The Sunday News
Lovert Mafukure
New technology is all about reducing emissions and using less fuel without compromising power delivery. One of the ways technology has made sure of that is by coming up with direction injection.
Nissan DD engines have direct injection, Toyota FSE engines have direct injection, Mitsubishi GDI engines have direct injection — it’s the future and we can’t run away from it.
So direct injection means less fuel consumption, more power and fewer emissions. On paper, it sounds quite good, like we can’t live without it. Motor vehicles have evolved from carburettors to port injection (indirect injection) to direction injection.
Technology of old like that of carburettors is quite simple, it’s all mechanical and doesn’t need computer chips to work but its wasteful and we don’t need it, seeing there are issues with sustainable development and global warming.
As much as the system does not need engine management to run like fuel injection, it produces more harmful fumes and decision makers keep making it mandatory for manufacturers to come up with more environmentally friendly engines and here we are with direct injection.
Politics in the oil industry won’t exactly make it easily possible to have full blown electrical cars so it has to appear like they are trying hard to reduce emissions.
Port injection came as a replacement for the carburettor. Port or indirection injection is a system whereby injectors are programmed to spray fuel into the intake manifold at specific intervals, the fuel and air mixture will then be fed for combustion once the valves open. It’s quite an efficient system and has not given many problems thus far and that brings us to today’s issue, are we good with direct injection or better without it?
Direct injection on the other hand is different from port or indirect injection in the sense that the injectors spray directly into the combustion chamber. Highly pressurised fuel is delivered in a very fine mist. Direct injection uses a system of special injectors and a booster pump. With direct injection the injectors are mounted right on the cylinder head while with port injection they are mounted into the intake manifold.
So far, we have established that engines with direct injection are fuel efficient and generally have a higher power output.
Their main strength is on fuel economy with some manufacturers claiming that their direct injection engines are as good as hybrid vehicles but over time as the special parts begin to wear out, the system is a nightmare.
In theory, direct injection is good enough to see us through until cars start running on water but in practice, the system is a bit of a jive. Common symptoms of a failing direct injection system are uniform across the board — that is, DD engines, FSE engines, GDI engines, you name them. Some of the issues emanate from blended fuels that contain ethanol, ignorance, lack of back up support from car dealers — remember these are grey imports and you shouldn’t expect much help from those Beforward sales representatives, they are more interested in selling you a car than offering after sales service.
Given the working environment of the direct injection injectors, they are meant to be very rugged and strong otherwise they fail, which is what happens most the time.
These injectors are exposed to extreme pressure as the injector tip is right in the combustion chamber. They tend to fail or they get clogged up over time causing fuel delivery problems. It’s worse for us here with these sugar coated blended fuels.
Somehow I’d like to think they are like diesel engines, cheap to run and expensive to maintain. One has to ask themselves whether it’s worth the trouble buying a car with direct injection. The most popular one has been the Mitsubishi Chariot and has given hordes of people headaches with its problems, right now you barely see them around but there were thousands on the road just a few years ago.
In some cases just injector cleaner can work but in more serious cases, you may need to approach a professional to clean the professional way. Deposits on the injector tips can hinder fuel delivery causing the injector to spray less fuel and cause the engine to stumble or misfire.
So now, the question is, does direct injection actually cause more problems than it solves? Some people would say they have never had issues with it but there is definitely an increased number of cars on a daily basis that come with issues pertaining to the direct injection system. Port injection has not given much of an issue with its system. We seem to have another diesel over petrol argument with this one, direct injection apparently saves about 15% more fuel and the question remains, is it worth the trouble? You decide! Tell us your experience with your direct injection engine.
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