Injector Coding After Replacement: Bosch IMA, Siemens IQA, Delphi C2I/C3I and Denso Codes

A Sportage 2.0 CRDi on EDC17C08 comes back after four new Bosch injectors with a diesel knock at idle and one cylinder sitting at the limit in the balance readings. The injectors are good. Nobody typed the codes off the new bodies into the ECU, so the ECU is still correcting for the old ones.

Why the codes exist

Common rail injectors leave the factory with a tolerance on flow. Instead of tightening the tolerance (expensive), each injector is measured and the deviation is printed on it as a code. The ECU applies that correction per cylinder. Miss the code, and one cylinder gets 2 to 4 mg more or less per stroke than its neighbours: knock, rough idle, smoke, and on Delphi and Denso units a noticeable loss of refinement. No fault code, usually, which is why it goes unnoticed.

Where the code is printed

• Bosch IMA (Injektormengenabgleich): on the injector head, 6 or 7 characters on most EDC16 CRI2 injectors, 9 on most EDC17 CRI3 piezo and later solenoid units. Check both the head and the box; they must match.
• Siemens/Continental IQA: 16 characters laser-etched on the solenoid body, used on PSA and Ford SID units and Renault SID3xx.
• Delphi C2I: 16 characters on a label on the injector head; C3I: 20 characters, used on later Delphi DCM3.x and DCM6/7 (Ford Transit 2.2/2.4, Renault, Ssangyong, some Kia/Hyundai 2.2).
• Denso: a QR code plus a 24 or 30 character ID (Toyota, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Nissan Navara 2.5, Mazda). The QR contains the same data as the string.

Tools that write them

• VAG: VCDS or ODIS, engine module adaptation (a channel per cylinder on EDC16, a guided function on EDC17).
• BMW: ISTA, injector adjustment in the DDE service functions.
• Mercedes: Xentry, injector code function, 7-character Bosch codes on OM651, Delphi codes on CRD3 cars.
• PSA: Diagbox, injector coding on DCM3.5, DCM6.2C, DCM7.1B and SID80x. Renault/Dacia: CLIP. Ford: IDS, or FORScan on most SID208 and Delphi Transit units.
• Hyundai/Kia: GDS or KDS; Fiat: Multiecuscan handles injector coding on the Bosch 1.3 and 1.6 MJT and on the 2.3 Ducato on most software.
• Isuzu, Toyota, Mitsubishi: the dealer tool or MUT-III; Nissan: Consult. Generic scanners rarely do Denso ID codes correctly.

Symptoms of wrong or missing codes

Knock at idle that changes when the engine is hot; cylinder balance (VCDS group 013, Xentry smooth-running values) with one cylinder pegged at plus or minus the limit; blue or black smoke on a cold start; on Delphi C3I engines a lumpy idle that everyone blames on the injectors. A code entered for the wrong cylinder is worse than none. Denso systems with a wrong ID code sometimes refuse the entry, which is the only case where the tool tells you.

ECU replacement and file work

Bosch stores the IMA codes in the ECU’s non-volatile area (the EEPROM on EDC16, the data flash on EDC17, on most versions), not in the calibration map area. So: a virgin file plus adaptation leaves the codes at default, and they must be re-entered. A clone (full flash plus EEPROM from the car’s own ECU) carries the codes over. A second-hand ECU with an immo off carries the donor’s codes, which are wrong for your injectors. Same story on Siemens SID and Delphi DCM. On Denso, the ID codes sit in EEPROM and are lost on a virgin; write them afterwards.

Reads we hold and where the codes sit: HYUNDAI I40 EDC17C08 0281019574 39120-2A222 1037526046 (Bosch IMA in data flash), FIAT BRAVO EDC16C39 0281014456 1037396582 (IMA in EEPROM), PEUGEOT 508 EDC17C60 0281032456 9692575380 1037555072 10SW016663 (IMA, written with Diagbox), CITROEN JUMPER SID208 9676721380 9679061680 (IQA), RENAULT FLUENCE DCM3.4 237100914R 237104316R 237100914R (C2I, CLIP), MERCEDES W211 EDC16C2 0281011332 1037366547 VIRGIN DUMP (IMA re-entry needed after virgin), ISUZU D-MAX DELPHI 8980795280 BAAM 28129180980 (Delphi codes), NISSAN NAVARA DENSO 23710-EB360 E20KU4C_ T2F2H61BA3 IMMO OFF DUMP (Denso ID codes, Consult), SSANGYONG ACTYON DELPHI A6645406432 28040923 IMMO OFF DUMP (C2I). If you send us the injector codes with a virgin or immo off request on a Bosch unit, we can write them into the EEPROM part of the file so you don’t need the dealer function afterwards.

The ten-minute check before you order injectors

Read the codes out of the ECU with the tool, compare them with what’s printed on the injectors. Mismatch on one: fix the code. Match on all and still a bad cylinder: now it’s an injector, a compression or a valve.

For a virgin or immo off file with your injector codes written in, send the full read and EEPROM, the ECU label and the codes from the injector bodies through the request form. The virgin and immo off categories list what’s ready; the guide on original vs virgin vs FRF explains which one you need for an ECU swap.