Recommend a good fuel injector cleaner.

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About 10 months ago my mom's 09 focus was hunting at idle not much just a 100-200 rpms or so most of the time. There had also been a couple times it had died from it but usually it doesn't behave that bad. No cell no vacuum leaks nothing so I put some liqui moly fuel injector cleaner and it helped almost instantly and the car quit acting up for months. Now it is doing the exact same thing again. I'm assuming it's dirty fuel injectors. Is there any additive that we could try for the long term .
 
Look for cleaners with Polyetheramine or PEA. It is a detergent not a solvent, putting a solvent in a solvent (gas) just isn't going to be as effective as using PEA. Look at the other thread redline s1-1. The three top cleaners with the most % of PEA would be redline sI-1 or Amsoil PI, or straight techron. PEA is the active ingredient in techron, read msds and look for highest % PEA.
 
Basically you have to research and chose detergent versus solvent. Maybe PEA is also a solvent, but it is much more powerful then a standard solvent. You can have a detergent that is also a solvent.
 
I would try to clean the throttle plate and plate pivot points or a total throttle body cleaning. You could also clean or replace the maf sensor. Both of these tasks are quite simple and inexpensive. As far as a fuel additive, there are plenty of good ones. I believe Redline and Amsoil have good ones.
 
Originally Posted by madeej11
I would try to clean the throttle plate and plate pivot points or a total throttle body cleaning. You could also clean or replace the maf sensor. Both of these tasks are quite simple and inexpensive. As far as a fuel additive, there are plenty of good ones. I believe Redline and Amsoil have good ones.


I have done all of this previously and again this time. Running that cleaner previously was the only thing that made a difference.
 
Is this issue able to be resolved by a cleaner? Or should I just replace the injectors?
 
OR simply run prem. fuel every few tanks
About the same cost as adding fancy fuel injector/system cleaners.
 
Originally Posted by ram_man
Is this issue able to be resolved by a cleaner? Or should I just replace the injectors?


Don't think anyone from on here could diagnose from far away.

Gumout, Techron and Redline SI-1 are all good options.

If cleaners fix it, great, but if it comes back shortly thereafter, I'd argue there's something chronic causing it.
 
Another thing to remember is if you run a cleaner, run it no leaner than 16 Oz. to 15 gallons of fuel. These cleaners come in various size bottles. (I know Techron comes in both large and small bottles). And fuel tank sizes are all over the map. From 14 gallons in some compacts, to almost 30 gallons in some big V-8 SUV's and pickups. So figure out how much you're going to need. Because it might be 2 bottles in order to get enough to make a difference.
 
Originally Posted by krismoriah72
Have you suspected the idle air control valve?


It is integrated in the throttle body (electronic) I did swap throttle bodies to no avail though.
 
Send them to Trav, he doesn't charge much, he redid injectors for my Jeep and it runs awesome.
 
Check your LTFT's...if one or more of your injectors are plugged you should be running lean (>8%). You can run excessively lean without throwing a DTC. A CEL won't come on until you're above something like 20%. If however your LTFT's are within range (filter) issue. If you're LTFT's are >8% at idle but drop at load/WOT than you very likely have a vacuum leak somewhere.

Check the..
-PCV valve
-EGR solenoid (it should click click click when running)
-check your 02 sensors voltage switching (.1 to 1.0) and range. Dirty or bad 02 sensors can be slow to respond and cause a sluggish or stalling engine. You can also induce a vacuum leak in the intake and the 02 sensor voltage should drop to around .1 volts and then rise above .5 volts when the leak is subsequently plugged to confirm it's working.

How do you know you don't have a vacuum leak? What did you do to confirm this?
 
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How good is Lucas fuel treatment just curious since I never hear much about it.
 
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