Fuel Injector Testing: Here Is What Is Most Important

Posted by Enurga on August 7th, 2019

Testing fuel injectors sometimes can be easier than you think, whether on a TBI (throttle body injection) or an EFI (electronic fuel injection) system.

Often, these injectors face common problems you can diagnose visually (TBI), or with the use of some simple tools.

The modern fuel injection system works more efficiently and reliably than the previous carburetor model. The system has a better control over the air-fuel mixture under any driving conditions. Occasionally, though, buildup from impurities in the fuel, or injector system electrical or mechanical problems may contribute to rough idle, misfires, harmful emissions, poor engine performance, and fuel economy.

Finding the bad fuel injector

First of all, you need to find the fuel injector that is not working. Check the injectors there and make sure that all plugs are getting sparks. You can use spark tester which flashes as the coil sends fire to the plug. If all plugs are flashing. Pull out plugs one a time for visual inspection. If all are fine and you cannot find any problem with any of them, you can remove the plug wires one at a time to see which one did not make any difference in the way the engine runs. But you should not do this on modern electronic ignition systems as the power in the spark plug wire will give you a very uncomfortable zap if you try to remove it while the engine is running.

How to check the bad injector

Once you have found the bad injector, it is time for fuel injector testing, and for that, you may need some equipment and a tool like SETscan Optical Patternators which is the most important parameter used and provides full planar surface area density of liquid spray. It is widely used in both research and development organizations to optimize the design of fuel injectors and spray nozzle.

A fuel injector testing also involves checking for many other factors such as coil in the injector. For that you will need a multimeter to check the resistant value inside the injector. Each engine has different resistant value. You can find injector resistance value in the service manual for your particular vehicle make and model. While checking the resistant value, make sure the engine is off and electrical connector unplugged. Examine the injector electrical terminals, using the multimeter.

Another important aspect of fuel injector testing is checking injector controlling circuit. Use one of the best tools like SETscan Optical Patternators to examine if the controlling circuit is working properly.