical issues you may experience.

Fuel Injection

You have trouble starting your engine. The starter sounds okay. Gas gauge says you have enough gas. Once you do get your car started, it runs rough, has a hard time accelerating, it hesitates. You've noticed that you don't get as good of gas mileage as you used to. With gas prices as they are, you know that you must make every gallon count. All of these symptoms and issues might be related to your fuel injections system.

Fuel injection systems start way back in your fuel tank. Any disruption in the flow of gas or diesel from the storage tank to the moment your spark plugs fire can cause poor performance of your engine. Hesitation or failure of the fuel injection system of your engine when trying to pull out into busy traffic can be a dangerous situation at worst or leave you stranded along side the highway at best. There are a number of things that can cause poor fuel injector performance.

The Fuel Pump

The fuel pump resides inside or near the fuel tank. Yes, that's right, the fuel pump is most likely inside the tank! Sounds like a strange place for a pump in such a hostile and flammable environment. Dirty fuel, sediment, letting your engine run dry, wear and tear and a defect in the pump can all cause it to malfunction. Extreme cold or heat can also cause damage to your fuel pump depending on the quality of the pump. Your fuel pump has a combination of plastics and metals and moving parts that can wear out. Also, your pump should be made to the specifications by the manufacturer of your car.

Each car has certain line pressure requirements while operating and at rest. The valves that hold the fuel in the line ready for the next time you start your car should be working properly. Allowing fuel to slip back out of the lines puts your whole fuel injection system at risk.

Fuel Filter

Clogged or damaged fuel filters can obviously impair the performance of your fuel injection system. It's a fairly easy and inexpensive part to replace. Don't let a little fuel filter stand in the way of your car getting its peak performance in gas mileage.

Fuel Injectors

The valves, lines and spray nozzle array must be free of corrosion. The purpose of the fuel injection system is to atomize (make a fine mist or spray) the fuel and mix it with the right amount of oxygen. Too much fuel can flood the combustion chamber. Your engine only needs a very small amount to make the pistons move. Excess fuel only gets pushed into the exhaust and out the back end, wasted! Not enough fuel and your engine will have no power. All of this must perform flawlessly for your car to operate at its top capacity.

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