Q – I just fired up my 1985 944 and noticed the odor of fuel and it started kind of rough. When I opened the hood, I saw wetness around one of the injectors. Do the injectors just suddenly start leaking? – Ted
A – Well Ted, I have just begun to see this on vintage 944s and they do “just start leaking”. The bottom line is this: If you smell fuel, trust your intuition and shut it off.
There is a local outfit that can test and clean your injectors and the last time I ran into this, I took the three that were not leaking in for testing. They found one of them leaking but the other two OK. Foolishly, I assumed that I needed two injectors and replaced them. Of course, just after installing two old and two new injectors, a third one started leaking as well. The moral of the story is: Replace all four with remanufactured injectors and you will be done.
Now you are probably wondering why I, a person who always does his best (HA-HA-HA) would have only replaced two? New injectors run over $300.00 each and at that price point, I did not want to “over prescribe”. I have learned my lesson. I found reman units that are of good quality, have a decent warranty, and come with the seals you need to install them. I can promise no more fuel odor, better starting and better fuel economy as well. Oh yeah, and I only charged for doing the job once. I call that tuition. – MC