Few questions on the VH45de fuel issues

[YELLOW S13]

I have read many of the threads and have seen no real "true" fix for the injector issues. I was wondering if there is something I missed.. or a better way.... I understand the E10 issue but I would assume aftermarket injectors would solve any of these issues if the car was made not to our crappy gas standards.

I have just purchaes my Q the owner says he replaced 6 so far which worries me I want to do what I can to avoid this and like any normal car have them last at least 5 years or so not like the 1 year or so that i continue to read about. Is long lasting fuel injectors a dream with the VH?

[OwnerCS]

Did the previous owner tell you the supplier/source for the 6 injectors that were replaced? Some owners replace a "bank of 4" injectors to keep the spray pattern balanced (for O2 sensors) when one fails.

IIRC, DeatchWerk injectors are built to handle up to E85 as well as BWD. While new injectors, hoses, and other fuel line components may be designed to handle E85 fuel, the rest of the car (ECU, cats, sensors, etc.) are not calibrated to run with E85.

I recently replaced all injectors and fuel lines. I figured since the injectors and hoses were going on 20 years old, it was time for replacement anyway.. I'm not worried about E10 with the new components. Thought it is the continued mix increase that worries me..

[goody90q45]

With only one or two exceptions I don't recall anyone having trouble down the road when installing new injectors, whether OEM or aftermarket. It's probably going to take at least 10 years before we hear about failures. It's a bit of a crapshoot when using using injectors, even the "refurbished" ones from the few reputable injector shops we've found.

I live in CA and haven't had any FI problems on my 90Q for over 2 years and only replaced 2 on my 94Q in 4 years of ownership. Both cars were the previous owner's daily drivers. I had to replace 6 injectors on the other 90Q I bought and sold. It had sat unused for over 9 months. I've also parted out 3 other Q's that were running when purchased and from the 24 FI from those cars I was able to recondition (through Deatschwerks) and sell about 2/3. The ones I held back were too brittle, had cracked connectors, some failed ohm test.

With that said, IMHO, the main cause of injector failure is cars that sit idle for months at a time with stagnant fuel eating away at the epoxy holding it together. Ditto with injector rails purchased from salvage yards. Many owners that join NICO come in inheriting injector issues from cars that the previous owner had sitting in their driveways for a long time. The buyer has no idea how long it's been since the car was running. A second contributor to injector failure is dirty/corroded connectors. High resistance in the circuit to any of the injectors can't be good and will lead to an early demise. Ditto for problems many members have with MAF sensors. I've had MAFs (and TPS and CAS) from 7 CA Q's and never had a bad one. If you live in a bad weather state or have ever had a radiator leak you probably have some level of corrosion on the FI, MAF, TPS and CAS connectors, none of which are watertight. A third contributor to FI failure is varnish deposits in the fuel system. Every Q, no matter how much or how often it's driven will have some level of deposits. I use a bottle of Redline S1 fuel system cleaner in a half tank of fuel about every 6 months to keep the FI from gumming up. My 2 cents.

[Q451990]

Here's my thread on the BWD aftermarket injectors I installed. I suspect the Deatschwerks injectors are produced by BWD/Standard as well, but I can't confirm that. Mine have been fine, but the Q has become somewhat of a garage queen, so I've only put maybe 5000 miles on these injectors. Certainly not a good test case.

g50-aftermarket-injector-alternative-t347484.html

Heath

[YELLOW S13]

The more I read about all of this the more it worries me. I have wanted this car for 5- 6 years I have read up on the forums about the issues and was fine with it especially for the cost of the car.

But I really like to replace things once... especially if they are (what seems to be( a big hassle.

I read your whole article Q451990

Thank you all for the input I have alot to think about. I'm going to Ohm test the injectors and my knock sensors asap and go from there. Thanks again!