The Perils of Buying "BOSCH" Injectors on eBay

Maybe should have known better, but I bought a pair of injectors advertised as genuine BOSCH 02800155931 fuel injectors from these guys:


Clip from ad:

This is what arrived today:

No markings or part numbers, except a small 1804 paint marking. Made by Herko Automotive, a small shop in Florida, and for sure not BOSCH. I've asked for a refund, and I expect I will eventually get it under eBay's guarantee process. There are a lot of eBay vendors offering them using the same pictures and description, and I suspect they are all fakes. In the fine print they do say that the injectors may not look like the ones pictured, but they all insist they are genuine OEM BOSCH. What fun. Way too many liars and crooks out there. Hard to have faith in humanity sometimes.

I ordered them because I've been getting quite different AFR readings between right and left sides, with the right side significantly leaner almost everywhere. I thought I'd try some real BOSCH u;nits to replace the knockoffs that came from the factory. Maybe I'll just swap the injectors I have and see if the lean condition moves to the other side.

Ken

Good Idea. , When I bought mine from Amazon , there were genuine Bosch. Let me know if you want the link.

TonyA said:

Good Idea. , When I bought mine from Amazon , there were genuine Bosch. Let me know if you want the link.

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I tried buying them from Amazon first, but kept getting a notice that they could not be shipped to California. So I went to eBay. That's a common problem now with Amazon, and apparently has something to do with California's Proposition 65 rules and the way Amazon has implemented them. Lots of complaints about it online for a wide variety of items.

Ken

lcrken said:

I ordered them because I've been getting quite different AFR readings between right and left sides, with the right side significantly leaner almost everywhere. I thought I'd try some real BOSCH u;nits to replace the knockoffs that came from the factory. Maybe I'll just swap the injectors I have and see if the lean condition moves to the other side.

Ken

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Ken,
Could this be an aspect of the charge robbing effect that iwilson identified due the Jenvey throttle bodies having only one IAC pipe for both cylinders?
Do you see the mixture problem at all RPMs or just at idle?

Ken has already blocked off his shared port at the throttle body (like iwilson) . So this would be a no then. This would only happen at idle when the flaps are closed anyway. The rust built up in the fuel rail has caused blockages , it happened to Richard-7 . Look at amazon for the Bosch injector . I don't know what they charged you on Ebay for those injectors but the Bosch are going to be more than $50 ea.

TonyA said:

Ken has already blocked off his shared port at the throttle body (like iwilson) . So this would be a no then. This would only happen at idle when the flaps are closed anyway. The rust built up in the fuel rail has caused blockages , it happened to Richard-7 . Look at amazon for the Bosch injector . I don't know what they charged you on Ebay for those injectors but the Bosch are going to be more than $50 ea.

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The price on eBay was a little over $50 each.

The vendor responded, and still claimed that the injectors were genuine BOSCH, but said I could return them for a full refund through eBay if I wasn't happy with them. That's what I intend to do.

FWIW, the right side is leaner than the left by 1% to 6%, depending on which TPS/RPM cell I look at. Not a huge difference, and I've tuned the fuel map based more on the right side readings, so I'm mostly slightly lean on the right side and slightly rich on the left. It runs just fine that way. But I would like to find out why there is a difference. If I can sort it out, I can go a bit leaner in some areas, and probably pick up some mileage improvement. At the moment I'm averaging 41 - 42 mpg, and that's fine with me. Mostly it's just the challenge of getting things right that keeps me working on this issue. My other option is to swap back to the Delta400 ECU again, which allows tuning the two cylinders independently. I'm thinking I might try the Delta400 again anyhow, and hook up the wideband O2 sensors so I can try the closed loop auto-tuning features of that ECU. Always something out there to experiment with.

Ken

Just a bit of update. I've returned the fake injectors via eBay and expect a refund with no real problems. I still can't buy the Bosch ones listed on Amazon because it says they can't be shipped to my address. I've asked Amazon why, but am still waiting for a reply. But I did discover that Rock Auto here in the US has them listed as Bosch 62207 and 0280155931, and have ordered a pair for about $112 delivered. I discovered that there are several equivalent brands, like GM and AC Delco, that meet the same OEM specs as the Bosch, but I thought I'd just stick with the originals. It is a pretty commonly used OEM injector, fitted to a variety of years of Chevrolet 5.7L V8 engines, as well as several other brands and models.

Ken

Good find , I like Rock Auto for car supplies too.

There are rebuilders of course who clean refurbish test and certify flow

xbacksideslider said:

There are rebuilders of course who clean refurbish test and certify flow

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So I noticed, but after looking at the cost differences, I chose to start with new ones from a well-respected manufacturer. Refurbished might work just as well, but I didn't see any compelling reason to experiment when new ones are available at a reasonable cost.

Ken

lcrken said:

Just a bit of update. I've returned the fake injectors via eBay and expect a refund with no real problems. I still can't buy the Bosch ones listed on Amazon because it says they can't be shipped to my address. I've asked Amazon why, but am still waiting for a reply. But I did discover that Rock Auto here in the US has them listed as Bosch 62207 and 0280155931, and have ordered a pair for about $112 delivered. I discovered that there are several equivalent brands, like GM and AC Delco, that meet the same OEM specs as the Bosch, but I thought I'd just stick with the originals. It is a pretty commonly used OEM injector, fitted to a variety of years of Chevrolet 5.7L V8 engines, as well as several other brands and models.

Ken

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What a sad state of affairs..
Can we not trust anyone anymore..
I am trying to buy local but it’s not easy!

lcrken said:

So I noticed, but after looking at the cost differences, I chose to start with new ones from a well-respected manufacturer. Refurbished might work just as well, but I didn't see any compelling reason to experiment when new ones are available at a reasonable cost.

Ken

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I had the injectors on my Corvette cleaned and tested. I recall (I’ll be the first to say my memory is questionable at best) $60 to do all 8. That was a while ago. Not sure how much it is now.

$17/ea now Cleaned and flow tested and they give you the before and after test results.

swooshdave said:

I had the injectors on my Corvette cleaned and tested. I recall (I’ll be the first to say my memory is questionable at best) $60 to do all 8. That was a while ago. Not sure how much it is now.

$17/ea now Cleaned and flow tested and they give you the before and after test results.

Fuel Injector Cleaning and Flow Testing Service. Injector Repair LLC

Fuel Injector Cleaning and Flow Testing Service - We use Ultrasonic Cleaning to Refurbish injectors to like new. Only $17 each for our fuel injector service

injectorrepair.com

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Thanks for the link, Dave. Might be worth it to have the Chinese originals done just to see what the flow numbers look like. SCS mentioned that when they tested the no-name injectors like mine, they met the specs, but that was when they were new. I've been told that the problems with the knock-offs is not their initial performance, but their durability. But I have no idea if that is correct.

Ken

lcrken said:

Thanks for the link, Dave. Might be worth it to have the Chinese originals done just to see what the flow numbers look like. SCS mentioned that when they tested the no-name injectors like mine, they met the specs, but that was when they were new. I've been told that the problems with the knock-offs is not their initial performance, but their durability. But I have no idea if that is correct.

Ken

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I wouldn’t bother with the originals unless you were curious. But if you have problems with the good ones it’s might not be a bad idea to get the cleaned and tested.

swooshdave said:

I wouldn’t bother with the originals unless you were curious. But if you have problems with the good ones it’s might not be a bad idea to get the cleaned and tested.

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Curiosity was my only reason for thinking about testing the originals, but I think you're right about it not being worth the effort. My plan now is to just replace them with the new Bosh injectors, and see if I see any significant changes in the AFR readings. If that fixes the variance between the two cylnders, I think I can assume the problem was different flow rates between the two original injectors. If it doesn't, I'll have to look for another cause.

Ken