All (modern) cars have a four-stroke engine. This means the engine must complete four strokes to go through a full combustion cycle. The first stroke is the intake stroke. During this stroke, the intake valve opens slightly, allowing air to flow into the cylinder. This air mixes with the fuel, allowing the fuel to ignite. The opening and closing of the valves is controlled by the camshaft.
Dirty intake valve
Nowadays, cars must meet strict emission standards. To make exhaust gases even cleaner, many cars reuse exhaust gases in the combustion process. This means that these exhaust gases, containing soot particles and other dirt, pass by the intake valve again. This can lead to contamination of the intake valve.
Short journeys, traffic jams, and direct injection engines also contribute to the contamination of the intake and exhaust valves. If the intake valves become too dirty, they can no longer open and close smoothly. This can cause the engine to hesitate or run erratically, lose power, and trigger an error code on the dashboard.
If your intake valves are dirty, you'll want to resolve this quickly. There are special valve cleaners on the market that you can add to your fuel to dissolve the carbon deposits on the valves while driving. If your valves are too dirty, this unfortunately won't work. In that case, you will need to replace the valve(s). The intake valve itself is not expensive, but it takes a lot of time to reach them. This makes it an expensive job due to the labour costs.
At Winparts, we have a wide range of intake valves for many different car models. You can easily find a new intake valve for your car by entering your registration number.