Cleaning Injectors and fuel system ?

My dealership told me that my injectors and fuel system needed to be cleaned when I got my 65,000 mile service done, They wanted a lot of money to do the service. My question is ; CanI do this myself ? I went to the auto parts store and the showed me several products and said their Sea Foam product was the best and that I should us it with the high octaine 93 gasoline. What is your best recommendation on this ? I was thinking about adding the Sea Foam with the 93 octaine gas and driving it up to Raleigh, 120 miles north of me. This way I could get out of town for the day, I could take I 40 and do 70 mph for a couple hours. Thank you.

 

Sea Foam is awesome. There are numerous opinions regarding fuel system cleaners though regarding their purported effectiveness, lack of effectiveness etc. You will get a mixed bag of opinions from this forum. From personal experience, I have always thought Sea Foam has done a good job with my vehicles. However, having said that, I cannot quantify the results/benefits so I cannot say if Sea Foam made any actual differences or if I was believing I had positive results merely because I added it to my fuel system.

 

Seafoam, good. 93 Oct, $$$ waste. Just add the Seafoam to your normal gas and go drive it. BTW, you should have asked why they thought the injectors needed cleaning?? No way I know of to diagnose that unless they pull them or there is a severe drivability problem. It not, regular Seafoam is your best bet. I usually dose mine on the tank right before an oil change.

 

The shop I work at sells this service for $85. I wasn't a believer in the process because I just thought it was a way to sell a service that is nearly 100% profit to customers until I had it done.

I had the system on my 2011 Mustang done at 37k miles. Improved highway MPG by 3 and felt like it gave some power back. Did it on my Tacoma as well and it seemed to have bumped me by about 1.5 MPGs.

These services affect all vehicles differently though.. I have seen it add as much as 8 MPGs to vehicles, and have seen it do absolutely nothing to other vehicles. Seafoam is basically the same thing as getting it professionally cleaned, except about 100$ cheaper.

 

Seafoam is the same treatment (different chemical) if you do it the same way. Most of the "professional" services aerosol or atomize the cleaner into the intake which runs it thru the upper intake and valves and add something to the gas to clean the fuel lines and injectors, and potentially the oil to clean out journals, seals, rings, etc.

OP - If you chose to do it on your own - Be careful with running seafoam into the intake as it can destroy your cats if you use too much - I know...I've done it. But it is also a great way to clean out the engine and potentially get some mpg back and smooth out the engine.

 

As far as professional, there is also a method where they disconnect the fuel rain and connect it directly to a container of fuel/cleaner mix (much higher cleaner ratio). They run it off that until it's used up, "supposed" to also work well.

 

I haven't used SeaFoam though it's been highly recommended and is well regarded. I've used Chevron Techron and highly recommend it. As with other products, the usual "don't over use it" applies. And, I think that if you use it in 10K or 20K mileage increments, you likely won't need your injectors cleaned later on. Also, the recommendation to use any cleaner with premium fuel likely stems from the fact the premium has more detergents than regular. But, I don't think it will make a difference in pure cleaning at that point.

 

That's right. I failed to mention this as many people simply put seafoam in their gas tank. The cleaning that I had done did as you mentioned.

 

There are better things out there to clean injectors.... Sea foam doesn't have the active chemical to remove gummy fuel deposits.

Redline si-1 has some of the highest concentration of the chemical to do so... Followed closely by gumout with regane

That stated sea foam is great at cleaning gunk in the crank and intake and upper cylinder

 

Your dealer is just trying to Up Sell you for more profit. There is no way that you need the fuel system and injectors cleaned at 65K Miles.

Well unless you are purchasing your fuel out of a bucket in a third world country.

If you want to just add Seafoam or Techtron to the fuel tank every two or three tanks and you will not hurt anything at worst and it may prevent deposit build up on valves etc.

I would discourage any type of dumping these cleaners into the intake through a vacuum line as there is a very real risk of washing out the piston ring lubricate and ruining the engine.

 

Thank you very much for all the replies, Yes I will follow your advise on useing the Sea Foam, I definitely do not want to dammage anything and havevto pay big money for repairs. I agree with you about my dealership trying to sell me a service I really don't need.

This is a great forum and I have learned a lot by reading all the threads. I really appreciate all the replies and good advise on proceeding. Thank you.