In the event that you are alert of unusual symptoms on your car, you are right to be preoccupied, because a car represents a big annual budget and unpredicted malfunctions don’t reduce the bill. So what if you feel as if you have a leaking injector on your Chevrolet Sonic? You most likely figured it out thanks to black/oily drips along your engine, or a troubled idle, or unconventional black smoke. These three manifestations are the main signs of a leaking injector. As this troubles can bring on more critical engine complications on your car, we made a decision to write this article to help you confirm the failure of a leaking injector and deal with it properly. To achieve this, we will first look at the circumstance of gasoline injectors and then at those of diesel injectors Chevrolet Sonic.
Leaking injector on my petrol Chevrolet Sonic
It is fundamental to know that the injectors on petrol and diesel engines are distinct, the truth is, the difference in combustion between these two kind of engines makes the injection distinct. The essential 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 Chevrolet Sonic: The different leaks
It should be noted that injector leaks on a Chevrolet Sonic equipped with a petrol engine are rather infrequent. This is resulting from 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 attached to the fuel rail, an O-ring will be involved in this. - Leak injector of the lower part:
Finally, you may suffer a leak coming from the lower portion of the injector of your car, this one will come from the junction with the engine and not with the rail as seen before.
Leaking injector on my diesel Chevrolet Sonic
Unlike petrol engines, which have spark combustion, diesel engines run on compression. This combustion system 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 Chevrolet Sonic: The different leaks
In the circumstance of leaking diesel injectors on your Chevrolet Sonic, there are three different kind of leaks:
- Leakage from the injector inlet:
In this instance, it is an inlet pipe that will deform along with time, generally the leak will be at the clamping point. - Injector return leakage:
As its name suggests, this leakage relates to the management of the fuel return in the injector, this time the injector that leaks on your Chevrolet Sonic will be caused by an O-ring or its plastic tip that leaks. - Injector base leak:
This injection leak is one of the most bothersome, it is the junction between the engine and the injector nose that leaks at a copper seal, you should encounter an air noise and a compression loss. - If after examining you have oil leaking but it does not come from your injectors, we suggest you to browse this article on the presence of oil leaking on your Chevrolet Sonic.
Leaking injector on my Chevrolet Sonic, how to fix the leak
And at last, we’re going to look at how to fix a leaking injector on your car. Regularly a leak is linked, as we have seen previously, to a worn seal caused by the pressures suffered. But think that the pressure in the circuit is monumental, specifically on diesel engines. So you will have to take some safety measures:
- Lower the pressure before any work is achieved…
- Covering you to avoid the risk of fuel spillage
- NEVER work on a running diesel engine injector.
Regarding the repair part of your leak, it will very often be restricted to swapping the seals that have failed:
- Identify the source of the leak
- Dismantle the injector in question
- Change the corresponding seal kit
- Reassemble the assembly and tighten with a torque wrench in accordance with the manufacturer’s standards.
In all cases, these interventions are not necessarily very hard, but if you have the slightest uncertainty in the treatment of your injector that leaks on your Chevrolet Sonic, we suggest you to get closer to your auto technician to avoid any bad handling that could critically harm the condition of your Chevrolet Sonic.
To discover more tips on the Chevrolet Sonic, take a look at the Chevrolet Sonic category.
