Well i went into the dealer one day for an oil change or something and the technician recommended i have the fuel injectors cleaned ($130!). SO whatever, they did it..and well, i barely noticed a difference.

Then a few days ago i was filling up my gas tank and i decided to get a bottle of STP Fuel injector cleaner. Put it in. drove away. Noticed a nice difference immediately. No power, but little quicker throttle response, smoother revs, etc.. i'm hooked on the stuff now.

but when i was shown the list of tsb's on the tech computer at the dealership i saw something about cleaning the fuel injectors. Has anyone else been told they should do this??

 

When you have clogged injectors, the car has to shoot more fuel to compensate, cleaning the injectors removes the clog and saves you gas mileage.

I wouldnt spend 130 bucks, the STP works fine. I wouldn't put it in at every fill up also.

 

I don't know enough about fuel injection to debate you too deeply, but I believe that "shooting more fuel" doesn't occur, rather increased pressure in the fuel line and a less efficient fuel delivery, resulting in a loss of power. I don't see how less fuel can come through, unless an injector is completely clogged. I would hope none of us would have that happen to us, especially on a <2 year old car.

 

Just make sure you fill your baby up with Top Tier Gasoline, and none of that other crap, your internal parts will thank you.
http://www.toptiergas.com/index.html

 

Check this out, I am a manager at Sears and we offer the same thing for $79.99. Average fuel increase is about 3-4 miles per gallon. You can also tell a difference in the response time when slamming the throttle to the floor. Map(Motorist assurance Program) recommends having it done every 15k miles, just like an oil change or an alignment. To go with the alignment thing also, if your car is lowered we do a 4 wheel alignment that adjust camber in the rear for $64.99. I have it done every six months and can tell you that my camber is always negative.

 

It does restrict fuel flow and does not spray evenly if one injector is slightly glogged

 

When your injectors get clogged, what happens is that they stop spraying in a fine mist, and start spraying more like a squirt gun (stream of gas, instead of a mist). Not only is it using more gas, it's also less efficient; gas vapors are far more combustible than gas in liquid form.

The FI service that most shops use is typically only for cars with lots of city driving, and high mileage. Unless you are taking tons of small trips around the city and never take your car on the highway, there's no need for that service at this point in time.

If you're concerned about it, pop a bottle of STP, or any other brand, of FI cleaner, and pour it into the tank prior to filling up (mixes better than if you do it after the tank is full).

Also, try and use it when you will be doing lots of in town driving. You get the most benefit of those bottles when you "stop and go" drive, as the mixture has time to soak in and work against any clogged injectors, rather than just being flushed through it with steady driving.

 

Thanks toastbox, makes perfect sense.

 

just to add to what toastbox said, what happens to make it squirt like that is the hydrocarbons (aka gas) build up on top of each other, and continue to do so till it causes that squirt gun effect, or worse, light dribbling of fuel, which can cause major power loss. What the cleaners do is break down the hydrocarbons, and then they get burned up in the fuel, not instantly but over a short amount of time. Usually its recommended to put fuel cleaner in every time you get your oil changed. or 3000 miles

 

the only problem with the STP stuff is it is composed of mainly alcohol therefore burns off before it makes it throught the entire system.

 

one word: seafoam.
run it through the brake booster or pcv valve, have it choke the engine and let it stall it out. let it sit for 5 mins. then start up your car....the smoke is half of the fun!

i've done it to a couple of my cars, it will never touch my tC, because i'm too scared of messing up the crazy stupid sensors they have on the intake (seafoam is 02 sensor safe and cat convertor sensor safe). you notice an immediate difference in accelleration, quieter idle, etc. you can also put it in your gas tank for a fuel injector cleaning, like you would get from stp. also, i like to put some in the engine oil, run the car for a few minutes, then drain the oil and refill with fresh oil.
it's also great for 2 cycle engines and carbs.

 

err, how does running that stuff through the brake booster allow that into the internals?? Last I checked, the brake system and the combustion cycle/components were seperate systems.

From the pic and description, it looks a lot like the stuff called Top Engine cleaner, that you can get from any GM dealer. It's an aersol based that you spray directly into the Throttle body.

Similar priniciple, start the car, spray into the TB almost to the point of staling the car out, and as it sputters, apply throttle, repeating the process until the can is gone. Let it sit for about 20-30 minutes, and then start it up and rev it out, lots of smoke.

Again, this is typically *only* recommended for cars with high mileage, and lots of carbon build up in the head.

 

When you say you offer the same thing for 79.99, do you mean the STP? What does your tech do to perform a Fuel Injector cleaning?

 

Probably pours a bottle of STP INjector clean in and sits around scratchin his SElf (to be pc so i don't get bannded! ;) for the rest of the hour of labor you get charged for.

 

you disconnect the brake booster hose from the brake booster, the other end of the hose runs into the engine head to get a vaccum. i'm pretty sure you can also put it in the throttle body, but it's not aerosol, so that could be difficult