Hi, everybody.

I have a 98 SE Autmatic with 117,000 miles.

It's suffering from sticking injectors and I want to get them cleaned.


Option 1: The dealer, for $64, will clean my injectors by "putting something in the intake manifold"

Option 2: An independent garage, for $69, will clean them by hooking a bottle of cleaner to the fuel rail.


My gut says Option 2 is a better method for cleaning injectors. Any opinions/experience?

 

How do you tell that they are sticking?
Would a regular bottle of injector cleaner help any that you would buy at an Autozone type store?

SuDZ

 

Take them out yourself and take them to someone who specializes in cleaning injectors. Should cost like $15 dollars max each, can't remember exactly I had it done last year, it was somewhere around $100 for all 6 so thats $60 US. The stuff you put in the tank is well mediocre at best, get it done by someone who knows what they are doing.

 

The car dies a few times when I try to start it in the morning. When the car finally starts, it creates a cloud of gray smoke. I've heard the sticking injector idea both from a dealer mechanic and on this forum. It seems reasonable, given the high miles on this car, the propensity for Nissans to have injector trouble, and my predilection for cheap and nasty gasoline.

 

How will I find someone who specializes in cleaning injectors?

Can I or he identify which one(s) are giving me the problem and just clean those?

I tried the in-tank solution... no change. Options 1 and 2 were more involved.

 

Might be one of those things though where you will want to just get them all done at once. You figure this way here you dont have to worry about two other clogging up next month and so on.

SuDZ

 

I had mine done with a bottle at a garage, it did wonders for my car. I would recommend it to anyone.

 

Sudz is right get them all done. I just looked in the yellow pages and there are at least 4 places in our town that clean injectors and we are like 60,000 people. When they did mine I got all 6 done and he printed out the flow rate from each injector, before and after. Believe me its worth the money for the piece of mind. They also fitted them with new o-rings as part of the service.

 

What is it they pump through the bottle?

SuDZ

 

I'm affraid to find out. They had my car idling and some solution that sprays into the TB until the exhaust quits smoking. That signals that the crapola is out of the injectors. It may have cleaned my TB too. I'm not positive.

 

Do you think BG fuel injector cleaner will work? Its about $21.00 per bottle...any one use any?

 

I just had my injectors flush serviced with BG Injector cleaner...at the fuel rail.I was not having any problems, but at 54K thought it best to have them run........fortunately I have a great dealership I use here in Southern California and I am personally close to all the service personnel and specify a particular Nissan Technician who has serviced my Max for the past three years.

I did notice my starts are quick and positive and idle is steady as a rock. You can always pull the injectors and have them mapped...but I did not feel that level of attention was warranted at this time.

Try the fuel rail system is your short on time....and please feed your Max 91 Oct minimum.

 

You can determine which injectors are failing by using a 3' length of standard vacuum hose (approx 1/4" in diameter, inexpensive & available at any auto parts store) as a simple, yet effective diagnostic tool. (Mechanic's stethescope)

Stand over your engine bay with the hood open, take one end of the hose and place it in your ear, then the other end in your mouth - now blow really hard! What do you hear?

ok, ok, j/k

Seriously though, with the engine running & the hood open, take one end of the hose and put it in your ear. Now, take the other end and hold it next to or on each fuel injector body. The ones that are working properly should be making a consistent, evenly spaced electronic "clicking" noise. This is the sound of a properly working injector valve.

If you do not hear the clicking on a particular injector, or it sounds faint or inconsistent, then you're hearing the sound of a faulty/clogged injector.

This is a technique that can be used to identify many problems in the engine bay. There's a cacaphony of noise being created under your hood - take a moment and move your stethescope around to different areas: alternator, A/C compressor, etc. you'll easily be able to isolate the individual noises from different systems under the hood this way. It's not a bad idea to know what things "should" sound like when they're working correctly.


I would probably get them all cleaned if I were you. Also, start using a better grade of gas, too.