As a responsible vehicle owner, you’ll want to make sure you are doing everything necessary to keep your vehicle running smoothly and getting as much fuel efficiency as possible while protecting the life and longevity of your vehicle at the same time.
And while most of us are familiar with the fact that we have to bring our cars in for oil changes on a regular basis, and have our brakes repaired or upgraded routinely, most have no idea that our fuel injectors need to be maintained regularly as well.
Older vehicles are going to require fuel injector maintenance more often than newer vehicles, but as a general rule, EVERY vehicle on the road today would benefit from fuel injector cleaning from time to time.
Why do I need to clean my fuel injectors?
Fuel injector components do exactly what they sound like – they inject fuel into the combustion chamber of the engine and get your vehicle ready for action, pumping more or less fuel into your engine depending on how you operate the gas pedal.
Over time, various deposits from chemical compounds, and other impurities from your gas are going to build up and compromise the ability of your fuel injectors to operate the way they should. This is going to dramatically increase the amount of fuel you need to drive your car, and jack up the amount of money you spend on gas.
And eventually, if the build-up of deposits goes on for long enough, your fuel injectors can become completely clogged up. Your engine will start stuttering and stammering, and may even refuse to start at all.
There are many ways clogging can affect the injectors
Thankfully, by using fuel injector cleaning machines you won’t have to worry about that headache or hassle any longer.
Instead, you’ll be able to clean your fuel injectors whenever you deem it necessary, improving the efficiency of your car, wasting less money on gas, and even saving a lot of money by not having to pay professional mechanics, who usually just use the same process anyway.
Why use a fuel injector cleaning machine versus fuel injector fluids?
Well, the main reason is that fuel injector cleaning machines and cleaning kits are going to be able to produce much more consistent, reliable, and effective results. Think of it as using a bucket of soap water and a standard garden hose VS a high-pressure water sprayer to clean a surface. Sure the bucket of soap water and hose will do fine work of getting most of the surface dirt off, but it probably won’t clean much deeper than that. A pressure spray however can be strong enough to just about shear off the entire outer layer of the surface, taking any and all dirt with it.
Similarly, injector cleaning liquids help to flush off minor dirt and the most obvious grime, as well as protect from further dirt build-up, but if the injector has gotten really dirty and clogged already, it usually just won’t have that extra “kick” needed to clean it all the way.
Luckily there are a lot of pre-assembled cleaning kits and machines available for purchase. From fairly basic compressors to full-blown professional equipment for those that want to match official service levels of quality. Everything you need is usually going to be included right in the box, though occasionally you’ll need a separately bought air compressor to handle the heavy lifting.
The process for hooking basic cleaning kits up to your fuel injector is simple and straightforward and the instructions are usually included with the product you purchased. And once you are hooked up, the machine does the rest of the work for you.
As for more complex machinery, you will need to be prepared to spend a fairly notable amount of money (from a couple of hundred to several thousand dollars) and be willing to educate yourself on how to operate the machine. This includes knowing how to remove and re-install injectors.
However, if you work with cars regularly, either because you own several or because you run a shop or service, you’ll definitely see the immense value of owning something that is designed to clean and test almost every kind of injector using industrial strength pressure and measuring accuracy. Why not use the best fuel injector cleaning machines on the market?