The time a shop in Boise talked me out of ever rebuilding another injector myself

I used to think I could save money by rebuilding my own injectors on the weekend. Then a shop in Boise showed me their flow bench results from my last attempt. Turns out I was off by nearly 15% on three out of six injectors. They charged me $180 to flow test and fix them, which beat the hell out of buying new ones. But the real kicker was the old mechanic there asking if I liked chasing fuel leaks for fun. Has anyone else had a shop make you rethink doing your own fuel work?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin8967d ago

Feel you on this one. I had a similar reality check a few years back when I took my truck's injectors to a local diesel shop here in town. They put them on the bench and the guy just shook his head. I was so proud of my work until he showed me the spray pattern on two of them. Looked like a garden hose with a kink in it instead of a nice even mist. He fixed them for way less than I thought and told me that sometimes paying for the test is cheaper than guessing. That Boise shop sounds like they saved you a ton of headache and maybe a fire.

victorhernandez6d ago

Happened to a buddy of mine down in Tucson. He spent a whole weekend swapping injectors on his old Cummins, thought he had it nailed. Took it to a shop for a simple flow test and the guy showed him one injector was basically just dribbling fuel, not spraying at all. Ended up costing him almost double what the actual fix would have been because he already bought the parts and wasted all that time. He tells that story every time someone mentions doing their own fuel work, says the lesson was worth the price of admission.

drews555d ago

My buddy's injector fiasco cost him a weekend and a stack of cash, and I STILL managed to one-up him by rebuilding my own fuel pump once. I got it all back together, fired up the truck, and it sounded like a dying blender full of rocks for about five seconds before it just STOPPED. Turns out I'd put a check valve in backwards, which is basically the mechanical equivalent of putting your pants on with both legs in the same hole. The tow truck driver laughed so hard he almost dropped my truck off the flatbed. I still cringe thinking about it, but at least now I know the difference between pride and a properly working fuel system.