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any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - eustace

What are the thoughts on this forum, regarding the reliability of modern GDI engines.

I understand that there used to be a whole lot of reliability concerns around them, particulalrly around carbon build up on valves.

www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/05/ask-an-engineer-.../

The above link is a nice article about the reliability issues with GDI engines.

However given that a lot of manufacturers have now shifted to GDI technology for their petrol engines (BMW, VW Group, Ford, Mazda, Hyundai / Kia, etc.), what do backroomers think about this?

Would you be comfortable buying a car with a GDI engine, or would you stay clear of them?

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - RT

Experience of Direct Injection petrol engines in North America doesn't directly relate to the UK, because of differences in fuel refining purity.

North Sea oil is much finer than US crude/shale oil and the EN standards give much less room for variation, as well as requirements for cleaners in the additive packages.

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - slkfanboy

I am not sure this is in any way new. Direct Injection has been in europe/japanse cars since the 90's and is in common use today, and it's basics for any diesel to pump burnt fuel back into air intake system.

Almost 25 years in the motor trade are well aware of the issues. Most engine handle this issuie OK, a few bad designs are out there it has to be said.

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - eustace

Looks like this issue was previously discussed on this forum, as it seemed to affect Mitsubishi / Volvo cars fitted with GDI engines.

Below are 2 links to previous discussions, which date back to 2006/ 07:-

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=38913

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=54537

Looks like the consensus at that time was that GDI engines were inherently flawed and will eventually suffer from carbon build-up (either through EGR gases being added in the manifold and / or oil mist coming from the crankcase venting systems (via PCV valve))

Any idea if there are any design changes brought about, to prevent the above issues from occuring?


any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - slkfanboy

Limited 3 year warranty. The biggest changes seams to be removing the vent pipe filter. These tended to get blocked and cause more issues than they solved, otherwise no magic solutions.

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - bazza

If you have a look at the various forums, particularly VAG and BMW, there are plenty of posts about carbonisation of direct injection engines. As experience is gained, I suspect it will become less of an issue, as control is optimised. Note that Toyota are late adopters of DI technology, probably for good reason, and I believe they have designed in an amount of port injection to overcome this very fault. Think I'm right that the newest Honda engines are also DI but don't know the detail. Not too much noise about any Ford DI problems, maybe their engine control systems are further ahead? It's enough for me to stick with port injection for now as far as petrol engines are concerned, as I currently run older cars which don't have manufacturers warranty-- hence I'm looking for good engineering design and a manufacturer with reputation for it, hence Toyota /Honda suit me fine.

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - KenC

Hyuandai announced one year ago that they were introducing a 111bhp 1.0L GDI 3 cylinder turbo charged petrol engine for the new I20 and I20 coupe. The introduction is now over 6 months late, I wonder if the engine has (whilst being tested) developed this type of problem ?

All reference to the new engine has been quietly "erased" from the company website/literature

Edited by KenC on 29/01/2016 at 21:00

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - RT

Hyuandai announced one year ago that they were introducing a 111bhp 1.0L GDI 3 cylinder turbo charged petrol engine for the new I20 and I20 coupe. The introduction is now over 6 months late, I wonder if the engine has (whilst being tested) developed this type of problem ?

All reference to the new engine has been quietly "erased" from the company website/literature

Many of the Hyundai engines on sale in North America are GDi - the 3-cyl 1.0 GDi is their 3rd GDi generation - so it's probably something else that's delayed introduction.

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - Big John

Latest versions of the vag EA888 petrol engines have a combination of direct and port injection. The primary reason is to reduce paticulate emmisions(direct injection increases particulates) negating a need for a Gasoline Particulate Filter(in 2017 - euro 6c). A good side effect of this is the washing of valves in petrol during port injection- cancelling out the carbon buildup

In addition the latest direct injection are much better than earlier versions re carbon buildup (mixture of reasons - variable valve timing "tweaks" and much better oil recirculation control

www.greencarcongress.com/2014/01/2014014-audi.html

Edited by Big John on 30/01/2016 at 00:29

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - KenC

I have read other submissions about this, it makes sense. I suppose it is too early to know whether the Ford EcoBoost Engines will develop the "Carbon BuildUp" problem around the intake valves.

Does anyone know for sure if the UK Ford EcoBoost Engines have a combination of direct and port injection ?

Maybe this is the reason why Suzuki have recently introduced the Duel jet (twin injectors to their small petroll engines in the Swift and Celerio.?

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - slkfanboy

I hope EA888 is not VW/Audis removing part of emmission control system and cheating once more!

The ford 1.0 eco boost is direct injection

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - youngalistai

Hi any update on Gdi engines my Hyundai 1.4 gdit drinks oil and gas a rattling noise that sounds like pre-ignition but can't swear on it. No lack of performance or fuel economy I can see. Took it to a mechanic who said he thought it was ok but that still doesn't convince me as I have the oil consumption. It's done 50.000 has always been serviced with the recommended oil I hope.I live in the sticks in Wiltshire no one knows much about Gdi issues here any thoughts?

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - badbusdriver

Hi any update on Gdi engines my Hyundai 1.4 gdit drinks oil and gas a rattling noise that sounds like pre-ignition but can't swear on it. No lack of performance or fuel economy I can see. Took it to a mechanic who said he thought it was ok but that still doesn't convince me as I have the oil consumption. It's done 50.000 has always been serviced with the recommended oil I hope.I live in the sticks in Wiltshire no one knows much about Gdi issues here any thoughts?

It isn't unusual for some engines to drink oil, I think the key thing would be how much?, and is that excessive?. Also, how long have you owned the car for and has the oil consumption got worse during that time?.

If the oil consumption is within what is considered acceptable (presumably you told your mechanic how much oil it uses and he considers it not to be a problem?), and assuming it hasn't got worse during your ownership, given performance and economy are fine, I wouldn't be concerned about it.

One last thought, is there a Hyundai/Kia forum?, if so, ask on there.

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - Big John

Hi any update on Gdi engines my Hyundai 1.4 gdit drinks oil and gas a rattling noise that sounds like pre-ignition but can't swear on it.

Re pre ignition my Superb 1.4 tsi direct injection EA111 has always been prone (owned from 14 months old) to this using some types/makes petrol but it's difficult to hear as the car is so well soundproofed. I really heard it driving uphill in a built up area in France. Filling up with 98 RON petrol seemed to really help. In the UK I try to use Tesco Green-energy 99 RON (also E5). I don't think it's just direct injection turbo engines though - my previous petrol 1.4 16v NA Octavia was prone to a bit of pre ignition with some types of petrol.

Many wouldn't notice it these days due to improved sound proofing but I recognise it from my days of tuning Essex V6 engines (porting, cam etc) and running them with ignition as far advanced as you'd dare to get the best of 5 star when still available and 4 star when it wasn't! (OK that's showing my age!). It ran like a bag of spanners on two or three star petrol if you had no choice to put some of that in. I suppose it was the re-mapping of the day!

NB My 1.4 tsi uses negligible oil @105k miles.

Edited by Big John on 11/07/2022 at 18:46

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - edlithgow

IIRC there's a phenomena sometimes referred to as "superknock" AKA (maybe, sometimes) Low Speed Pre Ignition, which some GDI engines seem to be especially prone to.

Long time since I read up about it, and the literature at that time was rather unclear, but it seemed (at least sometimes) to combine the two (normally/classically) separate phenomena of pre-ignition and detonation (though this distinction is widely disregarded).

I THINK perhaps pre-ignition initiated detonation, resulting in especially damaging conditions in the cylinder.

Fixes/workarouinds were low calcium oil and reduction of the turbo boost pressure. Dunno if it remains a significant problem, and I suppose, in the twilight years of the ICE, it doesn't matter much if it is, unless you happen to be affected.

any - Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) Engine reliability - Tester

For what it's worth as a contribution to the general question about GDI, I have a 6 years old Toyota Auris 1.2T, which uses direct injection. It has done 59,000 miles and I have owned it for the past 48,000 miles. I have always used Shell V-Power petrol and it has given no problems so far. Burns no oil, performs as well as when I got it (including pulling from low revs if I am cruel to it), and returns mid-50s mpg on the motorway in summer.

So unsurprisingly it looks like some manufacturers 'do' GDI better than others. Using a higher-grade fuel might be useful for anyone experiencing problems -- it's got to be worth the extra cost of a few tanksful to find out, compared with the cost of stripping down!