Part of taking care of your vehicle is making sure the air/fuel mixture is correct. You’ve got a few sensors in the engine that help you with this, and if something is wrong, you’ll not only notice engine performance issues but also likely get a check engine light warning on your vehicle’s dashboard. Ideal Automotive can check your air/fuel mixture and fix it if it’s too lean or too rich. What does that mean? Let’s talk about the air and gasoline mixture in your car, what it does, and how it can be affected.
Vehicle Engines 101
Gasoline engines use combustion to generate power. They do this by igniting air and fuel in the combustion chamber to create heat and pressure. The combustion gases then expand and push the pistons, which sit in the cylinders, up and down to turn the crankshaft. The crankshaft rotates the wheels, and this is how your vehicle moves. The mixture of air and fuel can affect the heat and pressure, and if this mixture is way off, you won’t be able to start your automobile.
Lean Mixture
A lean fuel mixture means that there is more air in the mix than gasoline. This can occur when the mass airflow(MAF) sensor or oxygen sensor malfunctions. These sensors are tasked with measuring the air in your engine, including in the air/fuel mixture. You might also end up with a lean mixture if the fuel pump or fuel injectors are clogged. A lean fuel mixture will starve your vehicle’s engine of gasoline, and it will struggle as a result. It will sputter, might stall, eat up gasoline to overcompensate for the loss of power, and could even backfire or make popping sounds out of the tailpipe.
Rich Mixture
You probably already guessed this, but a rich mixture is one that has too much gasoline in it. This can be caused by a failing fuel pump releasing too much gasoline into the engine, a problem with your carburetor’s adjustment, leaking fuel injectors or ones stuck in the open position, a faulty MAF or oxygen sensor, a faulty engine control unit, and a clogged air filter. The symptoms of a rich gasoline mixture include the check engine light warning we discussed above, gasoline smells, low fuel economy, a surging engine or one that floods, an emissions test failure, and soot on the spark plugs.
Call Ideal Automotive’s auto repair shop in Blaine, MN, if you think your vehicle’s air/fuel mixture is off. We’d be happy to take a look and fix any problems we find.
