This time, my attention was caught by a video from Russia on YouTube. As the video is in Russian, I will add my comments and screenshots below to make it easier for you to understand.
The video’s author claims that these injectors are not “responding” electrically in any way. The author does not know how to measure the parameters of these injectors? Could be. But the video’s author regularly mentions that he is testing exactly the piezo injectors – it makes an impression that it’s not the first time he has seen injectors of this type. The injector connector part looks correct; you can see the plug contacts in the video too. Everything looks fine, and we, who watch the video, have to believe that, when measuring electrically, something is incorrect.
The person claims he had purchased new injectors for his N54 series engine. Here is my comment right away – pay attention to the injector codes. And check them in the BMW databases (for example, RealOEM).
Here is the first proof that these injectors are fake. Manufacturing of the injectors with this code was finished 10 (!) years ago.
The second proof of fake: the inscriptions on the injectors claim that they are manufactured on the 54th of July 2016. Neither the manufacture year nor the date corresponds to the truth.
Here, these injectors are manufactured on the 54th of January 2011. Yes, the manufacture year could be valid, but the 54th of January – a bit of overkill.
Next, confirmation of the fake: encoding data of the injector. They are identical for several of the injectors. We see two groups of encoding. For example, for these injectors: 681/905. Both parameters are incorrect. You will get the error message when you input them into ISTA. Instead, if you put these data in INPA, the error message regarding the plausibility of the injector encoding data will appear in the DME error message memory list.
In this image, we can see that the fonts of the inscriptions are slightly “gothic”.
So, summarising the obvious signs of the fake:
a. incorrect (old) code of the injectors;
b. the injectors with this code did NOT have the 12th release (the last one was the 11th);
c. inappropriate manufacture year;
d. unreal manufacture dates;
e. inappropriate font of the inscriptions;
f. unreal/incorrect encoding data.
In my opinion, more than enough amount of data to keep away from these injectors.
However, the buyer of these injectors did not know anything about it. But the most exciting part is just to come! Let’s continue the inspection of these injectors.
In this image, we can clearly see that the injector is missing the microfilter.
When unscrewing the filling plug, we see something shocking – there is a “dead end”, respectively – no drilled hole via which the fuel can get further in the injector!
Here, the mounting plate is not welded (as for the OEM injectors), but – glued and easily removable from the injector’s body.
But the most interesting – the injector can be unscrewed! Yes, the original injector is welded – it has to endure the pressure of 200+ bar. But these injectors can be easily disintegrated.
Here, the opened injector – and now we see nothing “inside” of it! There are no wires for the electrical connection, no piezo element – nothing!
Here – only empty space!
The nozzle part of the injector, too, confirms – no fuel injection is intended. Only a prop.
The overview with the dismantled injector looks very strange.
I should admit that I have never seen something like that. And we have to understand that manufacturing fake injectors is not cheap. CNC lathes and milling cutters should be used, the plastic parts should be manufactured, and the inscriptions should be printed on them.
It is logical to assume that the manufacture amounts of these injectors are counted in thousands (with a considerable possibility – even in several tens of thousands). In the nearest future, we can expect a large influx of such fakes. Pay attention and be careful!