Direct injection is one of the most prevalent automotive technologies still in use today. It's so popular, that if your car was manufactured in the last 10-15 years, chances are high you have it under your hood. It provides better fuel economy with more power, but as with any automotive technology, there are drawbacks. Enter our "Everything You Need To Know" series, where we attempt to give you the best, most thorough explanation of common automotive systems so that you can better live with them.
The BMW N54 is one of the most popular engines we sell parts for in our entire catalog, not just BMW. And out of the N54, the most popular parts we sell are injectors, water pump kits, and high-pressure fuel pumps. All of those are related to direct injection. If you couple that with the amount of inquires we get from a customer service standpoint, it only made sense for us to create a piece of content that helps car enthusiasts understand what direct injection is and how to properly maintain and live with it.
For the most part, direct injection is an amazingly efficient system. It essentially takes fuel from your gas tank and "injects" it "directly" into the combustion chamber of your engine at an extremely high pressure, atomizing the fuel. This, coupled with forced induction (turbocharging, in most cases) provides higher compression and a more efficient burn. This is what provides your increased fuel economy figures along with increasing horsepower.
The components that typically go wrong are injectors and high-pressure fuel pumps because they're so highly stressed. Carbon buildup is another side-effect of direct injection, simply because there's no fuel sprayed over the valves to clean them. We sell a walnut blasting adapter which you can perform at home in your driveway or garage to remedy this issue. It's one of the most critical things you can do as a direct injection vehicle owner to prolong the life of your vehicle and avoid any problems down the road.
To learn (almost) everything there is to know about direct injection, click the video below to watch our own Digital Content Producer, Ben Marouski, explain everything in beautiful 3D (also his own work). If you have any questions about direct injection, leave them in the comment box below, be sure to subscribe, and if you like this series let us know what you'd like to see us tackle next!.
