Can dirty injectors cause engine to hiccup when accelerating from a stop?

ELIZABETH BOBALIK

MEMBER
2005 BUICK RENDEZVOUS
3.4L
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
114,000 MILES

I was in last week getting maintenance done on my car. They noticed my fuel injectors were dirty and recommended in the near future to set up an appointment to have them cleaned. My car definitely has been going through more gas lately. My issue that I’m having is that over the past week and 1/2, at sporadic times, when I’m accelerating from a stop (most notable around the 20 MPH mark) there’s like a “hiccup”. Almost like I’m driving over a small pothole. As I get to a steady speed the there is no issue at all. It’s random and doesn’t not happen every time I drive. Is this most likely a cause of the dirty fuel injectors or some other possible issue I’m facing? There’s no check engine light. I’m unable to get my car in until next week but don’t want to worry about getting stranded as well! Any input or advice would be grateful!

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

This could be fuel related but my question would be, how did they "notice" that your injectors were dirty?

The service that they are recommending is not a bad idea but you cannot look at an injector and tell that it is dirty. This is just a service that is recommended based on time and mileage and it just sounds like they put something in your head that you need and are noticing other issues that could be related.

While this could be a fuel issue, I doubt the injector cleaning they are going to do will correct this. I am not suggesting to not do it but don't go into it expecting that this will fix it. It could fix this issue but it is doubtful.

I would recommend starting with checking fuel pressure when this happens so that means we need to hook at gauge up and tape it to the windshield so that you can see it when this happens.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-fuel-system-pressure-and-regulator

Until we get a little more info, there could be other things related to this so here is a guide that talks about this sort of issue:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-hesitates