Whenever you are informed of irregular signs on your automobile, you are right to be preoccupied, because a car represents a massive annual budget and unforeseen breakdowns don’t reduce the bill. So what if you feel as if you have a leaking injector on your Lexus ES? You probably figured it out thanks to black/oily drips along your engine, or a troubled idle, or strange black smoke. These three symptoms are the main signals of a leaking injector. As this failure can produce more significant engine concerns on your car, we decided to prepare this article to help you ensure the failure of a leaking injector and treat it properly. To do this, we will first look into the case of gasoline injectors and then at those of diesel injectors Lexus ES.
Leaking injector on my petrol Lexus ES
It is crucial to know that the injectors on petrol and diesel engines are distinct, in reality, the difference in combustion between these two kind of engines makes the injection distinct. The main difference lies in the pressure undergone by the injectors, on a petrol engine it will vary between 3.5 bars for indirect injection and 120 bars for indirect injection.
Leaking injector on a petrol Lexus ES: The different leaks
It should be mentioned that injector leaks on a Lexus ES equipped with a petrol engine are rather infrequent. This is because of the much lower pressure in the petrol intake systems. Even so, there are two kind of leaks:
- Leakage from the top of the injector:
It is conceivable that you have a leak from the top of the injector, this is the part that is connected to the fuel rail, an O-ring will be involved in this. - Leak injector of the lower part:
At last, you may encounter a leak coming from the lower part of the injector of your car, this one will occur from the junction with the engine and not with the rail as seen before.
Leaking injector on my diesel Lexus ES
Unlike petrol engines, which have spark combustion, diesel engines run on compression. This combustion procedure generates very high pressure in the engine, as do the injectors. On these models, the pressure is more than 10 times higher than on the direct injection of car petrol engines, reaching 1800 to 2000 bars.
Leaking injector on diesel Lexus ES: The different leaks
In the case of leaking diesel injectors on your Lexus ES, there are three several kind of leaks:
- Leakage from the injector inlet:
In this case, it is an inlet pipe that will deform as time passes, usually the leak will be at the clamping point. - Injector return leakage:
As its name reveals, this leakage relates to the management of the fuel return in the injector, this time the injector that leaks on your Lexus ES will be caused by an O-ring or its plastic tip that leaks. - Injector base leak:
This injection leak is one of the most annoying, it is the junction between the engine and the injector nose that leaks at a copper seal, you should experience an air noise and a compression loss. - If after examining you have oil leaking but it does not come from your injectors, we recommend you to read this article on the presence of oil leaking on your Lexus ES.
Leaking injector on my Lexus ES, how to fix the leak
And to finish, we’re going to look into how to fix a leaking injector on your car. Oftentimes a leak is associated, as we have seen prior to this, to a worn seal due to the pressures endured. But think that the pressure in the circuit is enormous, specifically on diesel engines. So you will have to take some safety measures:
- Lower the pressure before any work is conducted…
- Masking you to avoid the risk of fuel spillage
- NEVER work on a running diesel engine injector.
Relating to the repair part of your leak, it will very often be limited to changing the seals that have failed:
- Locate the source of the leak
- Dismantle the injector in question
- Replace the corresponding seal kit
- Reassemble the set up and tighten with a torque wrench in respect with the manufacturer’s standards.
In all situations, these interventions are not automatically complicated, but if you have the slightest hesitation in the treatment of your injector that leaks on your Lexus ES, we recommend you to get closer to your repair shop to avoid any bad manipulation that could severely harm the condition of your Lexus ES.
Whenever you have any additional questions about the Lexus ES, do not hesitate to consult our Lexus ES category.
