Fuel Injectors, when do they need to be changed out?

DaBoss · Jun 14, 2020

Aloha Folks, new here and thankful for this site. I have a 2007 Sport Trac, V6. Did a bunch of items the other day including installing one of Zabteck's metal thermostat housings which are great! We also did the valve cover gaskets and lower manifold gaskets/rings. After it was all put back and started up, the truck ran rough, was smoking. My mechanic shut things down, started to do tests. He found that one injector was not closing, staying open and fuel was just pouring into the chamber. He took off the electrical connection, turned on the ignition and it was still happening so we knew it was a mechanical issue with the one injector. Luckily I was able to find 1 brand new injector at an Autozone, installed it and put everything back together. Vehicle runs great.

Question: My Trac has about 145K on it. When if any should we change out the fuel injectors? If so, would you recommend the rebuilt/refurbished Bosch ones I see a lot on ebay or is it better to buy new Ford Motocraft ones? I just don't want this to happen again for a while but also don't want to do something if it is not needed. Look forward to your suggestions, advice. Thanks, Mahalo!

EddieS'04 · Jun 14, 2020

Injectors normally are changed when they fail. Run a good injector cleaner every 5000 miles.

DaBoss · Jun 16, 2020

EddieS'04 said:
Injectors normally are changed when they fail. Run a good injector cleaner every 5000 miles.

Aloha Eddie, thank you for your reply. Ok then, I will not replace the other 5 injectors at this time and use the injector cleaner as you recommended. Thank you very much. Mahalo!

Todd Z · Jun 16, 2020

Yup same.... normally don't replace until they fail or cause problems. Thanks for the business !!!

DaBoss · Jun 17, 2020

Todd Z said:
Yup same.... normally don't replace until they fail or cause problems. Thanks for the business !!!

Aloha Todd, so happy with the thermostat housing unit! One less thing to think about. The injector was a strange situation, just gave out right when things were getting closed up, we also did valve cover gaskets and the lower intake manifold "o-ring" gaskets. Glad it showed up then but had to pay a higher price $50.00, for one non-ford injector but USA made at the local AutoZone, just glad they had it. I will follow yours and EddieS advice and use the injector cleaner as part of my routine maintenance from now on. Mahalo!