Whenever you are aware of unusual signs on your car, you are right to be concerned, because a car represents a massive annual budget and surprising malfunctions don’t lower the costs. So what if you feel like you have a leaking injector on your Ford Ka? You likely figured it out thanks to black/oily drips along your engine unit, or a troubled idle, or unconventional black smoke. These three symptoms are the main indicators of a leaking injector. As this troubles can bring about more severe engine problems on your car, we thought we would compose this article to help you ensure the failure of a leaking injector and handle it correctly. To achieve this, we will first of all take a look at the case of gasoline injectors and then at those of diesel injectors Ford Ka.
Leaking injector on my petrol Ford Ka
It is vital to know that the injectors on petrol and diesel engines are different, in reality, the difference in combustion between these two types of engines makes the injection different. The biggest 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 Ford Ka: The different leaks
It should be mentioned that injector leaks on a Ford Ka equipped with a petrol engine are rather infrequent. This is as a result of the much lower pressure in the petrol intake systems. Nevertheless, there are two types 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 component that is connected to the fuel rail, an O-ring will be involved in this. - Leak injector of the lower part:
Finally, you may experience 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 previously.
Leaking injector on my diesel Ford Ka
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 Ford Ka: The different leaks
In the case of leaking diesel injectors on your Ford Ka, there are three several types of leaks:
- Leakage from the injector inlet:
In this instance, it is an inlet pipe that will deform in the long run, in most cases the leak will be at the clamping point. - Injector return leakage:
As its name indicates, this leakage relates to the management of the fuel return in the injector, this time the injector that leaks on your Ford Ka will be a consequence of an O-ring or its plastic tip that leaks. - Injector base leak:
This injection leak is one of the most troublesome, it is the junction between the engine and the injector nose that leaks at a copper seal, you should feel 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 Ford Ka.
Leaking injector on my Ford Ka, how to fix the leak
And to finish, we’re going to take a look at how to fix a leaking injector on your car. Very often a leak is connected, as we have seen previously, to a worn seal caused by the pressures suffered. But think that the pressure in the circuit is enormous, specifically on diesel engines. So you will have to take some measures:
- Lower the pressure before any work is completed…
- Covering you to avoid the risk of fuel spillage
- NEVER work on a running diesel engine injector.
Concerning the repair part of your leak, it will very often be restricted to changing the seals that have failed:
- Locate 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 cases, these interventions are not inevitably complex, but if you have the slightest hesitation in the treatment of your injector that leaks on your Ford Ka, we suggest you to get closer to your auto technician to avoid any bad handling that could critically harm the condition of your Ford Ka.
If you need more tutorials on the Ford Ka, go to our Ford Ka category.
