A turbocharger is a device that uses the car’s exhaust to spin a turbine and push more air into the engine. Because it runs very hot, the engine oil has to protect parts and stay stable under stress.
Direct injection means the fuel is sprayed right into the engine’s combustion chamber. It helps the engine burn fuel more precisely, but it also changes how the engine operates, which affects what the oil has to handle.
Variable valve timing adjusts the timing of the engine’s valves to improve power and efficiency. Since some of these systems rely on oil pressure, the oil needs to be in good condition for the timing to stay accurate.
Cylinder deactivation is when the engine turns off some cylinders during easy driving to save fuel. The oil still has to keep everything lubricated and clean while the engine is switching modes.
Start-stop systems turn the engine off at traffic lights and restart it when you press the gas. That means the engine cycles more often, which can be harder on oil than older designs.
Oil specification is the exact standard your engine oil is tested against. The point is that the right standard for your car matters more than which oil brand is on the bottle.
Dexos is a specific oil approval standard tied to General Motors. If an oil has the Dexos label, it means it was tested to meet GM’s rules for how the oil should protect the engine.
Term
European Volkswagen spec
Volkswagen has its own approved oil standards for certain engines. The idea is that the oil must pass tests that match what those engines need, not just be a popular brand.
Term
Chrysler MS rating
Chrysler’s MS rating is an oil approval standard for certain Chrysler engines. If an oil meets it, it means the oil has been tested to work with those engines’ needs.
Emission systems are the parts that help reduce harmful exhaust pollution. Some engine oils can affect how well those systems work, so manufacturers test oils for compatibility.
Carmakers plan service intervals based on how long they expect most people to keep the car and how it’s usually driven. That means the “recommended” schedule may not match what’s best for someone keeping the car for many years.
They mention a Toyota Highland as an example of someone planning to keep a car for a long time. The takeaway is that how you drive affects how often you should change oil.
As you drive, engine oil can pick up dirt and byproducts from the engine. When the oil gets “dirty,” it can’t protect the engine as well, so it may need changing sooner.
Term
oil drain
The phrase is basically about how quickly your oil “gets used up” in day-to-day driving. Short trips and heavy use can wear oil out faster than steady highway driving.
Many cars have a system that guesses when your oil is getting worn out. It’s based on how you drive and the engine conditions, not just how many miles you’ve put on.
The turbo needs a steady supply of oil to stay lubricated. If the oil is old, it can leave deposits that block the oil path, and the turbo can start wearing out faster.
Piston rings are like seals on the piston. If they get stuck, oil can leak into the combustion area and the engine starts burning more oil than it should.
Solenoids are small electrically controlled switches that control fluid flow inside the engine. If the oil is dirty, they can get clogged or sticky so the engine timing and other systems don’t work correctly.
Oil control rings help keep extra oil from getting into the combustion chamber. If they stick, the engine can burn oil and you may need to top it up more often.
Cam phasers are parts that shift the engine’s valve timing. If the oil is dirty, they can stick or not move correctly, which can make the engine run rough and sound noisy.
The PCV valve helps keep the engine’s crankcase from building up pressure and fumes. If it gets gunked up, it can affect how the engine breathes and may contribute to oil-related problems.
The check engine light means the car’s computer noticed something wrong. It doesn’t tell you the exact problem by itself, but it’s a sign you should get it checked.
A timing correlation code means the car’s computer thinks the engine timing is off. That can be caused by worn timing parts or timing systems that aren’t working as they should.
Startup rattle is a rattling sound when the engine first turns on. It can be a sign that timing parts or oil pressure aren’t behaving normally right at start-up.
Operating temperature is the normal heat range where an engine is designed to run. Staying at that temperature helps the oil thin properly, burns off moisture, and reduces fuel dilution—while frequent cold starts keep the engine from reaching those benefits.
Fuel dilution means some gasoline is ending up in the engine oil. When that happens, the oil doesn’t lubricate as well, and it’s more common when you mostly do short, cold trips.
When the engine gets fully warm, water that builds up inside can evaporate out. If you only drive short distances, the engine may never get hot enough to clear that moisture.
Short trips are tougher on your engine oil than highway miles. The engine doesn’t get hot enough, so water and fuel can linger in the oil and make it wear out faster.
Fuel contamination means some gasoline ends up mixed into the engine oil. It’s more likely when you only drive short trips and the engine doesn’t fully warm up.
Sludge is gunk that can build up inside an engine when oil gets dirty and mixes with water. It can make the engine less able to lubricate itself properly.
The crankcase is the bottom part of the engine where the crankshaft lives. Because oil is in there too, water and fuel can get mixed into the oil if the engine isn’t getting hot enough.
“Breathers” are parts that help the engine’s crankcase vent gases and pressure. If they don’t work right, water vapor can condense and collect inside the engine.
Concept
driving conditions vs oil-change intervals
Ron’s point is that oil changes depend on how you drive, not just how many miles you put on. Short trips and lots of idling can cause more moisture and dirt to build up in the oil.
A quick lube is a place that changes your oil quickly. Ron is saying it’s fine sometimes, but he prefers a more complete check so you know the car is safe.
Maintenance neglect means skipping or delaying routine upkeep like oil changes and scheduled service. Modern engines can be less tolerant of this because their systems depend on clean oil and precise operation to function correctly.
The tire pressure light warns that one or more tires are underinflated (or that the tire pressure monitoring system detected an issue). Keeping tire pressures correct improves safety and can also support more consistent fuel economy and tire wear.
Fuel atomization just means how finely the injector turns fuel into droplets. The finer the spray, the easier it is for the engine to burn the fuel cleanly.
Fuel metering means delivering the right quantity of fuel. If the injector delivers too much or too little, the engine won’t run as smoothly or efficiently.
Term
calibration pin
A calibration pin is a small internal part that helps the injector work precisely. If it’s worn or out of spec, the injector may not spray fuel correctly.
The metering disc is a tiny part inside the injector that helps control how fuel comes out. Because it’s so small, even small wear can change the spray and make the engine run worse.
Microns (µm) are a unit of length equal to one-millionth of a meter. When injector components are measured in microns, it highlights how extremely precise the manufacturing tolerances are.
Laser welding is a precise way to join two metal pieces using a concentrated beam of light. In an injector, it helps keep the fuel outlet geometry accurate.
Multiport injection uses one injector per cylinder to spray fuel into the intake area before it enters the cylinder. It’s a different setup than injecting fuel directly into the cylinder.
GDI means the car sprays gasoline straight into the engine cylinder. That’s different from older systems that spray fuel into the intake area before it reaches the cylinder.
Over time, soot-like deposits can form inside the engine. With direct injection, those deposits can build up on the intake valves and sometimes on the fuel injector tip.
In GDI engines, there’s a pump that boosts fuel pressure a lot higher than older designs. More high-pressure hardware can also mean more things that can wear out or fail.
The fuel rail is like a pressurized fuel “distribution pipe” feeding the injectors. It has to keep fuel at the right pressure so the injectors can spray correctly.
Fuel pressure sensors tell the computer how much pressure the fuel system is making. If those readings are wrong or the sensor fails, the engine may not inject fuel correctly.
Injector timing is when the ECU commands the injector to spray relative to the engine’s crankshaft position. The transcript claims GDI allows more precise, cylinder-by-cylinder timing variation based on conditions and demand, helping efficiency and drivability.
Top dead center is the point where the piston is at its highest position. Engine computers time fuel injection by spraying a certain number of degrees before that point.
GDI means the fuel is sprayed directly into the engine’s combustion chamber. Over time, carbon can build up on the injector and make it spray worse, which can hurt performance and mileage.
The ECU is the engine computer. It uses sensor readings to adjust the engine, but it doesn’t have a direct way to know if one specific fuel injector is weaker than the others.
The spray pattern is the shape and quality of the fuel mist from the injector. If it doesn’t atomize well, the engine may not burn fuel as efficiently.
O2 sensors watch how much oxygen is in the exhaust. That helps the computer decide if the engine needs more or less fuel, but it doesn’t tell you which exact injector is misbehaving.
A lean condition means the engine has too little fuel relative to the amount of air. The ECU uses sensor feedback to adjust fueling, but a single injector problem can still be difficult to pinpoint.
A rich condition means the engine is getting too much fuel compared to the air. That can waste fuel and increase emissions, so the computer tries to adjust it.
Injector life means how long the fuel injectors last. The hosts are saying dirty fuel or running low can let more gunk reach the injectors, which makes them wear out sooner.
Fuel quality is how clean and consistent the gasoline is. The idea here is that worse fuel can leave more deposits that eventually cause problems for fuel injectors.
A fuel filter is like a screen that keeps junk out of the fuel. If you’re replacing fuel injectors, it’s common to also replace the fuel filter so the new parts don’t get dirty fuel right away.
Standard Motor Products is the company behind the fuel-injector parts discussed in the interview. They’re saying you can find the right injector through their website and through traditional parts retailers.
Fuel injection is the system that sprays fuel into the engine in a controlled way. It helps the engine burn fuel more cleanly and efficiently than older carburetor setups.
Term
metering plates
Metering plates are tiny precision parts that help control how fuel moves through an injector. If they’re not made right, the injector may not deliver fuel correctly.
A flow bench is a device that tests a fuel injector by measuring how much fuel it sprays and how consistently it does it. It’s useful when the problem is difficult to figure out just by driving or scanning the car.
Standard brands is the company the host is recommending for parts and service-related products. They’re presented as a long-time, established supplier.
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You know.
One of the things I love about social media, and we've been doing a lot of it lately. Welcome aboard,
by the way, thanks for coming today being with us this weekend. One of the things I love about social
media is sometimes the best show topics come from the comments section. You know, I put up a short Instagram
post this week at roninany and you'll find it talking about engine oil, not brands, not hype, you know, not my cousin's mechanics says this, but simply talking about, you know, using the oil to manufacturer specifies for the vehicle from the manufacturer, correct viscosity, correct specification, correct certification. Pretty basic stuff, right,
And boy, you guys started asking some really great questions.
And the big one that someone asked and a couple of you asked this, I noticed, is hey, Ron, how often should I really change my oil? Boy, you guys
just want to drum me into this argument every time.
And I said, you know, I can't really answer it.
It's hard to answer in the context of Instagram or Facebook or car doctor page. So I said, you know what,
I'm going to turn it into an open for the show.
And here I am doing it. It is the million
dollar question because depending on who you ask, the answer ranges anywhere from the old school three thousand miles, which I don't agree with, to whenever the dashboard light comes on and starts yelling at you, which I've heard it across the board. I'm going to tell you how I
do it and how I look at it and this is, you know, there's a lot of decades of doing this, being in this business and fixing cars, both professionally and as a hobby, because you know, the answer, like most things in automotive repair, is it depends. So here's how
I look at it. First thing, you have to understand,
oil today is better than it has ever been. Modern
synthetic oils are phenomenal compared to what we use thirty or forty years ago. The additives are better, the resistance
to heat is better, oxidation control is better, sludge resistance is better. Engines are machined more precisely, and fuel control
systems are way more accurate than they've ever been. Everything
about the system is improved. But here's the catch nobody
talks about. Today are also harder on oil than ever before.
Think about what a modern engine does, and if you've been driving twenty years, you can really sit back and look at this analysis twenty years or longer. Turbochargers, direct injection,
I could spend twenty minutes talking about each one of these systems. Smaller displacement engines. The engines are getting smaller,
and they're making huge horsepower. Huge horsepower out of a
smaller engine. You're putting more stress on it, all right.
You put a smaller horse in the box to pull the bigger wagon, and you feed it some vitamins. It'll
do the job, but it's working harder. Higher operating temperatures
are in this conversation, longer warm up times, tighter emission requirements.
So oil, it just doesn't lubrication anymore. Oil is hydraulic fluid.
It's coolant, it helps cool the engine, time and control.
It's part of the timing control for the mechanical for the chain tensioners. It's turbocharger protection. It's variable camshaft actuation, fluid,
all those things that you guys want for performance in PEP and ZIP and fuel economy. Oil is doing ten
jobs at once. So yeah, oil is better, but the
demands placed on it are dramatically higher. That's why I
tell people this all the time. The manufacturer's oil specification
matters more today than the brand name on the bottle, and it does. It really does. That Dexos label, that
European Volkswagen spec that Chrysler MS rating, those aren't marketing gimmicks.
Those specs mean the oil has passed tests for timing chain where sludge resistance, turbo protection of vaporation, of vaporation loss, deposit control, and compatibility with emission systems. Now we'll talk
about drain intervals. Putting all that on the table. You
know what I generally recommend for a vehicle somebody plans on owning long term, And this is where I have to start, because you just can't say to me, hey, Ron, what do you recommend from oil drain interval? I don't
know how long you plan on keeping the car, and that has to come into the conversation. So if you're
planning on owning the vehicle long term, if you're sitting there going, hey, I'm going to drive this car for the next fifteen years, my oil change recommendation five months, five thousand miles, don't care. Argue with me, prove me
wrong because that's my comfort zone. And people say, and
you do run the manufacturer says ten thousand miles. Yeah,
that's true. A lot of them do. And here's the
part that you guys just don't seem to want to hear.
Manufacturers designed maintenance schedules around ownership models, emissions compliance, operating costs, and lease expectations. A lot of vehicles today are engineered
around the idea that the first owner mainly keep that car three years. And that's a very different mindset than
the person's trying to keep Toyota Highland or until a quarter million miles, until you get to that two hundred and fifty thousand mile mark. It's different goals. So what
are your goals? So when you ask me, Ron, when
do you think we should change the oil? I'm going
to ask you what are your goals? What do you
expect to get out of this vehicle? Now. I know
there's going to be some Internet trolls out there that say, well, Ron, I got ten thousand mile oil change intervals and I got that quarter million miles. Congratulations, you're the person. You're
the one that got that. I have to speak to
the masses. I have to speak to the majority of
people that, in my opinion, we all drive such different lifestyles and where we're going a lot of it is just the hustle and bustle of every day, you know, transportation to and from school, taking the kids to soccer games, going to work. You know, I think there's less leisure
driving now than ever before because we're all just hustling trying to make a buck and survive. So not everybody
drives the same. The person that gets in the car
and drives two hours across state to commute to that big paying job is going to have a very different oil drain, oil change, oil contamination experience in the person that goes three minutes to the train station and the family beater. Different goals. If you lease vehicles, honestly, you
can probably file the follow the oil life monitor. You'll
be the person that drives that vehicle for three years, does puts thirty thousand miles on it, does three oil changes, it hands it back to the manufacturer and go here's your car. Because cars are like kids, all right. They
really are when they're younger. When when they're brand new,
a seven year old can fall from the top of the stairs, get up, bounce up, Hey here I am I'm great. But when you're thirty five, yeah, not so much.
When you're forty. When you're fifty, bones creek knees hurt,
it's not such a quick recovery. And cars are the
same way. So you know, change the oil, how you're
going to drive and own the vehicle, but be aware when you go out to buy that used vehicle if it was coming off lease, well, now don't you kind of want to see what the oil change intervals were and what was the service records? Doesn't that become right?
But you know, if you're leasing it, sure you know do it by the oil life monitor because statistically you'll hand that vehicle back way before the long term wear shows up because you won't have that vehicle at seventy eighty ninety hundred thousand miles. But if you own that vehicle, man,
if you're trying to drive this thing, like I said, for fifteen years, boy, that changes the conversation completely because what I see in the shop isn't usually immediate engine failure from long drain intervals. What I see is cumulative
were timing change, stretched early variable valve time, solinoids, sticking turbo oil feed pass is just coking up piston rings, getting stuck oil control rings, sticking cam phasers, getting noisy sledge accumulation in certain areas of valve covers and cylinder heads that just star of oil PCV valve systems, contaminated oil consumption issues beginning at ninety or one hundred thousand miles instead of one hundred and eighty thousand miles. And
here's the part you guys miss. A lot of those
repairs don't look like oil problems. The customer comes in
with a check engine light, rough idle, turboro under boost, a timing correlation code for a stretch chain oil burning called startup rattle. Well, when you take the engine apart,
you can see the maintenance history written inside the engine.
I remember we had a customer, Bob drove an older Toyota pickup truck. He was an over the road trucker.
When I got to work on this vehicle for the first time, it was around the one hundred and fifty thousand mile mark, and it needed a valve cover gasket, and at the time it was probably every bit of twelve years old. I took that valve cover off. I swear
I was looking at a brand new engine. Here was
a guy who changed the oil life clockwork every five months, every five thousand miles, had a buck and a half on it, and that thing was clean as a whistle.
I followed the life of that engine probably well actually, until he stopped driving. He finally stopped driving. As you know,
he got older, and he stopped driving when he was in his late eighties. And that vehicle had close to
three hundred thousand miles on it. And actually I know
the person that bought the truck. It needed another valve
cover casket. Took it apart, and it was just as
clean as the day that I had seen it the first time, And it was just as clean as the day when he first got it when it was new.
I'm sure because when you take an engine apart, you see what's going on now before somebody calls or writes me a letter and says, wrong, Well, I follow the oil life monitor on my car's fine. Yeah, that's great. Yes,
And sometimes some engines tolerate things better than others, but not all of them. And that's part of this conversation.
Has to be part of this conversation because I'm not talking specific models. You call me with your model, we'll
have a conversation. I'll tell you where I think you
should where you should change your oil, what your interval should be. But the majority of you for longevity, for
to drive at fifteen years, to take the best care you can, the majority of you are five months, five thousand miles. I'll tell you what. Let me pull over
to take a pause. When I come back, we'll continue
this conversation. And you know what, let's talk about oil
drain intervals. I'm running ade in the car. Doctor, I'm
back right after this, so you came back for more. Well,
let's continue the conversation about oil drain intervals. You know,
it's all about what the engine looks like when you take it apart. And I can tell you that the
ones that do you know, more consistent oil earlier than manufacturers, oil life monitors, those engines look better. And now you
got to talk about driving habits because oil drain interval conversations have to have driving habits in there. Everybody thinks driving,
you know, on the highway is hardest on the oil, and it's it's actually the opposite. You take a car
and put it in a New Jersey and you drive flat out the California at a steady sixty miles an hour.
It never gets it never gets hotter than you know it should, runs at normal operating temperature. It never gets cold.
You could probably you probably could put eight to ten thousand miles on that vehicle without changing the oil. Steady
highway driving fully warms the engine, moisture burns off, fuel dilution reduces. Right, there isn't a much you know, fuel
getting past the rings as they settle in and washing out the oil. Oil temperature stabilizes, airflow is good, the
real oil killer. Let me just run down to the
corner store and get a quarter of milk. Let me
let me drive around the corner and get the paper.
Let me just run over to the supermarket and grab something.
All within five to ten minutes of driving. You know,
that little beater car that drives two miles to the train station every day, that car may barely need breaks, It may barely wear oil. I'm sorry, they may barely
wear tires. It just doesn't accumulate miles quickly. But it
is absolutely brutal on oil. It just it's tough on oil.
Why the engine barely reaches operating temperature. It gets, it starts,
it goes two miles and it shuts off again. Okay, great,
if it's July, well, I got to point out July comes once a year and the rest of the time.
And again, where are we talking? Where do you live?
This radio show is you know natally syndicated and it goes around the world on the podcast. So where do
we live? What sort of environment are we in? Condensation
builds inside the crank case, fuel contamination increases on that short trip car, moisture accumulates, assets form, sludges start easier.
I'll never forget the first year I did the hot rot my two door fifty five Chevy, and I was so thrilled and excited, and I you know, we stored it in the shop that winter and the following spring.
You know, the engine sat while we worked on the rest of the car and got it together, and there was something not right about the valve covers. I had
to change the breathers in them, and I pulled the valve covers off, and the amount there was globs, that's the only word I can think of, globs of water that had condensed and formed inside the valve cover that I sat there, you know, with a towel just just sopping up the water condensation inside the engine. You know,
the older commuter car that does four cold starts a day on tiny trips may need more frequent oil changes than the family suv doing eighty on the highway every day.
So driving conditions count. Mileage alone doesn't tell the whole
story anymore. Operating conditions matter, climate matters, idle time matters,
trip length matters, turbo chargers matter, load matters. So when
you guys say to me, hey, Ron, why should I change my oil? You know, I've got a list. It's
the questions I've got to ask. So I've got to
go with the standard five months, five thousand miles. It
fills a lot of gaps. And for everybody that's, oh, well,
we're looking at all the money, But no, you're not wasting money because you've got to think about what else an oil change does. A proper oil change, I'm not
talking about a quick lube and in and out, all right.
A quick loob is okay once in a while, not as a full time thing. Show me a quick loob
that rode tests the car. Show me a quick glube
that checks breaks, that looks at tires, that wiggles the front end. You know, that's to me what an oil
change is about. An oil change is meant to make
sure the vehicle is in proper working order and it's safe to operate. If we're worried about going the distance
and we're concerned about the overall condition of the car.
As a vehicle ages, You've got to look at everything clean.
Oil becomes more important, tirewear becomes important because costs go up.
You've got to look at overall conditions, safety and reliability.
When was the last time the battery was replaced. It's
a it's a chance to say, stick out your tongue and say ah, Older engines become less forgiving about maintenance neglect.
You know the well, I'm not doing the thirty I'm not doing the sixty thousand mile service, I'm not doing the ninety thousand miles service. And I tell customers all
the time, maintenance is cheaper than precision, and it means this.
It's it's far less expensive to keep an engine clean than it is to try and repair a modern engine once contamination begins, and modern engines are expensive. A timing
chain repair on some European or turbocharged engine can cost several thousand dollars three four variable valve timing repairs expensive, turbocharger repair expensive, all from something that may have started years earlier as an extended oil drain interval. So now
I'm saying everybody around and change oil every three thousand miles. No,
I think that's excessive. But I think five months, five
thousand miles kind of fits that bill and kind of fits the gap very nicely. And one thing I will
tell you about five month, five thousand mile oil DRAN intervals that nobody seems to talk about is tire pressure.
That annoying tire pressure light. You put airon a tire
in January and you don't, you know, do tire pressure because who's got a tire pressure gauge? Where can you
go find tire pressure at the corner garage? You can't anymore?
You know what. That's a big part of a proper
oil change is something as simple as tire pressure. So
five months, five thousand miles prove me wrong. Let's have
this conversation over the next couple of weeks. Hey, I'm
running any in the Car Doctor. Coming up next Aaron
Schaeffer from Standard Motor Products. We're gonna be talking about
fuel injectors and how they're made and what goes wrong.
And what goes right. So stick around.
Aaron Shaffer, Standard Motor Products is coming up next. I'm
running any in the Car Doctor. I'll be back right after.
This promises streets to the open road tonight.
We'll give you wrong and right.
He's a doctor, your advice, don't ride.
It was nineteen eighty eight was the last year that carburetors appeared on production vehicles in the United States, so it's been a while ever since.
Then.
Vehicles are or their fuel systems are powered by fuel injectors.
And it's a big point and it's a it's a conversation worth having about how do we take care of fuel injectors, What makes injectors go bad? What keeps injectors good?
And it's something we're going to focus on in our next segment as we're joined this hour by Aaron Schaeffer.
He's with Standard Motor Products and we're happy to have him back. This is his second time by popular demand.
Awesome, awesome, Yeah, thanks again for having me.
You know, drivers may not know, right, but it's the truth.
We haven't had a carbureted vehicle in forty some odd years, maybe closer to fifty. And everybody's fuel injected now and
then today in today's car, So you know, what exactly does a fuel injector do you know what are we counting on it to do? Correctly in order to keep
that car running and running.
Well, yeah, Ron, I think the easiest way for people to get their mind's eye around what it is is it's little, largely mechanical device and it's going to take raw fuel and dissipate it. It's going to put it
in a mist like pattern, the correct mist like pattern right with the correct spray angle for fuel atomization, so you have correct and complete combustion and the amount of fuel it's going to meter and the pattern at which that fuel is dissipated is absolutely critical to engine perform.
You know, It's sort of like I always think of I think of injectors in April. April is fuel injector
a month in my mind because I watched the rains in New Jersey, Okay, and you know, we get fine missing rain, we get medium sized rain drops, we get real heavy rain drops, and I keep thinking that a good injector is that first one that missed that fine atomization that you know, So just because just dumping fuel into the cylinder in a glob isn't isn't going to achieve correct combustion, and it's going to affect the engine in so many ways. So when you look inside it,
and injectors have come such a long way since nineteen eighty seven eighty eight, right when this became across the board.
You know, when you look at a modern fuel injector and I don't know, maybe we compare it to stuff from thirty five forty years ago, you know, what's what's that important part that makes everything work correctly? What are
we looking for when we consider replacement.
Yeah, so there's a lot of little pe inside of an injector. Right, There's a calibration pin spring, a small
armature assembly with a ball bearing on the top of it, a valve seat, and all of that is involved with metering the fuel, you know very quickly. But hands down,
the very very most important components on or in that injector is at the tip, and that's the metering disc.
It's a really small disc. It's about five and a
half millimeters across, and these are going to have holes that are drilled into them. We use blazers to drill
the holes onto the disc. And how the pattern that
those holes are in, the size of the holes, the angle they are cut are all application specific, right, and the holes are small. Right. We measure these things in microns.
I mean they can be much, not much bigger than a human hair. You know, some applications are going to
have four, some are six, summer eight, some are patterns.
But that is really the most important part of an injector, and that's what's the most critical part to getting that right spray angle and that right spray pattern for that particular engine.
How thick is that I'll call it a wafer. I
don't know if wafer is a good term, or that disc.
How thick is that disc? It's it's thin, it's it's.
It's thin, I mean, it's it's yeah, it's just it's thinner than a dime, right, And it's and then it's it's it's just it's laser welded on to the end of the tip of the injector, right, And and I.
Guess we could say that that that that wafer, that disc is what makes fuel delivery today so precise, right.
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, And it's why it just has to be it has to be perfect.
Well, it does well, but isn't that you know, And to talk about standard in particular, right, Standard makes sure fuel injector spray accurately and consistently because that's it too, right, you have to have that misting april rain all the time.
And a lot of that has to do with how you I think you've created that technology and how you cut that disc and use a laser for the precision, and you know you're not drilling the whole your you're laser cutting that hole.
Yeah yeah, I mean it really is the best way to make them consistent, you know, across the board when you're producing you know, thousands of these at a time.
And I think the other difference too is you know, we won't use a batch metering disc. We will use
application specific ones, you know. So at our factory and
you know in Greenville, South Carolina, where we make fuel injectors, you know, we have you know, hundreds of different metering discs that we create depending on you know, what it's going on, what.
Vehicle specific application.
Right, yeah, yeah, And that's that's all part of it.
And then you know, in that plant, you know, we're able to control the whole process from start to finish, right, I mean, we're we're cutting our own rods, we're doing our own heat treating, we're doing our own overbolding. Uh,
so we you know, we can build a quality part because we're controlling the process.
So when we look at and there's different kinds of fuel injection, there's GDI, there's multiport injection. Some vehicles have
GDI and multiport right late model Toyotas for example, And you know, when you look at those two systems, first my first question is what's the what's the real difference and what are the concerns the consumer has right to know the difference. What are some of the things they
have to be aware of? And then number one number two,
you know, do you manufacture a GDI injector different than you do a multiport injector? Does that affect how you
cut that disc and spray the fuel?
Yes? Yeah, the short story is yes. And GDI injection
is different, right than m FI. So MFI, you know,
it became common geez thirty years ago, right, and it was on most vehicles up to maybe fifteen years ago, and we started seeing more and more GDI, And with GDI it's just such a constant pressure all of the time, and I think, you know, yeah, the injectors are different fundamentally.
Probably the easiest way to explain it is, you know, with an MFI injector, it's spraying the fuel above the intake valve. And you know with direct injection, I mean
it's exactly that, right, the fuels being sprayed directly into the cylinder, so below the intake valve. But there's some
some there's been some issues with GDI, right, I mean, you know, you get a lot of carbon build up on the valves, even you can get carbon build up on the injector tip. But it also opens up a
couple you know, new areas of failure points, right, because now you have two fuel pumps. You know, you have
a high pressure pump that's you know, feeding fuel a really high pressure to the fuel rail, and you have more fuel pressure sensors. So you know, it's there's more
things to go wrong on a GDI system as well, right, And you're exactly right, Ford Toyota. You know, more and
more they're using both on these vehicles.
And they're doing it, you know, for precision because the GDI.
GDI actually allows us in case anybody to know this, but it gives us stability to you know, it used to be you'd fire the injector so many degrees before top that center. You know, each cylinder three degrees before
four degrees before GDI. Lets you do it it, lets
you vary it by the cylinder, by the by the demand, by the condition, and that so that injector is working really hard to meet a very precise condition, which brings me back to my original question that you answered with regard to the disc. Right, that disc has to be
just perfect in order for it to do its job and let the vehicle run as good as it can and get the fuel economy which is obviously so important today in this day and especially with the price of gasoline today.
Oh yeah, you aren't kidding.
Yeah, So I'll tell you what, Aaron. Let's pull over,
take a pause, and when we come back, I want to talk a little bit about what goes bad on an injector. And you know, when they do go bad,
do we replace one, do we replace four? Do we
replace eight? You know, how does that work? And what
are your thoughts on that. I'm running any in the
car doctor, I'm here with Aaron Schaeffer from Standard Motor Products.
We'll return right after this.
Don't go away so.
To continue with our conversation. Welcome back listeners. By the way,
roun An Annie in the car doctor here with Aaron Schaeffer from Standard Motor Products. Aaron, when we pulled away
for the pause. You know what goes bad on a
fuel injector and when it does go bad, do I need to change one? Do I need to change ford?
Do I need to change you know?
How many? And why?
Yeah? So there's a couple of root causes, right. Some
could be electrical issues, right, a lot of heat cycles, vibration, they have a coil inside, so that could be part of it. Debris, dirt, contaminated fuel you know, starts to
you know, gum up the injector a little bit. They
could leak, you know, seals can fail. Carbon build up,
as I said earlier, is something very very common on GDI injectors. So to answer your question, should you replace
all four all eight at once? Generally speaking? Yes? But
here's why. It's because I think most people understand this
once we explain it. The ECU has no way of
knowing how good an individual injector is working. If it's
you know, if it's working at one hundred percent, or if the spray pattern is off by five percent, or if it's flowing at six percent less, or if it's flowing at twenty percent less, the ECUs only getting data on the entire bank. Right, There isn't a vehicle. There
aren't vehicles out there that have O two sensors preach cylinder every yeah, yeah, right, that's not that's not how it works. So, yes, right, the vehicle can tell pretty
quickly if there's a lean condition or a rich condition, right, and it's going to make adjustments. But if you can
have one injector that's gummed up, clogged up, metering disc is starting to get plugged, it's so it's flowing less fuel the injector next to it, you know, you could be it could be failed. You could you know, you
could something could be stuck inside. It could be dripping
straight fuel down, right, So you just don't know how individual injectors are performing. So if one has failed, you know,
especially if we're talking higher mileage vehicle, you know, certainly the other vehicles or the other injectors are not flowing at one hundred percent, right, right.
And I guess it's I guess it's a safe assumption if if one injector got gummed up to the point that it was pushing out droplets instead of atomization, then you've got to think, you know, it's the same gas in the tank exactly right, right, So the rest of them have to be affected by that to some degree.
And you could put a new one on and you you're still might not restore fuel economy to the way the vehicle's capable of, because again the ECU is not getting good information because the other ejectors aren't working as de signe, is.
There a in our closing minute and a half Erran, is there is there a life expected life cycle of a modern fuel injector.
You know, if it's taken care of, well, I mean they can go we you know, we've seen them go one hundred two hundred thousand miles right if people are using you know, you know, the right fuel, keeping them clean, you know, not running the tank low. I mean it
can it can definitely happen, right, And and I.
Guess that's that's all part of it, right, that that it's that it's you know that it's not it's not it's good quality fuel. It's consistency of fuel. It's not
running the tank low, which you know, which which affects the injector life and tends to pick up the crud and the dirt from the bottom Aaron in our closing minute, is there a place the listeners can go for more information and is there a way to get Standard product, you know online if they want to look it up and purchase it.
Yeah. Yeah, so Standard Brand dot Com has our full
E catalog, so folks can get the right injector they're looking for for for their vehicle. You know on our
site where we're proud that we don't sell you know, customers, consumers or shops direct. You know, we're loyal to the
traditional aftermarket that people can go to where to buy and they can find the distributors and retailers that that stock Standard right.
Because and and I think that's an important key because you know, we want those people there because they help us pick the right parts. They help us get everything
we need because you know what, maybe we need a fuel filter to go with that fuel injector replacement, maybe we need something else to go with whatever we're working on.
And those are the guys are going to be able to suggest, Hey, if you're doing this, you need one of these too. And that's an important point. So I
like that, I really do all right, Kittle Listen real quick.
What's the website Standard brands.
Dot com, Standard brand at.
Dard brand dot com. All right, cool beans, Aaron. We're
gonna bring it back for a third time because I know everybody's gonna love this interview.
So yeah, so let's.
Hope so but I'm sure they will listen. I appreciate
the time as always. You'd be well and have a
great rest of the.
Weekend, for sure, for sure. Thank you very much.
You're very welcome. I'm Ronning Andy and the Car Doctor.
We're back right after this. Once again, I want to
say thank you to Aaron Schaffer from Standard Motor Products for taking the time today. There's a lot too fuel
injectors that we know, a lot we can't cover in a twenty minute interview, but I think your takeaway from our conversation today is the precision and the skill set and quality of what it takes to make a good fuel injector. You know, you'd have to see the facility.
I've toured fuel injection manufacturing facilities in the past, and there there are clean rooms, and it has to be precise and it has to be you know, absolutely correct in the way that they make the holes in the disc that distributes the fuel, which Aaron had talked about.
You know, those those those metering plates as I think of it, because they are they've they've got to be spot on. And you'll be amazed how we've seen cases
where using two injectors from two different manufacturers, if that second manufacturer isn't a well made injector, it will actually cause problems because it won't spray fuel as well, or even an older injector that has partial restriction to it.
And it's gotten to the point that when we do fuel injector work, putting injectors into a flow bench which actually measures the volume of fuel being put out by the injector, so you can look at spray pattern and you can look at volume of fuel being put out over a time span, can tell the tale on some cars that are just really difficult to diagnose and repair.
So there's a lot that can't be covered, but I think we covered quite a bit and I'm glad that we were able to get that information out to you.
And Aaron did a great job as always, and we'll have him back again real soon we can talk some more about Standard products and again his website Standard brands dot Com I'll say it one more time. Standard brands
dot com and they are a great company. They've been
around well over one hundred year or so. Their quality.
I'm running ady in the car doctor till the next time.
Thanks for coming by. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
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About this episode
Oil-change advice shifts from a simple mileage rule to condition-based intervals, because modern engines and modern synthetic oils change the equation. Ron Ananian stresses following the manufacturer’s oil viscosity/spec/certification, not the brand name, since today’s turbo, direct-injection, and start-stop systems put oil through “ten jobs at once.” He connects neglected oil to sludge, timing/valvetrain wear, and costly repairs—especially with short trips and cold starts. The discussion then pivots to fuel injectors, where precise metering-disc geometry and GDI vs multiport design affect combustion and diagnostics.
