Volkswagen Motorsport has identified the fuel injection issue that forced both Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala to retire from last month’s XION Rally Argentina.
Analysis of their Polo R’s engines at the squad’s Wolfsburg base in Germany revealed both suffered a fault in one injector, meaning the cylinder to which it was connected received too much fuel.
The increase in consumption led to Ogier stopping after 45km of the opening leg’s stage from Agua de Oro to Ascochinga. Latvala retired from third place during the first pass through the final day’s El Condor test.
Engine development head Dr Donatus Wichelhaus said the parts were investigated with the help of the technical development department’s central laboratory.
“It turns out that part of the fuel injector broke whilst the cars were running. The broken fragments blocked the mechanism of the fuel injector, thus preventing it from working properly,” he added.
Volkswagen said a different specification Bosch fuel injector would be used from Vodafone Rally de Portugal (21 - 24 May) onwards. The injector is a homologated part, so the update will require the use of one of the team’s allocated ‘jokers’.