Ethanol and '92 Q45 fuel injectors

[kdkrone]

I hear that Costco has announced that they will be selling gasoline with 10% ethanol. I live in California and have already had to deal with problems with injectors because of fuel additives.

Does anyone know if there is any problem to be expected with ethanol in the early 90's Q45s?

ThanksKen K

[maxnix]

Unfortunately, yes. Read Q45tech's posts in the Q45 Forum.

[Q451990]

zerothread/329342

zerothread/338807

zerothread/338942

zerothread/343321

zerothread/343892

zerothread/346074

All the bad news that's fit to read. Some speculation, but nothing definitive as far as a good long term fix.

Heath

[maxnix]

Well, since Q45tech mentioned corrosion at the tips, I am wondering if a steady diet of Iso-HEET would help keep the water in solution?
Modified by maxnix at 8:30 AM 6/22/2008

[Q45tech]

IsoHeet is an alcohol just like ethanol and in high concentrations swells polymers as all alcohols do. Why 11 ounces in 22 gallons is fine, 1/20th the concentration of E10.

Removing the ethanol from gasoline is the only surefire solution, but any exposure in the past may have started the ultimate failure.

We are seeing the same failure rate on 94-96 now just a little more time delay.

A pure guess is if you make it a 3 months say 250 gallons of E10 the worst might be over but it will take a few years to gather enough statistical data.

We haven't seen a rash of extra fuel pump failures but fuel filters sure weigh more and have extra black gunk inside.........[small sample].

http://www.boatbuilding.net/ar...21252

[qship96]

Wonder if the under plenum heat is causing the plastic injector bodies to accumulate micro cracks like the knock sensors, then the ethanol does them in?

Are you seeing similar injector problems on the Lexus models at T3?

[Q45tech]

Only Nissan [a few Subaru] used the sidefeed style injectors. Most cars now use top feed style.http://www.lindertech.com/dirty_dzn.htm

No Toyota or Lexus failures since March1 when ethanol was added.

However dealers are having a problems with the new dual injector [16 and 12 on V6]

Guess who else is having a problem now:"General Motors has decided to conduct a Voluntary Emission Recall involving certain 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac Pursuit model vehicles, equipped with a 2.2L 4 cylinder (RPO L61 - VIN F) engine. Very small cracks may develop inside the fuel injectors. A crack could allow fuel to seep through into the injector connector pocket, resulting in a fuel odor. If the wiring connector becomes separated from the injector, resulting in an open injector circuit, symptoms could include engine misfire, illumination of the check engine light, and a fuel odor."

I've always said if you can stand Lexus that the engine and transmission will cost you less over 200,000 miles.........now suspension, steering, auxillaries, and electrics are another matter................only applies to V8 as the V6 are real crap as the miles pile up.The RX300 and ES300-330 are our money makers now along with old LS400

[Q45denver]

IsoHeet is an alcohol just like ethanol and in high concentrations swells polymers as all alcohols do. Why 11 ounces in 22 gallons is fine, 1/20th the concentration of E10.

Removing the ethanol from gasoline is the only surefire solution, but any exposure in the past may have started the ultimate failure.

We are seeing the same failure rate on 94-96 now just a little more time delay.

A pure guess is if you make it a 3 months say 250 gallons of E10 the worst might be over but it will take a few years to gather enough statistical data.

We haven't seen a rash of extra fuel pump failures but fuel filters sure weigh more and have extra black gunk inside.........[small sample].

http://www.boatbuilding.net/ar...21252

Any particular color of 94-96 injector failing more than another? Have there been any multiple failures like you see with the 90-93 injectors.

[Q451990]

Any particular color of 94-96 injector failing more than another? Have there been any multiple failures like you see with the 90-93 injectors.

I have personally seen multiple failures on two 95's here in Columbia... seems to be the same deal as the 90-93 - maybe not quite as bad, but almost?

Heath

[Q45tech]

In ATL Metro we are now seeing the same ratio of 90-93 as 94-96 injector failures.

Corrected for age and mileage using 12,000 miles as ~ = to 1 year based on 25 customers in each year cluster group.

The statistics are not perfectly pretty but good enough to say so far after 4.5 month exposure they seem to be reacting the same.

The question is why some fail and some don't? There is not common location for failure even distribution per bank front and rear.

The big surprise is the number of early 90-94 LS400 fuel pump failures, no bad injectors just fuel pumps that have occurred in the same period.

The copper is black, pitted, and corroded......................sulfur in fuel.