any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability

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Wed 27 Jan 2016 23:43
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - eustace

What are the thoughts on this forum, regarding the reliability of modern GDI engines.

I understand that there used to be a whole lot of reliability concerns around them, particulalrly around carbon build up on valves.

www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/05/ask-an-engineer-.../

The above link is a nice article about the reliability issues with GDI engines.

However given that a lot of manufacturers have now shifted to GDI technology for their petrol engines (BMW, VW Group, Ford, Mazda, Hyundai / Kia, etc.), what do backroomers think about this?

Would you be comfortable buying a car with a GDI engine, or would you stay clear of them?

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Thu 28 Jan 2016 08:17
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - RT

Experience of Direct Injection petrol engines in North America doesn't directly relate to the UK, because of differences in fuel refining purity.

North Sea oil is much finer than US crude/shale oil and the EN standards give much less room for variation, as well as requirements for cleaners in the additive packages.

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Thu 28 Jan 2016 09:03
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - slkfanboy

I am not sure this is in any way new. Direct Injection has been in europe/japanse cars since the 90's and is in common use today, and it's basics for any diesel to pump burnt fuel back into air intake system.

Almost 25 years in the motor trade are well aware of the issues. Most engine handle this issuie OK, a few bad designs are out there it has to be said.

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Thu 28 Jan 2016 22:59
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - eustace

Looks like this issue was previously discussed on this forum, as it seemed to affect Mitsubishi / Volvo cars fitted with GDI engines.

Below are 2 links to previous discussions, which date back to 2006/ 07:-

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=38913

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=54537

Looks like the consensus at that time was that GDI engines were inherently flawed and will eventually suffer from carbon build-up (either through EGR gases being added in the manifold and / or oil mist coming from the crankcase venting systems (via PCV valve))

Any idea if there are any design changes brought about, to prevent the above issues from occuring?


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Fri 29 Jan 2016 13:04
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - slkfanboy

Limited 3 year warranty. The biggest changes seams to be removing the vent pipe filter. These tended to get blocked and cause more issues than they solved, otherwise no magic solutions.

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Fri 29 Jan 2016 21:09
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - bazza

If you have a look at the various forums, particularly VAG and BMW, there are plenty of posts about carbonisation of direct injection engines. As experience is gained, I suspect it will become less of an issue, as control is optimised. Note that Toyota are late adopters of DI technology, probably for good reason, and I believe they have designed in an amount of port injection to overcome this very fault. Think I'm right that the newest Honda engines are also DI but don't know the detail. Not too much noise about any Ford DI problems, maybe their engine control systems are further ahead? It's enough for me to stick with port injection for now as far as petrol engines are concerned, as I currently run older cars which don't have manufacturers warranty-- hence I'm looking for good engineering design and a manufacturer with reputation for it, hence Toyota /Honda suit me fine.

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Fri 29 Jan 2016 20:58
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - KenC

Hyuandai announced one year ago that they were introducing a 111bhp 1.0L GDI 3 cylinder turbo charged petrol engine for the new I20 and I20 coupe. The introduction is now over 6 months late, I wonder if the engine has (whilst being tested) developed this type of problem ?

All reference to the new engine has been quietly "erased" from the company website/literature

Edited by KenC on 29/01/2016 at 21:00

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Fri 29 Jan 2016 21:42
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - RT

Hyuandai announced one year ago that they were introducing a 111bhp 1.0L GDI 3 cylinder turbo charged petrol engine for the new I20 and I20 coupe. The introduction is now over 6 months late, I wonder if the engine has (whilst being tested) developed this type of problem ?

All reference to the new engine has been quietly "erased" from the company website/literature

Many of the Hyundai engines on sale in North America are GDi - the 3-cyl 1.0 GDi is their 3rd GDi generation - so it's probably something else that's delayed introduction.

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Sat 30 Jan 2016 00:15
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - Big John

Latest versions of the vag EA888 petrol engines have a combination of direct and port injection. The primary reason is to reduce paticulate emmisions(direct injection increases particulates) negating a need for a Gasoline Particulate Filter(in 2017 - euro 6c). A good side effect of this is the washing of valves in petrol during port injection- cancelling out the carbon buildup

In addition the latest direct injection are much better than earlier versions re carbon buildup (mixture of reasons - variable valve timing "tweaks" and much better oil recirculation control

www.greencarcongress.com/2014/01/2014014-audi.html

Edited by Big John on 30/01/2016 at 00:29

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Sat 30 Jan 2016 12:45
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - KenC

I have read other submissions about this, it makes sense. I suppose it is too early to know whether the Ford EcoBoost Engines will develop the "Carbon BuildUp" problem around the intake valves.

Does anyone know for sure if the UK Ford EcoBoost Engines have a combination of direct and port injection ?

Maybe this is the reason why Suzuki have recently introduced the Duel jet (twin injectors to their small petroll engines in the Swift and Celerio.?

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Sat 30 Jan 2016 15:46
any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - slkfanboy

I hope EA888 is not VW/Audis removing part of emmission control system and cheating once more!

The ford 1.0 eco boost is direct injection

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