Aliexpress Injectors “Bosch” – How Good Are They?
In this article I want to see how consistent the flow is between Aliexpress injectors, how consistent the Chinese injector dead times are and how much do these “type Bosch” injectors flow versus what the “official” Bosch injector rating.
In the name of science I bought some “BOSCH” 0 280 156 023 Aliexpress injectors. The ad did not say Bosch but part number quoted matched the Bosch number for the same car. These injectors are for Saab 95 and 93 2.0 Turbo and are claimed to flow 261 g/min by Bosch.
Getting the Test Data
To kick things off I flow tested each injector with different pulse widths and measured the flow and observed the spray pattern.
Spay Pattern
Spray pattern looked typical and all injector spray patterns looked the same. Single jet exiting directly out of the injector, not offset to any angle that I could see.
Note: Only 3 injectors were tested as I destroyed one injector in the name of science.
Testing.
Pulse period/RPM, voltage and fuel pressure kept the same between tests. The only thing that was changed between tests was the pulse width.
TEST 1 – 62.5% Duty Cycle, 3000RPM, 25Hz, 12.4Volts, 2.6BAR, Pulse Width 25ms
| CC/ML | Injector 1 | Injector 2 | Injector 3 |
| Flow Test 1 | 34 | 34 | 34 |
| Flow Test 2 | 33 | 34 | 34 |
| Flow Test 3 | 34 | 33 | 35 |
| Flow Test 3 | 33 | 33 | 35 |
| Average | 33.5 | 33.5 | 34.5 |
| Average/min | 201 | 201 | 207 |
| % Diff Between Highest & Lowest | 3% |
TEST 2 – 25% Duty Cycle, 3000RPM, 25Hz, 12.4Volts, 2.6BAR, Pulse Width 10ms
| CC/ML | Injector 1 | Injector 2 | Injector 3 |
| Flow Test 1 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Flow Test 2 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Flow Test 3 | 17 | 16 | 16 |
| Flow Test 3 | 16 | 17 | 16 |
| Average | 16.25 | 16.25 | 16 |
| Average/min | 97.5 | 97.5 | 96 |
| % Diff | 1.5% |
TEST 3 – 12.5% Duty Cycle, 3000RPM, 25Hz, 12.4Volts, 2.6BAR, Pulse Width 5ms
| CC/ML | Injector 1 | Injector 2 | Injector 3 |
| Flow Test 1 | 10 | 9 | 10 |
| Flow Test 2 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Flow Test 3 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Flow Test 3 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Average | 10 | 9.75 | 10 |
| Average/min | 60 | 58.5 | 60 |
| Diff | 2.5% |
Generally the injectors looked well matched. As I said above, spray patterns looked good and consistent between injectors and flow between injectors was very close.
Analysing the Data
Bolting the number from above into the fuel injector dead time calculator, we get these results.
Injector Characterisation (Using this calculator)
| Injector 1 | Injector 2 | Injector 3 | % Diff Max | |
| Dead Time ms | -3.7 | -3.49 | -3.1 | 16% |
| Correlation/Consistency of Dead Time vs Flow (Looking for better than 0.7) | 0.92 | 0.88 | 0.97 |
BOSCH 0 280 156 023 – Rating vs Supplied
How did the Aliexpress injectors flow vs Bosch claimed numbers.
| Aliexpress Injectors Tested at 62.5% Duty @ 2.6BAR | Official Bosch Rating @ 100% Duty & 3BAR | 62.5% Results Converted to 100% Duty (x 1.7) | Difference | |
| 201cc/min or 142g/min | 261 g/min | 241 g/min | 8% |
Fuel Pressure Compensation
Testing was done at 2.6 BAR not 3 BAR as Bosch quotes for their flow numbers. Extrapolating 3 BAR numbers from 2.6 BAR using this injector flow calculator
Assume 7% extra flow at 3 BAR vs 2.6BAR gives 257g/min. 1.6% Difference versus rating.
In short, these injectors look to be right on the money.
Aliexpress Fuel Injector Review & Analysis – Conclusion
Differences in flow between the Aliexpress injectors is up to 3%. I don’t know if this is within Bosch tolerances but on the face, it seems acceptable.
A 16% difference in injector dead times. Again, I don’t know if this would be within Bosch tolerances. But 16% of 3 milliseconds also seems acceptable.
Longevity unknown.
Would I use these Aliexpress injectors?
Not without testing them before hand.
Assuming the results are as good as these, I think I would.
I didn’t see anything with the injectors that makes me think they are substandard and I would say they may even come out of the same factory as the original injectors. But I can’t be sure.
Tip
If you are thinking of ordering injectors from Aliexpress, check the photos on the listing to see if they match what you see listed from dealers in Europe eg Autodoc. The photo on Aliexpress is not guarantee that that is what you will get but it’s better than ordering blindly. For example these injectors look legit https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009889667489.html?gatewayAdapt=isr2glo, the colour matches. This injectors on the other hand look a bit iffy to me https://www.aliexpress.com/i/1005009562363179.html. The colour of the injector does not match.
Aliexpress Fuel Injectors – Key Takeaway
Buying from Aliexpress is a risk, some injectors might be fine, other might not be. I would only use fuel injectors from Aliexpress if I have flow tested them beforehand. I want to see flow is consistent between the set of injectors, I want to see the spray pattern is consistent and I want to see the flow at different pulse widths is also consistent.
It looks like there could be some decent injectors on Aliexpress for very good prices, but I think, looking at the product photos of some listings, that there are also some iffy injectors.
In short, test before installing. Longevity is a question that can only be answered over prolonged use, which I have not done
Injector Tester Software
After testing I realised that the software used to test the injectors had an issue. Namely injector dead times were coming out as minus numbers.
Having said that the point of the test was to see consistency between injectors and this software bug did not affect consistency.
Also the bug did not interfere to a major extent the calculation for measuring the maximum flow of the injectors.
