Injector replacement Carina E 4AFE 1.6

john.west

Hi folks,

Apologies in advance for the rather long winded thread...

I mentioned the syptoms of my Carina E which sometimes runs eratically to a mechanic some time back. Sometimes the car really holds back as if its about to conk totally. If I put the boot time it can get even worse initially but then usually takes off again. The problem is intermittent. The mechanic told me he would most certainly guess its probably the injectors or maybe just an injector.

Ive since deduced that the injectors are colour coded and you will need to replace them with the colour specific to your car which I can see is blue in my case. I've also learned that they are a Toyota dealer only jobbie and bloody expensive at circa €150 quid each a pop...would be around €600 to replace the four. The few motor factors I went into told me there would be the option of getting them from a breakers yard. Of course this is a risk as you may end up with more fu*ked injectors. I'm wondering is there any other options available to me. Is there any establishements that would be able to re-condition the injectors? If I took them off myself and cleaned them with parrafin would it be worth a shot or alternatively would a dose of Red X in the petrol do anything for me. Also are the injectors interchangeable as in would a blue injector for cylinder number 1 with interchangeable with injector number 2, 3, or 4 etc?

At €600 I would sooner replace the car really which is a shame as car is otherwise not bad, although its got a scrape here and there, its solid enough and fairly clean.

Brother also mentioned to me after doing a bit of research before buying his diesel Mondeo that sometimes over the years the injectors can sort of go out of sync with the ECU. All the symptoms of failed injectors but in reality all that needs to be done is reprogram everything to sync them up again. Apparently some mechanics have being bold enough to lead the punter to assume they're changing their injectors at a hugh cost while all they do is re-sync them....not sure if there any truth to this...could somebody with the knowledge confirm?

Finally!!! Im at 163k miles, and TB was last done at 107k miles. Am I due to replace it soon or overdue perhaps. If so could somebody give me a ballpark figure of what I could expect to pay at a reputable independent garage. Dont think water pump is part of the job in them but open to correction. Would like a ballpark figure for materials and labour, job done and John's driving down the road again after if possible.

Many thanks in advance for all helpful responses

Nissan doctor

Try ringing a Toyota garage in the UK or any Toyota specialists online as the injectors are likely to be much cheaper.

Even try e-bay.

As for the timing belt, you should be looking at around the €300 mark for a belt and new tensioner supply and fit. The water pump isn't driven by the timing belt, but, the timing belt does have to be removed to change the pump so it may still be worth doing at the same time.

john.west

Many thanks for your response Nissan Doctor. A quick glance on Ebay does not immediately throw up anything to me but will try again. Brother is over in UK working, he works shift work so will ask him to check a few Toyota dealers as hes working evenings this week....I just dont get the time to do these sort of things when working!

On the injectors do you know if they are all the same Nissan Doctor? I appreciate that different colours are obviously not intertchangeable but would all blue injectors be the same, i.e. would blue injector for cyliner number one be the same as that for cylinder number 2, 3 and 4. If they are it may well avoid me splashing out on a set of 4 by changing each one until I find the culpurit (assuming and hoping it is only one thats acting up)

€300's not so bad for timing belt. I thought I'd expect to be stung for more. I assume its due after 57,000 miles or would I be safe for a few k yet?

Nissan doctor

john.west wrote: »

Many thanks for your response Nissan Doctor. A quick glance on Ebay does not immediately throw up anything to me but will try again. Brother is over in UK working, he works shift work so will ask him to check a few Toyota dealers as hes working evenings this week....I just dont get the time to do these sort of things when working!

On the injectors do you know if they are all the same Nissan Doctor? I appreciate that different colours are obviously not intertchangeable but would all blue injectors be the same, i.e. would blue injector for cyliner number one be the same as that for cylinder number 2, 3 and 4. If they are it may well avoid me splashing out on a set of 4 by changing each one until I find the culpurit (assuming and hoping it is only one thats acting up)

€300's not so bad for timing belt. I thought I'd expect to be stung for more. I assume its due after 57,000 miles or would I be safe for a few k yet?

Yes all injectors on the same engine will be interchangeable.

If you think an injector has failed, the first and simplest thing to do is unplug the wiring plug from each injector in turn, functioning injectors will make the car run worse when unplugged, there will be no change when you unplug the failed one.

As for the belt, the change interval is every 100,000kms/62,000 miles or 5 years so it depends on how long ago it was changed.

crosshair1

Injectors were a common enough fault on these in there time, but your description of the fault, doesnt sound injector related (intermittently going down onto 3 cylinders etc)

john.west

Nissan doctor wrote: »

Yes all injectors on the same engine will be interchangeable.

If you think an injector has failed, the first and simplest thing to do is unplug the wiring plug from each injector in turn, functioning injectors will make the car run worse when unplugged, there will be no change when you unplug the failed one.

As for the belt, the change interval is every 100,000kms/62,000 miles or 5 years so it depends on how long ago it was changed.

crosshair1 wrote: »

Injectors were a common enough fault on these in there time, but your description of the fault, doesnt sound injector related (intermittently going down onto 3 cylinders etc)

Many thanks for yer responses folk, they are very much appreciated. So it is the case that when an injector fails it fails and its gone full stop? The mechanic I was talking to lead me to believe a failing injector can work intemittently until it eventually will give up for good. I actually unplugged each lead from the spark plugs one at a time, some time back. Engine ran very coarsely when I pulled each of, so I assumed the offending injector was not giving any hassle at that particular time. I would guess so that diagnostics is the best place to start.

Nissan Doctor, my timing belt was last changed in mid 2008 but would need to double check tomorrow. I should be hitting 169,000 miles well before mid 2013 so that gives me some motoring yet on current one, thanks.