Quantifying Real-World Fuel Economy Losses Caused by Injector Deposits in Gasoline Direct Injection Vehicles

A vehicle fleet of seven low-mileage gasoline direct injection (GDI) vehicles from the U.S. market were tested to determine if GDI injector deposits were present causing a loss in fuel economy (FE). The real-world vehicles were tested “as-is” from the field. The data shows that, even in a deposit control additive (DCA) mandated market that uses E10 gasoline, injector deposits can still result in up to 2.7 % loss in FE. In addition, the data shows that the level of real-world FE loss is comparable to that demonstrated in the GDI injector fouling test developed to simulate real-world dirty-up of GDI vehicle injectors.