Can You Still Drive with a Faulty Fuel Injector?
3 Answers
You cannot drive with a faulty fuel injector. To prevent secondary damage to the car engine, it is recommended to stop immediately for inspection or seek the nearest repair shop or 4S store for maintenance. The main causes of fuel injector damage include injector clogging, broken injector springs, and excessive wear of the injector needle. In such cases, the vehicle may experience increased fuel consumption, reduced power, engine shaking, and other issues during operation. If the fuel injector is severely damaged and can no longer spray fuel properly, or if the fuel injection pressure and atomization effects are seriously substandard, the engine will fail to start normally, rendering the vehicle unable to drive.
Last time my old Toyota's fuel injector got clogged but I kept driving, and it ended up stalling halfway. If only one injector fails, you might still coast, but the engine will jerk and cough, with unburned gasoline smell from the exhaust—super damaging to the catalytic converter. I later learned the engine oil even gets diluted by gasoline, and the mechanic warned that driving a few hundred more kilometers would wreck the piston rings. The worst part is the working injectors compensate by over-fueling, doubling fuel consumption and fouling the spark plugs. If the check engine light comes on, scan the codes immediately—codes like P0300 (random/multiple cylinder misfire) mean you must call a tow truck right away.
Having worked on cars for ten years, I've seen too many cases where people kept driving with faulty fuel injectors. If one injector fails in an EFI car, the engine light will flash, and the car can limp to the repair shop, but avoid highways at all costs. Direct injection cars are more delicate; insufficient fuel injection pressure can lead to poor atomization, and even the piston tops can melt. Once, a customer drove an Audi with a P0172 fault code to our shop, and upon disassembly, we found three out of six injectors were leaking, with the fuel rail pressure down to just 30 bar. Remember, if you smell gasoline or see black smoke from the exhaust, shut off the engine immediately. Otherwise, gasoline entering the crankcase can dilute the oil and cause cylinder scoring.
