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Post by OnSafari on Oct 3, 2009 10:18:01 GMT -5
Fuel injector cleaners are a crock. The are a relic of the past when fuel injection systems were less sophisticated, gasoline was crap, and injectors really did need cleaning. There is no service interval for any contemporary Japanese vehicle that specifies a fuel injector service or cleaning that I know of. There are so many detergents in today's gasoline that keep the fuel system clean that a special "cleaning" is pointless. It's just a fat padding on the bottom line for dealership service departments. Even worse, if you get a moron mechanic and he takes your fuel rail apart to "clean" the injectors and doesn't put it back together right, you will end up with fuel leaks.
I've had numerous Japanese cars go well over 200,000 miles without a single "injector service". When I take any of my cars in for a scheduled maintenance and they try to push this on me I tell them, "No thanks, just do the service without the FI cleaner". If they refuse, I take my business elsewhere (which I recently did with my Nissan). A friend of mine owns a franchise that sells chemicals to dealerships and auto repair shops, including an injector cleaning system. He confirmed that it is pretty much a crock on any modern Japanese car. But it's a money-maker for the dealership so they push it. Just my 2 cents.
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Post by CoreyJ on Oct 3, 2009 19:22:03 GMT -5
Awesome information OnSafari! What about the injector cleaner that you can buy at the auto store and add to the gas tank. Any benefit at all?
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Post by cwic on Oct 4, 2009 17:35:52 GMT -5
I will say that i sent my injestors out to get them cleaned while i had the heads off and they came back with them only flow testing them and they were all within specs so no cleaning was done. I have 109k miles on mine.
Clay
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Post by OnSafari on Oct 5, 2009 13:04:31 GMT -5
I'm sure there are instances when either a good, commercial injector cleaning, or using a fuel additive cleaner make sense. If you had a batch of bad or old gas or something else happened to gum up the system, it might make sense. But for every day use, I see no point in adding a can of injector cleaner to the gas tank. Most gas, especially higher quality gasolines, have plenty of detergent properties added to the base fuel to keep the FI system clean. Now if you take your Sport to Mexico or somewhere like that, by all means, add a can of injector cleaner. But North American gas is pretty good overall and FI systems tend to stay pretty clean even after a lot of use. Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.  |
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Post by CoreyJ on Oct 5, 2009 19:26:18 GMT -5
Thanks for the added information! I always wondered about those additives. I think I'll be good to go on the injectors for quite a while.
aidan
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Post by bahnstoermer on Nov 12, 2009 13:04:51 GMT -5
Chevron with Techron is what you want if you need it. About $15 and worth it. It has unclogged two injectors on my friends cars, and I watched it make my 94 RX7 run richer after using it (A/F) gauge.
The $0.99 jobs don't do crap.
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Post by kumachn on Dec 30, 2009 2:48:29 GMT -5
The $2.99 STP Fuel Treatments on sale for $0.99 work great on long cross country trips giving a bit more MPG.
Chevron with Techron does really work. Its the only gas I have ever felt a diference in throttle response after many years of using Arco gas and having get gas at Chevron in a emergency. Diference was felt after 5 min. of driving.
Also if you use gasbuddy.com you can track your gas receipt to see you average MPG / Fuel Cost. I use Californiagasprices.com to track my MPG and check out the diferences for each gas station.
And yes its pointless to get injector cleaning from a service station since there is so much detergent in our gases now. Only do it if youcar has been sitting for more than 1 year.
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Post by buggzyy on Feb 9, 2010 1:10:54 GMT -5
I will agree with most of what your saying, I work at a dealership and chemical companies I won't name any will push their product, I remember them trying to push their trans oil, we told them NO WAY only SPIII will be used here, Customers bring their vehicles to us to fix it right not half ***. as for FI cleaners They are helpfull only if you have a problem with the fuel system, I especially like the TerraClean system I have seen excellent results with this. I have also seen good improvements using the Mitsubishi FI cleaner not just the dump in tank but chem you run the engine off of. as for the fuel in the US I agree most is good fuel but remember fuel bought at wall mart or safeway or costco is only to bring your business to them not to benefit your vehicle, I have always used Chevron in all my vehicles and have never had a fuel system problem. just my opinion.
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