If you are aware of abnormal symptoms on your vehicle, you are right to be preoccupied, because a car represents a massive annual budget and unforeseen breakdowns don’t lower the bill. So what if you find that you have a leaking injector on your Dodge Nitro? You almost certainly figured it out thanks to black/oily drips along your engine, or a disturbed idle, or strange black smoke. These three symptoms are the main signs of a leaking injector. As this failure can end up in more severe engine problems on your car, we thought we would compose this content page to help you ensure the failure of a leaking injector and treat it properly. To do so, we will initially look at the circumstance of gasoline injectors and then at those of diesel injectors Dodge Nitro.

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Leaking injector on my petrol Dodge Nitro

It is crucial to know that the injectors on petrol and diesel engines are different, actually, the difference in combustion between these two kind of engines makes the injection different. The main difference lies in the pressure experienced 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 Dodge Nitro: The different leaks

It should be said that injector leaks on a Dodge Nitro equipped with a petrol engine are pretty rare. This is caused by the much lower pressure in the petrol intake systems. However, there are two kind of leaks:

  • Leakage from the top of the injector:
    It is plausible that you have a leak from the top of the injector, this is the portion that is connected 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 occur from the junction with the engine and not with the rail as seen sooner.

Leaking injector on my diesel Dodge Nitro

Unlike petrol engines, which have spark combustion, diesel engines run on compression. This combustion system creates 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 Dodge Nitro: The different leaks

In the circumstance of leaking diesel injectors on your Dodge Nitro, there are three several kind of leaks:

  • Leakage from the injector inlet:
    In cases like this, it is an inlet pipe that will deform with time, generally the leak will be at the clamping point.
  • Injector return leakage:
    As its name implies, this leakage relates to the management of the fuel return in the injector, this time the injector that leaks on your Dodge Nitro 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 find an air noise and a compression loss.
  • If after verifying you have oil leaking but it does not come from your injectors, we advise you to read this content page on the existence of oil leaking on your Dodge Nitro.

Leaking injector on my Dodge Nitro, how to fix the leak

And at last, we’re going to look at how to fix a leaking injector on your car. Very often a leak is associated, as we have seen prior to this, to a worn seal caused by the pressures suffered. But think that the pressure in the circuit is tremendous, specifically on diesel engines. So you will have to take some precautions:

  • Lower the pressure before any work is achieved…
  • Masking 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 oftentimes be restricted to changing the seals that have failed:

  • Find the source of the leak
  • Take apart the injector in question
  • Change 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 specifically complex, but if you have the tiniest doubt in the treatment of your injector that leaks on your Dodge Nitro, we advise you to get closer to your motor mechanic to avoid any bad manipulation that could severely harm the condition of your Dodge Nitro.

To find more tips on the Dodge Nitro, take a look at the Dodge Nitro category.