How many of you never use fuel injector cleaner?

[Patman]

A recent question on the Corvetteforum got me thinking, how many of you never use fuel injector cleaner at all? And how many miles are on your engine?

I personally don't believe injector cleaner is all that critical anymore, I haven't put any in either of my cars for probably close to two years now and they run just fine. I'd be willing to bet there are a ton of people out there with cars that have over 200k on them and run perfectly fine without having any injector cleaner run through them.

 

[alanu]

Many fuel injectors have director plates now instead of pintles. The director plates have holes in them from 6-12 and they are getting smaller and smaller to atomize the fuel for strict emission reasons. They are getting clogged up. Poppet valves on delphi systems are getting siezed up not allowing the ball and seat separate. Varnish is evil.

The problem with fuel injector cleaners is that this world is full of ---- marketing programs. I have a fuel system cleaner that is industrial strength which requires 250ml to go into a full tank of gas. This is full on real deal stuff and not the junk sold on the market filled with fillers. Fillers makes the person feel "good" because the bottle is bigger.

Theres some serious technology involed in injector cleaners. The average joe would be smart in purchasing product like this but the problem is there is no real proof of effectiveness unless you pull the injectors and test for finer atomization.

The real system cleaners will effectively clean injectors, intake valves, combustion chambers, piston tops.

I firmly believe in injector cleaners. Even top tier fuels do not have enought cleaners if you compare them to fuel additives that are high strength.

When octane requirement start to increase you know you have issues.

 

[Merkava_4]

I've tried that Chevron fuel injector cleaner; it caused my computer to throw a code for fuel tank pressure being out of range. I've never used any injector cleaner since.

 

[Cutehumor]

I've used Free after rebate chevron techron fuel injector cleaner for the past two years. Yes, I stocked up. but I buy cheap walmart gas. if I buy name brand gas cheap, I'll hit the pumps that carry one fuel nozzle so when I fill up on regular unleaded. I get some of that premium additive residue in the hoses in my regular. It makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

 

[Bill in Utah]

If I have used fuel injector twice in 21 years or 320k miles in the 86 Jetta I'd be shocked.

Still have the FACTORY injectors in the engine. Never been touched and car still passes smog test on the dyno and gets great MPG.

Take care, Bill

 

[GMBoy]

I may be wrong, so give me some slack here, but could it be possible that the varnish or whatever is building up so slowly that you wouldn't notice the deminished performance? (if any) Or how about this - it has been said that gas is of such poor quality that deposits are left behind on valves and such. So even if fuel injector cleaners do nothing for the injectors, I'd have to say that you'd atleast be helping to clean your valves and all clean. I agree with folks who have stated that the over the counter fuel injectors are not very effective since they are added to the tank. I do believe (from reports read and personal experience) that Redline's fuel cleaner is up there with the best as far as gas tank treatments go. Me personally, I have a fuel injector kit that you run right to the fuel rail and you disable the fuel pump and the car runs right off of a can of solvent for 5 minutes or so. This gives you the best cleaning you can get with the injectors still in the car. I'll do this maybe once a year or so. I'll also rain some Redline or Techron every once in a blue moon.

But - getting back on topic - I can say that I have friends who also never run fuel cleaners (or do any maintenance!!) and their cars still run fine, so who really knows?

 

[XS650]

The 83 Camry we bought new started idling a bit rough at around 50,000 miles. A bottle of Techron cleared that up. It wanted a Techron treatment about once a year (20k miles) until we sold it at 230,000 miles till running good.

Our 91 Accord is presently owned by my MIL and has about 220,000 miles. No engine problems and never any injector cleaner.

Our 2000 Acura TL has 110,000 miles on it when we sold it, never any injector cleaner and ran great, still showed 0.00 on 2 of the smog test readings.

My 95 GMC has never ran as good as my other vehicles, I have run various miracle fuel system cleaners through it and it's still not real good. I think it's GM's Mickey Mouse CPI system. It's acceptable so I don't want to spend over $300 for a kit to rebuild the injection system.

 

[Dr_No]

So where do I get this "industrial strength" fuel injector cleaner?

 

[XPR]

I use the Amsoil PI fuel treatment.

 

[TBJ]

Anyone got a list of the good, the bad, and the ugly products?

On a side note I had a customer use synthetic oil and a bottle of STP fuel treatment (injector?) every oil change, claims his last car had 600,000 km on it.

 

[Cutehumor]

Quote:

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If I have used fuel injector twice in 21 years or 320k miles in the 86 Jetta I'd be shocked.

Still have the FACTORY injectors in the engine. Never been touched and car still passes smog test on the dyno and gets great MPG.

Take care, Bill

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hey bill,

you should kept that car! you would have had a million miles by now.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Quote:

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Quote:

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If I have used fuel injector twice in 21 years or 320k miles in the 86 Jetta I'd be shocked.

Still have the FACTORY injectors in the engine. Never been touched and car still passes smog test on the dyno and gets great MPG.

Take care, Bill

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hey bill,

you should kept that car! you would have had a million miles by now.

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Its still in the family.

Sister in Law has it and I get to see it keep going. and going.

I do wish I did keep it. I figured that if I did, I'd just be passing 500k with it. I'd be able to prove my mindset a little easier.

Take care, bill

 

[mechtech2]

Premium fuel and injectors are certainly much better than before [deposit wise].
But a tank or two a year of a cleaner is also helpful for other parts in the fuel system, valves, and combustion chamber.
The known excellent standards are: Chevron Techron, Redline S1, and Gumout Regane.

 

[Camu Mahubah]

One gets confused in the aisle where gas additives are sold. Some are reasonalby priced, like Techron, some are outrageous like BG...

I will tell you this...when I used Chevron Techron...my mpg went up and stayed up...I only use once a year...but one of the first things I do when I buy a car...

 

[Patman]

Quote:

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I may be wrong, so give me some slack here, but could it be possible that the varnish or whatever is building up so slowly that you wouldn't notice the deminished performance?

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Not in the case of my Corvette, because I take it drag racing so if I was losing power I'd see my ET and trap speed get worse. I'd also probably notice my average MPG changing too.

 

[sprintman]

Not that dumb Patman...s

 

[remmious]

I look at it this way both at home and at work; do what's in you control to help prevent failures but that doesn't mean they won't happen. Industry calls this 'Proactive Maintenance.' Try to prevent failures before they become a problem but do them in a way that won't introduce any failures also. (Did that make sense?)

It's kind of like if you excersise, eat right, don't smoke, etc, you increase your chances of longer life and better 'performance' during those years but that doesn't mean you couldn't get ill or have other problems.

I know older gentalman who have smoked since they were in 4th grade and eat a pound of bacon a day with a case of beer and they have out lived many of their 'healthier' friends. There's all kind of stories similar to cars, I know people who do NO MAINTENANCE and I mean none and their vehicles last forever.

Me, I do lots of maintenances but I own a Dodge so the 'genetics' are against me!

 

[mikeg5]

just seafoam in the tank in thru the pcv valve.. thats it. i do that every time i change my plugs 30k just for maintanence but i concentrate the snot out of it lol.

 

[OriginHacker21]

Both my grandparents (one a mechanic) have never used FI. Both think fuel is quite cleaner today than back in their day. They think that running a tank of 91 octane every 3-4 gas-ups will clean out anything that 87 octane missed.

Both grandparents have pickups with over 200,000 mi on them. Both live in the country in Iowa. However, with 50mph roads and gravel - the trucks don't get driven hard.

I on the other hand have experienced otherwise. Driving 220 miles a day - if I don't use FI my engine will get a rough idle (noticeably so) after 5-6,000 miles. My own studies are hardly scientific but I am a strong believer in FI. I've used STP with no results so I don't recommend them but Chevron w/ Techron concentrated and Gumout Regane have cleared up idle in my situation. I only go to Shell/Chevron gas stations too.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"Back in the day," as they say (what day? Be specific!), I'd run a bottle of the STP FI cleaner through my carb cars ('75 Ford Maverick, '65 Mercury Park Lane, '84 Ford Escort) every 1-2 months. I don't know if it helped, but the cars got decent mileage for the times.

In modern fuel-injected cars like my Oldsmobiles and Benzes, I did it maybe once a year. None of them ran roughly, all got decent mileage for their respective ages.

That said, I popped a 12-oz. bottle of Techron into 11 gallons of fuel in the Buick yesterday. Old habits . . .