It is rarely ever relaxing to notice an injector noise on your Kia Sportage. It is a noise that appears regularly, usually when you accelerate or your engine is idling. However, this warning sign may be linked to different kind of trouble with your vehicle injectors. It may not be anything serious, but when a recurrent noise arises, you have to be sure. Most importantly since replacing your Kia Sportage’s injectors can be costly. That’s why our team decided to write this article in order to support you see more clearly, learn about the different plausible failures and determine your issue. To do this, we will first look at the normal function and usefulness of the injectors in your Kia Sportage, then at the plausible reasons from which an injector noise may come.injector-noise-kia-sportage

Functions of the injectors

Injectors are a very important element of the operation of your engine motor. They were released to the modern vehicles about 20 years ago. Before their introduction, more conventional carburettor-type intake systems were used, which handled the intake of air and fuel into the engine cylinders. With the injectors, manufacturers now have the ability, thanks to the injectors pump, to control electronically each stage of the intake process very accurately (quantity of fuel injected, air/fuel mixture) via the analysis of the data received from the various sensors equipping the vehicle (engine temperature, acceleration level, engine speed, etc.). Their aim is therefore to inject under high pressure a precise quantity of an air/fuel mixture at a perfect timing to obtain the best possible combustion in the cylinders.

The different origins of a clicking or knocking noise coming from the injectors of your Kia Sportage

Discovering injector noises on your Kia Sportage may come from different sources, we will now center on the potential causes of these. In general, the usual noise of a faulty injector is of the snap type. Here are the several sources of these noises and the solutions to be used to prevent them. If you notice another clicking noise but it is not from your injectors, we advise you to go through this article about clicking noise on Kia Sportage to find the trigger.

The reasons for injector clicking or knocking noise Kia Sportage

A clicking or knocking noise from your injectors can be explained for different reasons. In fact, the injectors of your Kia Sportage have three main tasks, to manage the vaporisation of the fuel, i.e., to transform the liquid into “gas” during injection, to ease its combustion. Then, its mission is to deal with the air/fuel dosage and finally the homogeneity of the mixture, always with the target of improving combustion. If one of these three features is altered, the main role of the injectors will be disturbed and this will lead to poor combustion. This bad combustion will be a violent explosion in the cylinders due to bad timing, or a bad quantity of mixture or finally an inhomogeneous mixture and will trigger thoses knocking or clicking noises on your Kia Sportage. The main trigger of these concerns commonly originates from a particle that gets into the injectors. The accuracy of the injector being in the nanometer range, any possible obstruction will inevitably produce a malfunction of the injector. If after checking, this noise originates from another component of the engine of your Kia Sportage, check this article for more infos.

The consequences of injector noise on Kia Sportage

Now that we have examined the different reasons for injector noise on your Kia Sportage, we will end by stating the possible consequences of malfunctioning one or more of your injectors. Whether only one is blocked, or broken, or your entire fuel rail is involved, you cannot escape these repercussions which can fairly quickly become major….
First, you risk destroying your exhaust system in the long run, because the unburned fuel residues that will end up in your exhaust system can corrode the metal in it.
One of the most regular effects felt by drivers is a noticeable loss of power. In fact, if your engine is running on 3 out of 4 cylinders for example, you will undoubtedly have a loss of power
Finally, you risk degrading one of your pistons or your engine. Poor combustion will fairly quickly harm your cylinders or pistons and your engine may tighten.
Here are three little suggestions to limit the risks connected to your injectors and protect you from engine failure:

  • Do not drive at the bottom of the tank, as you may absorb impurities
  • Use quality fuel
  • Think of swapping your diesel fuel filter regularly>