I have a quite divine 2000 Dodge Durango, 8 cylinders, 5.3 liter (the middle sized one), IIRC. Unfortunately, I forgot to keep gas in it when I was way across town. I ran out of gas, and, once I put gas into it, it started to run like crap.
I went to Autozone, and asked them to do a diagnostic read on it. They told me that cylinder 8 wasn’t working correctly. I told them what had happened, and they told me that, more than likely, it was a clogged fuel injector.
I bought a fuel injector cleaner, put it in, and it didn’t help. I went through about 5 bottles of different brands, and it didn’t help. I decided to replace the FI.
I went to my Haynes manual, and to Youtube, and they both assured me that once I took off the fuel rails, all I had to do was lift the FI out. Fat chance! I unscrewed/unbolted the fuel rails, and I cannot get them out. They seem attached by some unseen extra anchor. The FI’s wiggle and wobble, as if they want to come out, but, everything is attached and not letting loose. Can I strongarm them out, or, would that break/ruin something??
:dubious: Why would the fuel injector suddenly clog? The fuel rail and injectors are all downstream of the filter; regardless of what silt might get lifted out of the tank when the level falls to near-bottom, none of that crap should be expected to reach the injector.
OTOH, if it really is clogged, it may just be large chunks caught in the catch-screen at the inlet end. Take a close look and see if there is any crud there that you can scrape out with a soft-tipped tool, or blast out with compressed air. That might save you from having to remove the injector at all.
I don’t know the specifics of your vehicle, but if it’s a model year Y2K, then it’s certainly port-injected, and so the injector is likely sealed in place with just an ordinary O-ring that (after 13 years) has become dried/set in place. IIWY, I’d grab the injector and just pull like a mofo. You’ll just need to replace the O-ring afterwards.
You should be able to strongarm them out…but is there a chance that the cylinder is not firing due to an ignition problem? I’m guessing a 2000 Durango has individual coil packs for each cylinder that are probably reasonably priced. Absent the running out of gas issue, I would expect the problem to be ignition-related before I would expect it to be fuel injector-related. If it is an injector, it might just have crapped out vs. being clogged.
But I’d figure out exactly what code it’s throwing and do some research before throwing parts at it. Using a spark tester might tell you a LOT here.
A wise technical instructor one told me if you have a problem making fire in a cylinder (misfire) change the thing that makes the fire. In other words put a new spark plug in. First.
I don’t know what code they pulled but assuming it was a generic misfire code I would put a new plug in first and see if that cured the issue. Also assuming it was coil on plug I would eyeball the coil real carefully it might have failed.
Both of these are easier than changing a fuel injector and the plug is way cheaper too.
Cannot get them out – does this mean you can’t get the fuel rails (with injectors attached) out? This would be because the rail/injector assemblies are held by the combined friction of all the injectors’ O-rings inside their mounting holes. Get a suitable prybar and work each injector loose individually. Once all the injectors have pulled out enough (¼"?), it should be easy to remove the assembly.
Each injector is fastened to the fuel rail with a steel spring clip. The official instructions say to first remove the rail/injector assembly from the intake manifold, then remove the injector(s) from the rail by removing the clip(s).