Fuel Injection Cleaner Service

[bassadict69]

My truck is getting close to the 100,000 mile mark & I have had several places, including the small shop that works on both my vehicles, suggest a fuel injection service...I think they want $59 for it...Is is worth it, or a waste of money?

 

I haven't really had any issues with anything other than my mpg not quite being what it used to be.

[C & A s Dad]

James, Preventative Maint. services have been the "big ticket item" for some shops for the past few years. PM has become a way for many shops to add on sales just as when you go buy an electronic piece and they beat you to death to buy the extended warranty.

 

Not that all PM services are a bad thing. There is a place and time for most of them.

 

IMO, if you have not been using a major brand Top Tier fuel such as Chevron, Shell, BP or other or have not consistently used a good FI cleaner such as Techron, the service is a good deal. However, if you have been using a Top Tier Fuel and a good cleaner on occasion, I would say you will see very little difference.

 

Some shops offer this along with an upper cyl decarbon service and I have heard people claim a big difference when this is performed. We sell Motor Vac Equip and chems and have several shops that use this product and others in our area use BG. Both are great products.

 

Bottom line, the $59.00 price is not bad and at that price, you are not wasting any money but you may not see any big positive results.

[Bish]

I would agree for the most part with the previous post. If you maintain your vehicle and use Top-Tier gas it should not be necessary. If you do not maintain your vehicle and run cheap gas and never run cleaner through, it may be worth it. The problem is you cannot really see if an injector is plugged which is the only reason to to the procedure IMO. I run major brand gas, change fuel filter regularly, and run Techron through every few months so I have no need for the cleaning. At 202K now I still get the same mileage so I don't think I need the service.

 

Also agree the PM are money makers. The infamous "Sludge Removal" process is another good one. If you change your oil regularly and use brand name oil, you never need it. If you run cheap oil and never change it, you could use it.

[unit731]

Well, I had this procedure done on my 1993 Mazda. At Mazda dealer. I watched. All the mechanic did was take off air filter and spray a can of carb/injector cleaner. That's it. I could have done that. Yes, this was a fuel injected car. And I paid $89.00 for this!

 

Now, my 1990 Cheverolet 1500. I just go to AnyMart and purchase fuel injector cleaner. Once ever couple months. Put in full take of gass. In between, I add Marvel Mystery Oil to a full take of gas. Waste of money - as most will state. OK. Sure.

 

Yet, my 1990 Chevrolet 1500 has never had a fuel pump problem. Never had an injector problem. The truck is 18 years old and runs fine. And I purchase gas anywhere and wherever. Is it the additives I use or just luck?

 

And as far as gasoline goes, it either comes thru a national pipeline or in ship tankers. It's all the same stuff. If you live near a port, go look at the wholesalers for gasoline. The brand name tanker trucks all pull up to the same pumps - different brands - same wholesaler. Someone, I am sure will "correct" me in my observations.

 

I told this story before but it is worth stating again.

I was manager of an independant gas station part of a chain of gas stations. Interstate was the name of the small chain. We had two tanks in ground. Hi-Test (Premium for some of you) and Regular. Two tanks in ground. Interstate was bought out by BP Sinclair - a bigger chain. They continued the name Interstate but added BP. They also added another pump on each island. BP regular. At 2 cents more per gallon. An elderly customer came in regularly and used to talk to me. He always purchased BP regular @ 2 cents more a gallon. I finally told him that this gasoline comes from the same underground tank as the Interstate regular @ 2 cents cheaper. The elderly customer thanked me but told me that his car ran better with the BP regular and that he would continue to purchase the BP regular @ 2 cents more per gallon. It's the SAME gas as the Interstate. There was no "blending" or special "filters" or "additives" in those days. It was the same gas. Do you get the point? I mean, really, do you get the point?

[cmoore74]

On a previous truck that I was not as anal about maintaining (used sheap gas and didn't really keep up with injector cleaner) I had this done and it smoothed out the idle and restored a bit of mileage.

 

And just for clarification the real injector service is more than just spraying throttle body cleaner. It involves tapping into the fuel line with a canister of detergeant and running the engine off of the detergeant. It requires special equipment and a compressor.

 

If you do use good gas and keep up with using detergeants maybe the mileage loss is indicating it's time for a tune-up and other maintenance (dirty throttle body, lazy O2 sensors, etc.).

[Bish]

Well, I had this procedure done on my 1993 Mazda. At Mazda dealer. I watched. All the mechanic did was take off air filter and spray a can of carb/injector cleaner. That's it. I could have done that. Yes, this was a fuel injected car. And I paid $89.00 for this!

 

Now, my 1990 Cheverolet 1500. I just go to AnyMart and purchase fuel injector cleaner. Once ever couple months. Put in full take of gass. In between, I add Marvel Mystery Oil to a full take of gas. Waste of money - as most will state. OK. Sure.

 

Yet, my 1990 Chevrolet 1500 has never had a fuel pump problem. Never had an injector problem. The truck is 18 years old and runs fine. And I purchase gas anywhere and wherever. Is it the additives I use or just luck?

 

And as far as gasoline goes, it either comes thru a national pipeline or in ship tankers. It's all the same stuff. If you live near a port, go look at the wholesalers for gasoline. The brand name tanker trucks all pull up to the same pumps - different brands - same wholesaler. Someone, I am sure will "correct" me in my observations.

 

I told this story before but it is worth stating again.

I was manager of an independant gas station part of a chain of gas stations. Interstate was the name of the small chain. We had two tanks in ground. Hi-Test (Premium for some of you) and Regular. Two tanks in ground. Interstate was bought out by BP Sinclair - a bigger chain. They continued the name Interstate but added BP. They also added another pump on each island. BP regular. At 2 cents more per gallon. An elderly customer came in regularly and used to talk to me. He always purchased BP regular @ 2 cents more a gallon. I finally told him that this gasoline comes from the same underground tank as the Interstate regular @ 2 cents cheaper. The elderly customer thanked me but told me that his car ran better with the BP regular and that he would continue to purchase the BP regular @ 2 cents more per gallon. It's the SAME gas as the Interstate. There was no "blending" or special "filters" or "additives" in those days. It was the same gas. Do you get the point? I mean, really, do you get the point?

 

Regarding the same gas comment, I agree. The gas comes from the same source. My understanding is, however, that each brand will have their own "mix" of additives making it "their" brand. The Top Tier gas stations have more additives/cleaners compared to the cheaper brands.

 

So while the gas is the same, the additive package differs from brand to brand.

[bassadict69]

I do use cheap gas in the truck & have maybe run 2 cans of seafoam in the tank in the last 50000 miles. If I remember right, it is some sort of BG product they use & they do use some sort of machine to do it with.

 

Plugs & wires were changed about 10-15000 miles ago, O2 sensors have been changed, MAF cleaned fairly regularly, fuel filter changed about 20000 miles ago, & ALWAYS run Mobil 1 syn oil.

[jhm]

My truck is getting close to the 100,000 mile mark & I have had several places, including the small shop that works on both my vehicles, suggest a fuel injection service...I think they want $59 for it...Is is worth it, or a waste of money?

 

I haven't really had any issues with anything other than my mpg not quite being what it used to be.

If they are doing the job correctly, that is a good price. I had mine done at the dealer for $100. I did notice a difference and will probably do it again in another 50k miles. They did a good job, the cost is about 50-50 chemicals and labor.

[C & A s Dad]

Bish, I agree with you 100% on the additives that are added by the individual brand. BP, AMOCO, Shell, Chevron all have tons of info on their websites concerning additives and also produce a great deal of advertisments concerning this. They could not possibly get away with this if they did not offer the addiitves they claim.

 

Unit 731, I will not disagree with you on the Marvel. I use Lucas Upper Cyl Lube with every tank at the rate of 3 ozs per 10 gallons. I have been doing this with my last 2 personal vehicles and my last 3 work vans. Never seen inside the cylinders of any of them but it will improve the MPG slightly on most vehicles. They claim it also helps the injectors and I believe it has to help lube the fuel pump as well.

 

Just my .02.

[unit731]

Fuel Filter.

 

I forgot to add this.

 

I replaced the fuel filter on the 1990 Chevrolet 1500 about 5 years ago. The one I replaced was on at least 5 years if not much longer.

 

Warning: Only do this in a well ventilated area for saftey sake. Well, I hack sawed the Chevrolet trucks fuel filter just out of curiosity. I wanted to see how much sludge/junk was in the filter. The answer: nothing. It was clean. Absolutely clean.

 

Again, I buy gasoline anywhere and everywhere. But where I live, most if not all are brand names such as Citgo, Exxon, Shell, Sunoco - with one independent samller chain, I think, called Hess.

[Bish]

I do use cheap gas in the truck & have maybe run 2 cans of seafoam in the tank in the last 50000 miles. If I remember right, it is some sort of BG product they use & they do use some sort of machine to do it with.

 

Plugs & wires were changed about 10-15000 miles ago, O2 sensors have been changed, MAF cleaned fairly regularly, fuel filter changed about 20000 miles ago, & ALWAYS run Mobil 1 syn oil.

 

In my opinion, it may do some good in that case. The best performers IMO are the ones they attach to the fuel rail and spray through the injector/intake.