We recently received some cores back that appeared to be brand new Bosch injectors. They even came with all the Bosch logos. Everything “appeared to be” brand new OEM Bosch. That first impression was very deceptive.
These injectors are fake Bosch injectors, copied from a Chinese company. We have seen fake copies before, but they have never had Bosch logos on them and there were differences that could be found easily. This time it was different.
In the following slides we want to show you how you can identify them, and what is wrong with them.
The customer returning these injectors told us he had them in his engine for a total of 5 minutes. He said his truck ran so poorly he immediately knew he needed to go a different route to keep from damaging his engine. He purchased a reman set of BBI’s from us. This seemed a great opportunity for us to share the results of these incredibly poor performing injectors.
How they look
What are the optical differences
The surface of the Chinese bodies is a lot rougher. They used a faster forward speed, turning the outer surface of the bodies.
Here you can notice:
- Sharp edges on chinese injectors, chamfer on Bosch injector.
- Manufacturing bore is in a different position, Bosch in the center of the hold down flange.
- Height of the spanner flat, Chinese = 5,2mm; OEM Bosch = 7mm.
The Chinese copied an incorrect nozzle. The spray holes are eroded in an angle to the body. Like in the 12V engines when the injectors were not aligned to the combustion chamber. This will ruin your engine for sure.
The numbers on the Chinese solenoid
This should be the production date and running part number of the injector. All 6 returned injectors had the same production date code and running number. If you have an injector showing these numbers, it is the same Chinese fake injector we investigated here. A short search on ebay.com we found a couple of ads showing injectors with the exact same numbers on them.
This looks like a OEM Bosch magnet, but it is not. The Chinese do not know what they are copying here, as they all have the exact same numbers on them.
How they functioned on our test bench
This is a comparison of 3 OEM Bosch injectors to these Chinese injectors. The Chinese copies show a big injector to injector spread. They are very unstable. These would not run properly even if the nozzle spray pattern was correct.
Great comparison to show the difference. I looked all over for a way to spot fake ones in the past and never found anything as descriptive as this. I see tons of these fakes on ebay and people buy them up not knowing the difference. Before I purchased new bbi injectors, I tried a set of 6 new injectors from amazon, not faked as bosch, but out of the box, they idled perfect, no smoke, even checking the balance rates using hp tuners they checked out great… then I took it for a drive, soon as it had a load on the engine going up a hill, had a failure.
As those wonder how they can spot the difference between genuine Bosch injectors and copies from a Chinese company as on the solenoid there would be a quick reference code on the body of the genuine Bosch injector. Other differences is the chamfer body is deeper on the genuine Bosch injector. With a customer thinking they were to get remanufactured injectors when they barely had broken in the new injectors when their engine ran soo poorly they were to go with new injectors from a reputable company.
I’m having one helluva time with GM… my 2017 is in the shop more than on the road, it’s in there right now awaiting 8 injectors, the pickup has 29,000 miles on it, I’ve taken it back to the dealer 5 times now.😡😡😡😡
I just put Bosch injectors in my 92 Dodge four-wheel drive 5.9 and it runs like s*** it smokes no power could it be the injectors
Sure can be the case if you bought from an unreliable source and got some cheap copies instead of a quality product.
This is very good stuff to know for all us diy’rs, one should let it be known who and where this sh%t is being sold so folks can boycott this crap and maybe they’ll quit sling it .
Ive got ones with unning part number 8587 that look identical in every other respect to the fake chinese one
If all other details fit to the chinese ones in those pics…. don´t use them. If possible return them and get your money back!
Buying Chinese junk means you pay twice to install it. And you still have to replace it.
Same for Ford sealed unit wheel bearings. SK will run for 100k miles, china bearings about 10k.
Think that’s bad? NGK spark plug copies, with the porcelain tips that break away and fall into the combustion chamber. Nice, eh?
Good article. Thank you for posting. So many products come from China that it is hard to buy something made in the United States.