I've got a 2013 GTI, 74000km (50000 miles). Went Uni stage 1 six weeks ago. Late November when the weather dipped in the Toronto area, I started getting a rough cold-start idle, and soon after that P0302 codes every few days. The local German shop thinks it's a leaking injector in cylinder 2 and suggests to replace all the injectors and do a carbon cleaning at the same time. We replaced plugs today with 4x NGK PFR7S8EG and the cold-start idle issue hasn't changed. The misfiring goes away once the car is suitably warmed up, so it's not constant.
My daily commute is 9 km (6 miles) at slow speeds, and it's only now that I've come to understand these engines need the Italian tuneup quite often to help stave off the inevitable carbon buildup. At 50k miles, given my daily commute, I'm very likely due for a carbon cleaning and will arrange to get that done ASAP.
What I'm unsure of is the recommendation to replace all four injectors while the manifold is off for the cleaning. I'm loathe to spend an extra $380 CAD ($230 USD) on new injectors if the cold start issues are likely to be directly attributable to carbon build-up rather than injector failure.
Thoughts?
On the one hand, it makes sense to replace the injectors while the intake is off; on the other hand, it seems like expensive maintenance if they're unable to prove that a given injector is leaking. A recommendation I read recently was to put the car into accessory mode with the fuel rail detached, and when the fuel system gets pressurized, a leak in one of the injectors will reveal itself. The shop claims they can't do that sort of test.
I could always replace just the cylinder 2 injector, but would you spend an additional $230 USD to replace the other three injectors as preventative maintenance?
My daily commute is 9 km (6 miles) at slow speeds, and it's only now that I've come to understand these engines need the Italian tuneup quite often to help stave off the inevitable carbon buildup. At 50k miles, given my daily commute, I'm very likely due for a carbon cleaning and will arrange to get that done ASAP.
What I'm unsure of is the recommendation to replace all four injectors while the manifold is off for the cleaning. I'm loathe to spend an extra $380 CAD ($230 USD) on new injectors if the cold start issues are likely to be directly attributable to carbon build-up rather than injector failure.
Thoughts?
On the one hand, it makes sense to replace the injectors while the intake is off; on the other hand, it seems like expensive maintenance if they're unable to prove that a given injector is leaking. A recommendation I read recently was to put the car into accessory mode with the fuel rail detached, and when the fuel system gets pressurized, a leak in one of the injectors will reveal itself. The shop claims they can't do that sort of test.
I could always replace just the cylinder 2 injector, but would you spend an additional $230 USD to replace the other three injectors as preventative maintenance?
