Everyone knows your car needs fuel to run.
Over time, the system your car uses to deliver fuel to the engine has changed tremendously. It started with the carburetor and evolved into direct fuel injection, finding its way into most modern vehicles.
The carburetor sprayed fuel into the intake manifold, where it would be mixed with air and delivered to all cylinders simultaneously, causing two issues. First, every cylinder getting fuel, when only one is used at a time, is inefficient and wasteful. Second, the cylinders closest to the carburetor would receive more fuel than the cylinders farther away. A single fuel injector located in the same position eventually replaced the carburetor, but besides having a little better fuel management, the fuel delivery issues remained.
This led to the multi-point fuel injection. Fuel would now be delivered to the firing cylinder only. Each cylinder had its own dedicated injector, which was fired when that cylinder required fuel. The fuel introduction point was moved from on top of the air intake manifold to the bottom of the manifold. Only the active cylinder would receive fuel and all cylinders would now receive the same amount. The fuel efficiency and performance of vehicles was increased greatly by this innovation. Problem solved, right?
There is always room for improvement, which led to direct injection fuel management. Direct injection bypasses the intake manifold and introduces fuel directly into the cylinder. The benefit is the injectors can be programmed to increase and decrease the amount of fuel they deliver.
Unfortunately, direct injection has a downside. If the system is not properly maintained, direct injection will lead to excessive carbon buildup on the intake valves. When fuel burns in your engine, it will leave carbon in the intake manifold, the valves and even on the pistons. When the fuel traveled through the intake manifold, it would help clean the intake and valve. Direct injection allows carbon to build up on the valves. Eventually, they will not close properly. The result is a rough running engine, and the check engine light will most likely come on.
Fuel system cleaning is important to maintain efficiency and performance. The fuel system should be cleaned every 15,000 miles by a service facility. Standard fuel injection vehicles should have their systems cleaned every 30,000 miles.
Call H and I Automotive at (480) 985-9279 with questions or for an estimate. Visit us at handiautomotive.com or Facebook and Google+.