1.5 carbon build up?

[Bobcat]

Hi all,
Well we have found a sport that seems OK. Its a long way from home at a Honda dealer so we have put a deposit down and the balance subject to viewing etc.
I have been looking at the USA fit forum today and it has a number of posts about issues with the 1.5 engine as its direct injection GDI.
Owners have had issues after low mileage and needed new injectors after carbon build up.
As we want to keep the car long term with little trouble I am wondering whether we should do a u turn and go back to the 1.3 port injection engine.
Have any other uk 1.5 sport owners had issues with carbon build up, injectors etc??
US owners suggest the need to fit an oil catch can, use injectors cleaner regularly, top quality fuel, and expect you need to have the engine cleaned every 50,000 miles! that all seems like worry and extra effort not trouble free motoring.
I definitely don't want to spend £16,000 and then face issues.
Any thoughts appreciated as we need to arrange a collection date on the sport today or tomorrow.

[Marco1979]

I thought these issues were mainly due to the low fuel quality in the USA and also the turbocharged version is more apt to problems than the non-turbo.
Never experienced any problem with the 1.5 in 40.000 miles

[SuperCNJ]

We've not had any issues either but we've only done about 20k miles. If you're concerned, you could stick to Shell v-power which has cleaning agents and is meant to prevent carbon build-up or just put in a bottle of cleaning additives occasionally which we have been doing.

[Lord Voltermore]

I wouldnt have thought it would be a problem if you use decent quality petrol and bung a bottle of injector cleaner in the  tank every so often. As others have pointed out  American fuel may be different, and  maybe also the  specification of the fuel injectors to meet different emission requirements.

I have a mk4. Love it. I'm biased . But if  paying £16K  for a mk3 I would also  consider the advantages of a hybrid mk4 and whether my piggy bank could stretch that far.

[jazzaro]

The L15B1 engine of the GK5 Jazz is quite the same of the L15B4 of the mk2 HRV.
Probably due to better quality fuels, carbon buildup on EUDM L15B engines is very very rare.

[Bobcat]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your feedback, it is very reassuring!! Looks like we will go ahead on the sport then.
Lord voltermore, agreed we could buy a practically new hybrid for only another £6000 but my wife doesn't like the design of the new Jazz, so that won't be happening!

[Wilmo]

Good decision, you will not regret.
Our Sport puts a smile on my every time I drive it and my other car's a Civic TypeR.

[jazzaro]

Carbon buildups in direct injection petrol engines grow on inlet valves and ducts because petrol does not "wash" them, so oil vapour burn and create buildups, this is the main problem.
If fuel injectors have buildups, this means that they work with low quality fuel.

[Derkie54]

A lot of other manufacturers use direct injection engines and you don't see any massive problems in the motoring press.
So if you stick to decent fuel and have regular servicing then it's fairly safe to assume you shouldn't have any problems.

[UKjim]

As others have said, never heard of any modern engine suffering those problems in the UK. Fuel in the US is quite often as low as 87 against our 95 and even their highest rating is only 91-94.

You won't regret buying the Sport, the extra 25% BHP available makes into a lovely little car and I think the subtle Sports body additions make it look much more desirable.


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[pebbles]

agree , the Sport is a great car , no problems so far in 32K.

because I don't do a lot of miles and live near Tesco I usually chuck in Momentum 99 fuel. Not sure of the benefits but no complaints about the performance .

[Pine]

As others have said, never heard of any modern engine suffering those problems in the UK. Fuel in the US is quite often as low as 87 against our 95 and even their highest rating is only 91-94.

You won't regret buying the Sport, the extra 25% BHP available makes into a lovely little car and I think the subtle Sports body additions make it look much more desirable.

Unleaded petrol in the USA is measured against a different scale to European petrol.  In the USA they use AKI (Anti Knock Index) which is the RON plus MON divided by 2.  so the USA AKI 91 is the same as our RON 95 and AKI 93 is our RON 98.

[jazzaro]

As others have said, never heard of any modern engine suffering those problems in the UK. Fuel in the US is quite often as low as 87 against our 95 and even their highest rating is only 91-94.

You won't regret buying the Sport, the extra 25% BHP available makes into a lovely little car and I think the subtle Sports body additions make it look much more desirable.

Unleaded petrol in the USA is measured against a different scale to European petrol.  In the USA they use AKI (Anti Knock Index) which is the RON plus MON divided by 2.  so the USA AKI 91 is the same as our RON 95 and AKI 93 is our RON 98.

Yes, also the composition is slightly different, especially in sulphates.
That's why lubricants for USDM are also generally different from lubricants for EUDM models; since the engine is a sort of "chemical reactor", the two environments are different so using a lubricant for USDM in a car running in EU is not such a good idea.

[monkeydave]

you are not going to clean anything with injector cleaner, its direct injection so in front of the intake valves and not behind cleaning them like on multi port injection

[Jocko]

You are confusing multiport injection with diesel injection. Diesel is injected into the cylinder, petrol is injected before the inlet valve. Single-point injection is just further upstream.