Had a fuel injector lock up on I-55 outside Chicago last month

I was hauling a load of steel beams down I-55 around 2 in the afternoon when the engine started missing bad. Felt like the whole cab was shaking, and I lost power going up a grade. Pulled over at a rest stop near Joliet and popped the hood... found the #3 injector was stuck wide open and dumping fuel into the cylinder. Ended up getting towed to a shop that wanted $900 just for the part, so I called my buddy who runs a smaller shop in town. He walked me through pulling the injector myself in the parking lot, and we found the o-ring had split from some water in the fuel. Flushed the system, swapped in a reman injector, and I was back on the road by midnight. Cost me $220 total for the part and a case of beer for my buddy. Anyone else ever get stranded by a bad injector seal like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

maxm631mo ago

I mean yeah, that o-ring issue is way more common than people think, especially if you get a bad batch of diesel with any water in it. I've had the same thing happen on an older Powerstroke and flushing the whole fuel system after pulling the injector saved me a second trip to the shop. The trick is to make sure you bleed all the air out before you even try to start it.

thea2461mo ago

Oh man, the bleeding air part is where most people mess up and end up chasing their tails for hours. I always crack the lines at the injectors and crank it until I see solid fuel with no bubbles, then snug them down while it's still spinning over. A lot of folks skip that step and wonder why it's stumbling or smoking white for ten minutes after they finally get it to fire. Another thing that helps is swapping that cheap inline fuel filter if you're running an aftermarket setup on an older truck, even if it looks clean on the outside. Water contamination will gum up those little o-rings fast, so I also started keeping a bottle of diesel fuel additive with a water dispersant in my truck for peace of mind.