Reader Question: 2018 Camry Fuel Injection

Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!

Greg asks: Thank you for the great education you present on cars. I found your website and You Tube a few days ago. I believe the four and six cylinder Camrys are now dual injection, port and direct. Please let me know if I am correct.

My reply: Yes, Greg – you are (best Ed McMahon voice) correct! Toyota added a dedicated port fuel injection circuit as part of the general upgrades bestowed upon the redesigned 2018 Camry. My review of this car is here.

As you probably know already, the reason for the addition of the PFI circuit is not to fuel the engine. It is to prevent the engine’s valves from accumulating carbon as the result of the direct injection system which feeds the fuel to the engine.

For those out there who may be scratching their heads right about now, here is the scoop: DI – a system which sprays fuel directly into the cylinders at very high pressure – is being resorted to by the car industry in general because it provides a slight mileage gain vs. port fuel injection (which sprays fuel, too – but not directly into the cylinders; instead, the fuel is sprayed just above the cylinders, where the solvent effect of the gasoline keeps the backs  of the intake valves from accumulating carbon).

Adding PFI to the DI corrects the problem caused by the DI.

You might ask whether the slight mileage gain (there is also a power gain) is  worth all this trouble. And the answer is – yes, in terms of appeasing the federal government’s fuel economy ayatollahs. These ayatollahs continue to issue fuel efficiency fatwas that have reached the point of becoming almost impossible to comply with – absent very elaborate technical solutions such as this. These fuel economy fatwas create an artificial demand for “economical cars, which aren’t really economical because they cost more to buy and because they are so perversely complex, tend to cost more to service and maintain over time.

This is going to get worse, too – unless, somehow, this business of the government decreeing what the mileage of new cars must be is thrown in the woods!

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Got a question about cars – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!