ok, i posted a question about my car running bad idleing bad etc... found out from a pretty trusted mechanic that the fuel injectors (all 8) are bad (low resistance). It then inturn is frying the ecm. He gave me a quote of $3500 parts and labor. Im 19 and thats a pretty tough nut to shell out. Im finally outta school and have a full time job so money is starting to come in more then my previous jobs. I figured I would be doing the labor and the injectors his price was $200 each.. Original AC DELCO. For that price i figured i might as well modify while im at it instead of doing stock parts now then in a year go back and change it all.. If my camaro is stock except for borla cat back, if i change the injectors will it basiclly do nothing? if i were to change them what else should i change along with it. If you think that i can do this and get some noticable improvments, what would you suggest? My car is a 89 camaro 5.7 tpi....thanks albert III

 

Options? Find a different mechanic. Better yet, replace the injectors yourself. You can get a new set of injectors for under $400.00 and a replacement ECM for under $125.00 almost anywhere. The ECM is easy to replace, while the injectors are fairly easy, but will take several hours of labor to complete the job. The plenum and at least one set of intake runners needs to be removed, then the fuel rails can be removed with the injectors:

 

Agreed - do it yourself, its not particularly hard if you have a reasonable set of tools, some time, and some know-how. If you know enough to be able to R&R the intake plenum and runners, you'll do fine replacing the injectors yourself. The ECM is a simple plug and play deal too.

 

Thanks for the input guys.. yea no question im gonna do it. There will be no problem doing it, i was just looking for some input on fuel injectors. Also about your comment bout the mechanic.. I brought it to one guy in the summer and he said it was the ecm. so he replaced it..didnt fix the probelm then said o well maybe that one was bad ill throw in another its under warrenty. So did that nd still didnt fix it. So brought it back and he suggest MAF sensor..so replaced that and still nothing.. Figured the guy was jus a j.o jus guessing so then i brouhgt it to this guy who i was sent to by many people.. hopefully he is right, and what he told me when i brought it there sounds pretty legit to me.....

 

Man, that mechanic must roll up $100 bills and smoke them just for fun! It does sound like he diagnosed your problem correctly, but the amount he quoted you to fix it is more than the whole car is worth. Even replacing the injectors with originals at $200 a piece only adds up to $1600, so he's essentially charging you $2400 in labor just to remove the plenum/runners to replace 8 injectors. It's insane how much they want a piece for original style injectors though. I'd highly recommend going to ebay and buying a set of the Ford SVO style injectors. You can get a full set of them for $300 or less usually. You'll want the 22 pound per hour ones for a stock 5.7 TPI. A lot of guys run the 24 pounders, but you have to modify the prom chip to run them. So if you want to avoid that, just get 22's. Whatever you do, don't buy Accel brand injectors. Lots of guys on here have had problems with them, even when they're brand new. The Ford SVO's fit our TPI's perfectly, and they're great quality. You may not even need a new ecm. Try replacing the injectors first. Bad injectors cause the injector drivers in the ecm to overheat and shut down, but it doesn't always do permanent damage to the ecm. If it still doesn't run right after replacing the injectors, then try replacing the ecm. You'll just need to buy the injectors, and then about $30 for the TPI gasket set. Should only take a couple of hours to replace them. Just make sure you have some Torx sockets to disassemble the plenum and runners. Good luck on the job, and if you get stuck on something, just post up on here and we'll be glad to help!

 

great thanks for the help.. yea quote was a good one huh? lol well in his defense, the mechanic that worked on the car the first time put a crappy aftermarket ecm in it, so the last mechanic had to give me a quote for the ecm without a core return. But its a good idea about injectors first, real good idea that i probably wouldnt have thought of lol.. also you wouldnt suggest going with different lb. injectors stick with the svo 22? thanks for your input albert III

 

I'd be questioning his diagnosis. It would be nearly impossible for all 8 injectors to fail that way. The only logical explanation would be someone putting in all low impedance injectors.

 

Solid advice you're getting here. I think it's strange that all 8 injectors failed at once, but I don't know FI from a hole in the ground, so I if that makes sense to the other members here, then i'd run with it.

Check the "for sale" board on here. I remember seeing sofakingdom selling injectors a few weeks ago, I know other guys sell injectors as well. If they work, then great, you don't *need* to get new ones - if you're trying to save a few bucks here.

$3500?? I woulda asked him the directions to the bridge that must be included in that sale, then walked away laughing.

 

Have you checked the injectors yourself yet?? A cheap $20 digital multi-meter will do it for you. Pull the wires off the injectors (don't worry about where they go-batch fire, doesn't matter) and measure the resistance yourself. There are two contacts, measure the resistance across them. Mine measure at about 16.5-16.8. Right where they should be from what I read.

If your "mechanic" lied to you about pricing, maybe he lied about the injectors being bad. Easy enough to check before shelling out a bunch of $$$ and finding out that wasn't the problem. And trust me, the multi meter will come in handy for many things down the road.

 

Yeah, you should stick with 22's, unless you want to have someone tweak your memory chip. 24's will run on factory programming, but they tend to run too rich without some chip work. Okay, so he used the "aftermarket" ecm as another excuse. Let see, you're sitting at about $330 for a set of injectors and a tpi gasket set. If you add an ecm to that, even without a core charge, you're probably looking at roughly another $100. So that puts you up to $430 in parts, so you're still paying him $3070 for labor. Seriously dude, that's so ludicrous. It kills me that there's still mechanics out there that act like these cars are so high tech that they can get away with charging that much, when our cars are approaching 20 years old! Do as Alloy suggested and check the ohms resisitance of your injectors. If you're on a tight budget, you really only need to replace any that read lower than about 14.5 or so. If you had an LS1 powered car, that guy would probably charge so much to work on it, it'd be cheaper to go buy a new Z06 Vette.

 

All 8 injectors and the ECM? Seems kinda odd to me too. Is there a check engine light on? No codes? I would be leary.