Hello, I have honda civic 2005 with 170,000 miles on. My car has been little shaky with cold start in the morning and Engine light finally on. I was told that I need new fuel injectors from local mechanics. I’m a poor student so I decided to fix it myself. I was able to reach down to fuel rail and It was very challenging to take the rail & injectors out. After I finally pop them out with long driver/hammer, It is even harder to put new ones inside, all the way in. I tried put some oil at the end but still did not completely go in. Is there any special tool I need to use to put them in? I tried oils…ect…any pictures/vidoes/instructions/commends would be really appreciated. Thank you
No Honda experience, but I’ve done this on a VW Rabbit, and have some experience working on a fuel injected Corolla 4-banger. You’d do yourself some service to secure the Honda recommended procedure before starting this job.
Before you start, are you certain you need new injectors? My 20 + year old Corolla has the same original injectors as the day it was new, and never had to replace any of them. I did run some fuel injector cleaner gasoline treatment through them earlier this year which cleared up a low speed drivability problem. Have you tried that?
You probably need to remove some stuff first to get some free area to work. On my Corolla before starting a job like this I remove the battery and the entire air cleaner and any rubber boots from the air cleaner ass’y to the intake manifold. That frees up a lot of room without much effort. You probably have to relieve the fuel pressure as the first step. Do you know how? Be sure you know how Honda recommends to do this, and keep a fire extinguisher on hand at all times when working with the fuel system. Might be a good idea to do this job outside, away from any buildings.
A job like this requires some patience. You may have to remove some sensors first, like the MAP sensor, the evap canister purge valve, and the throttle position sensor, or at least disconnect them from the wiring harness. It depends on how much those things are in the way. And disconnect any electrical connectors at the fuel injectors. And disconnect any hoses in the way attached to the fuel rail. To remove the injectors you may have to remove or loosen some bolts or nuts attaching the fuel rail to give you some wiggle room, and there may be some clips holding the injectors fast to their position you may have to remove before the injectors will come out. Be sure to use new Honda OEM O-rings when installing the injectors, and when I did this on the VW Rabbit the instruction was to first coat the O-rings with engine oil before installing the injectors.
Best of luck.
I coat the injector O-rings with petroleum jelly before inserting them into the fuel rail and the intake manifold.
Tester
@Tester Thank you for your reply. Does vaseline product work? or should I buy special product for it. Have a great day.
@GeorgeSanJose Thank you for sharing your ideas and details. I have tried cleaners several times and I have replaced all ignition coils and spark plugs. I’m sure that I need new injectors, which is expensive parts. Big thank you!
Vaseline works great.
Tester
On the VW Rabbit there was no fuel rail, as I recall each injector had a flexible hose, so you could remove one at a time. I expect on the Honda the injectors are fixed to the fuel rail, and you have to put them in all at once. The bolts that hold the fuel rail to the intake manifold probably help with this task, as tightening those bolts will probably help push the injectors into their slots.
Putting the injectors back in on the Rabbit so they’d “pop” into their slot was a bit difficult. The O-ring friction tended to require a lot of force to overcome. To make it a little easier, on the Rabbit it was helpful to use the VW O-rings, not just an o-ring from an auto parts store. I found it helped to heat the O-rings a bit in some hot (but not boiling-hot) water, and coat them with motor oil. I don’t think I ever tried vasoline, but that might work provided the o-ring material is compatible. Mostly, for me success was related to how well I could position my body so that I could exert the force in the correct direction. That’s why removing as much stuff that is in the way is important.
@Highland
I know it’s after the fact . . .
Any cleaners that you dump into the fuel tank at fill up aren’t nearly as effective as hooking up the super concentrated cleaner to the fuel rail
That requires the use of a canister type cleaning tool, which requires shop air. The stuff is much more potent than the junk you dump in the tank. You disable the fuel pump and run the engine directly off the stuff, until it stalls out. Then you remove the tool, reenable the fuel pump, and you’re done
How did you clean those injectors?
The way I described, running the engine directly off of the cleaner?
Or dump the cleaner directly in the fuel tank?
By the way, since your check engine light is on, you’ve obviously got stored codes?
Misfire codes?
How is your compression?
Have you checked and adjusted your valve lash? Engines will misfire when valve lash is too tight, which causes the valves to not seal. Which leads to burnt valves, etc.
Not to be too pessimistic, but I’m kind of thinking your problems may not be due to the injectors
Interesting, succinct, to the point video. Good link @knfenimore .
The application in the vdo was a Toyota engine – looked like it might have been the 4AFE in fact. But Honda fuel injector replacement is probably very much similar.
The vdo didn’t provide much help at how to get all the fuel injectors back into their respective holes though. He said something to the effect of “Now the hard part is getting the injectors back in. But with a little jiggling and bit of luck the seals will seat and they’ll all go back in”.
So apparently that’s the secret, a little bit of jiggling … lol … seriously, I think you can see from the vdo OP that being able to position your body in such a way to be able to see all the injectors as they are positioned to insert into their individual icylinder head ports is key. Besides moving stuff out of the way, use plenty of lighting, mirrors, whatever makes the job easier.
It’s important also to make sure no portions of the old seals were left behind in the hole of course, as that will prevent you from inserting the new injectors.