On-Board Diagnostics of Fuel Injector Clogging

A pressure transducer, closely mounted to the fuel rail pressure regulator of a production fuel system, captured transient waveforms in a bench experiment. Signals were processed to detect the reduction of fuel flow caused by injector clogging. Interference among wave patterns and the proximate action of the pressure regulator made quantitative correlation difficult. However, changes in wave amplitudes can be qualitative indicators of injector clogging problems.

A modification was made that moved the regulator nearer the fuel pump outlet and deadheaded the rail. With these modifications, sequential transient pulses from a single operating injector showed good correlation between the pressure drop in the fuel rail during injection and the injector static fuel flow rate. To apply this behavior to multi-cylinder engine analysis, a waveform superposition method was developed to extract single injector information during multi-injector operation. Extracted information agreed with single injection results and could be used to determine quantitatively the extent of clogging of individual injectors while all injectors are in operation. Engine noise did not affect fuel rail pressure signatures. Waveforms from a firing engine fuel system showed excellent agreement with bench studies.