I’ll regret asking this 😉

local garage who have got a good reputation…

The wife’s car was playing up bigtime – Fiesta 1.4TDCI

£529….

2 new injectors + seals fitting
2 new seals for other injectors + Fitting
New Gaskets + fitting

2 injectors were shot and they said they were lucky they got them out of the cylinder block..

They said the cheapest place for the injectors was fords £160 a pop

Very common problem on the 1.4 duratec, injectors seals going then after time they clog up and die.

Question now is, once this is all fixed, do the advertised ‘injector cleaners’ you stick in when you fill up work?

Yes, the cleaners work.

As for £160/each for injectors, that’s not THAT bad.. on modern cars they can be horrific. Injectors are meant to last 80-100k miles tho…

Does the car get used for town pootling all the time, or does it get a thrash now and then?

Doesn’t sound too bad to me. Injection stuff on modern diesels is espensive.

cheers…

the car has done 72k the wife had it with 24k on the clock it was used up until about 65k for commuting about a 60miles round trip every day, the last year its ‘pootling’ back and fore to work about 5 miles round trip. she doesn’t hang about when driving but in answer to your question, NO it doesn’t really get a good long run

Have you had a quote from a main dealer for the work. I might be talking rubbish but I thought that modern Ford injectors had to be “programmed” by a Ford dealer anyway so the local garage would have to take it to the dealer anyway. As I said that might be total rubbish… 🙂

they did send the two injectors off to a ‘specialist’ for them to look at and ‘re-set’ as the guy put it, but when they chased them up they said they were shot and b*ggered! maybe the injectors come pre-set….

I know on Transits they have to be programmed by the main dealer once fitted

A year of short trips could have had something to do with it. Doesn’t matter if you flog it, a short trip is still a short trip… in fact flogging it when it’s cold is the worst thing you can do.

injector is an on off solanoid
not much to programme in there, i’ll programme your light switches for £50 if you want

re op seems resonable, labour is what £40 per hour
injectors are £160
there is a place near york who will clean them and measure flow but the name escapes me iirc it cost about £40 with new filters and baskets

TDCi Injector Programming. Looks like its just 1.6,1.8 and 2.0 TDCi injectors that need programming. Not sure about 1.4

Doesnt sound too bad – as said, the prices of some injectors is astronomical.

RE the use of the car, 5 mile trips is not doing it much good, all that cold starting. Make sure that at least every couple of weeks its getting a good, sustained long run on the motorway to the upper reaches of the revs at times.

Flogging it from cold aswell, is never a good idea. I bet the oilsd hardly warmed up after 5 miles.

injector is an on off solanoid

Not these days. Honda CDTI ones have 10 injection phases I believe.

that would be an ecu (Powertrain Control Module) programming
not injector programming

dont tell me the injection phases are
off
on
on a bit more
a bit more than that
a little bit more than that
etc etc etc

Flogging it from cold aswell, is never a good idea. I bet the oilsd hardly warmed up after 5 miles.

This can also lead to killing the turbo along with the many people i hear/see reving the engine just after starting it or just before they turn it off.
The quote seems resonable to me as labour rates are what push the prices up.

The temp gauge in my diesel takes at least 4-5 miles to even move off the COLD end stop.
Using it for pottering doesn’t do the engine any good.

As suggested, give it a decent run once a week and once it is warmed up take it down a dual carriageway in 3rd at 70mph or something for 1/2 a mile or so. Get a bit of heat through it and clean all the cak out.

When I first got my car, it belched out thick black smoke under acceleration. A couple of weeks of spirited driving soon cleared it out.

The price you paid seems pretty reasonable. My garage chucks injector cleaner through it at every service. Now i’m not doing 300+ miles/week though I might start doing it a bit more frequently.