Gen 2.5 lean condition help

[coffeegoat]

That's correct, you don't need to pull the injectors to do the timing belt service, but you need to pull the plenum to do the water pump and spark plugs which are often replaced at the same time. Once the plenum is pulled it's just a couple bolts to pull the injectors. It's just another one of those "while you're in there" maintenance items that gives you peace of mind that it won't likely break later and require another tear down. Just randomly replacing parts isn't a cost effective maintenance approach but it's much more convenient and cost effective to pre-empt failures that would be expensive, and/or difficult to deal with on the road.

That's why I'm curious on mileage improvement for cleaned injectors, just refurbing them for fun rather than a known problem is not free and a schedule hassle, but if it can buy itself onto the list by MPG improvements it becomes a no brainer much like replacing the water pump is a no brainer since it's an inexpensive(ish) part that is vital for keeping your engine running.

 

[mike5]

Just for future reference - could you watch for any MPG change/improvement associated with the cleaned injectors? I'm always interested in the performance (including MPG) improvements associated with different pieces of maintenance, and since basically everyone has to pull the injectors to do the timing belt job if there is pretty good evidence that it'll help one way or the other it might make sense to include it with the "while you're in there" list of items... Certainly avoiding problems is a nice potential benefit, but if you could show a 1-2 MPG improvement at $20/piece for the cleaning could pay for itself in 5K miles, which isn't too shabby with better performance along the way.

A healthy car gets good MPG IMHO. The way I check for health is to look at long term fuel trims. If the car is adjusting too much then something is off. It tends to contribute to reduced fuel efficiency as well.

For reference my Gen2 gets 19 to 20 MPG on road trips around going steady 75.

Glad the injector service took care of it.

 

[Salonika]

I calculate mpg all the time as an indicator of engine health.......I often reset the trip odometer so I can calculate that tankful. It's good info to know.

 

[RyanY]

you need to pull the plenum to do the water pump and spark plugs which are often replaced at the same time.

Again, I'm confused about which engine you're working on that needs the plenum removed to change the water pump - I've changed the water pump with every timing belt service and not had to remove the plenum to do it. There are some who have even changed the spark plugs without removing the plenum, although I don't personally possess that much flexibility or patience.

 

[quailchaser]

As far as mpg, I am still on the break in period post rebuild, but I got 14.5 in town at 3500' elevation, which is about what I was getting before the rebuild. Of course I think a lot of my injector issues were because they sat for a year with old gas in them.

FYI on mileage: When I first bought the Montero I was getting 16 to 17 mpg in town. When I switched from Michelin Latitude Touring to LTX M/S, I lost 2 to 3 mpg right away. Tire shop said the ones that came off were low rolling resistance highway tires and the ones i bought were heavier and more resistance. I'm not sure if I understand why, but it definately affected my mileage.