The Infamous Corsa VXR Injectors: Why Do We Change Them?

At its release in 2007, the Corsa VXR was a very popular car for the person that wanted a quick car without having a deep pocket. With a small 1.6 turbocharged engine, it kept running costs relatively low whilst still providing the driver with a lot of power. This is why the Corsa, an already very popular hatchback, earned its place as one of the greatest hot hatches of the 2000s. Today, you can get an absolutely cracking deal on one of these cars. The VXR, especially the facelift model from late 2011 onwards, still looks modern and sporty on the roads now. There are however a couple of things that let this great car down… One of the big ones being the Corsa VXR injectors.

What’s Bad About The Corsa VXR Injectors?

Well out of the factory, the injectors are already too small for their application. The 12 point multi hole injector in good flowing condition is capable of supplying enough fuel for a soft stage 1 tune. Even then, you can’t be sure of the condition of the injectors because as the Corsa VXR gets older, more and more of them are racking up miles on the road. This means most injectors are becoming blocked up preventing as much fuel supplied into the cylinder.

The small injector size means that when a Corsa VXR is tuned, the injectors max out very quickly. When we say ‘maxed out’, we mean that the injector is supplying the maximum amount of fuel possible, however the engine is demanding more. This results in the air-fuel ratio running leaner than it should as well as causing the power also dropping off in the higher revs. Why does the engine need more fuel you may ask? Running it lean means it will generally run hotter which just isn’t safe. With more fuel we can then increase boost pressures further knowing that the air-fuel ratio (AFR) will be safe.

As this problem is so common, we always recommend upgrading the injectors before we tune the car as even if the injectors are in good flowing condition now, they are very likely to restrict our results and put unnecessary strain on the engine. This is a service that we can provide here at JF Automotive on the day of your performance software tune to make your life even easier (and your car even faster!).

Stage 1 With New Injectors

When this customer approached us, we recommended he upgraded his injectors before we tune the car to get both more performance and reliability from his VXR. After he looked into it himself he agreed and so we swapped the stock injectors for a set out of a Maserati. These were a lot better,  so when we installed our stage 1 software with a pop and bang remap, the results were impressive. We saw that the car was now putting down nearly 30bhp more than manufacturer figures claim, whilst also raising the torque by over 100Nm! The dyno graph shows that our engine ECU remap also gives a much more consistent power delivery curve making for even more fun in the hot hatch.

If you have a Corsa VXR that you would like tuned, get in contact with us below.

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