Fuel injector or fuel cleaning additives

[trinacriabob]

Do you routinely use a fuel injector cleaner or fuel system additive?  I do.  I add a bottle to the tank about every 5,000 miles, in addition to using the better detergent gasoline brands.

Which ones do you use, like, and/or know have a good reputation?

I've heard Techron is the best.  Others mention brands like Lucas and Seafoam.  I don't know much about these, so I don't use them.  I have also used STP and Valvoline fuel system cleaner. 

You need to read the label on the Techron bottle.  The one that is nicely priced only treats 12 gallons of gasoline.  The one in the larger plastic bottle treats up to 21 gallons.  My tank holds about 17 gallons.

Any ideas on fuel injector/fuel system cleaner brands and frequency?

[Drew Dowdell]

I don't.  I buy Costco gasoline almost exclusively which has most of those cleaners in it (much like Shell Premium).

I do run a bottle of seafoam through the throttle body from time to time.... this is even more important on direct injected engines. 

[G. David Felt]

I have not used consistently any injector cleaner due to using Costco and Fred Meyers gas with detergents added by them already. I have in my old Suburban used the Techron injector cleaner as I buy it from Costco in a two pack for $16.99.

Techron is great stuff.

[Drew Dowdell]

If you run Top Tier gasoline, there really is no need for additives.

EXCEPT for Direct Injected vehicles... those engines do not ever get the detergents in their intake manifolds because it is completely bypassed by the direct injection system.  That's where I'd use seafoam at the throttle body, but that is a once a year thing at most. 

[Suaviloquent]

I really like how there’s some cars that also have dual injection, cleans off the buildup on the DI and gives efficiency benefits too.

[trinacriabob]

Cool to get some consensus on the Techron.  Some already know, but the small bottle is only intended for cars with smaller fuel tank capacities.

I don't go to Costco that much anymore but keep my membership up.  It's about tire rotations, large electronics purchases now and then, and jeans (great prices on some name brands).  So, then, I need to make use of "Cafe 150" and the "sample lunch" to make it worth my while.  LOL.  Yes, I would imagine they bundle Techron at a good price.  At the auto parts stores, I tend to see STP bundled in 2s for about $9.99.  I have bought that before.  I guess I like the double protection of top tier gasoline and fuel injector cleaner.  I started this regimen beginning with the last car I owned.  I didn't do any of this stuff with the '84 Supreme Brougham coupe, since it was a carbureted 3.8.

At what point or place does one insert the throttle body cleaner?  I just put in a new Fram higher end air filter every 10,000 miles.  If a person has pulled off the air filter assembly to slide in the air filter and they see the outward side of the throttle body flap and it's really clean, does that mean that the inboard side would be clean, too?  No driveability issues thus far.

[G. David Felt]

10 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

If a person has pulled off the air filter assembly to slide in the air filter and they see the outward side of the throttle body flap and it's really clean, does that mean that the inboard side would be clean, too?  No driveability issues thus far.

Not always, I can say that my daughters 99 Durango, the flaps looking down the throat look clean till you manually open them and see the darker underside. I have used throttle body cleaner to spray on them to clean up the carbon build up and then also fill up the tank with a bottle of Techron and it seems to run very nice till the next tune up since I tune it up every couple years.

[ccap41]

I've used both Techron and Gumout with Regane(only the one with Regane). I'm also really anal about only using "Top Tier" gasoline...That's all I use. Is it necessary to use the fuel injector/system cleaner? No. I'm pretty sure, more than anything, it just makes me feel good.I toss in a bottle with every oil chance and hopefully keep things clean. 

I'm yet to do the intake side on this vehicle with one of the sprays. I did it to my Escape but I haven't to my Focus. 

[trinacriabob]

2 hours ago, dfelt said:

Not always, I can say that my daughters 99 Durango, the flaps looking down the throat look clean till you manually open them and see the darker underside. I have used throttle body cleaner to spray on them to clean up the carbon build up and then also fill up the tank with a bottle of Techron and it seems to run very nice till the next tune up since I tune it up every couple years.

I'm going to assume that this vehicle does NOT have platinum plugs then.  My last car had conventional plugs and each tune up (30,000) showed them to still be in great shape.  I still did a tune up every 30,000 miles.

I watched a YouTube on throttle body (TB) cleaning (it was either a Bonneville or a GP) and the inside was gunked up pretty bad.  I'm thinking it had to have been neglected or high mileage.  The video said that a person has to be careful with the throttle body flap and that you had better be very careful with your fingers!

Isn't a good air filter one of the first lines of defense for the TB?

Edited July 23, 2018 by trinacriabob

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

I'm going to assume that this vehicle does NOT have platinum plugs then.  My last car had conventional plugs and each tune up (30,000) showed them to still be in great shape.  I still did a tune up every 30,000 miles.

I watched a YouTube on throttle body (TB) cleaning (it was either a Bonneville or a GP) and the inside was gunked up pretty bad.  I'm thinking it had to have been neglected or high mileage.  The video said that a person has to be careful with the throttle body flap and that you had better be very careful with your fingers!

Isn't a good air filter one of the first lines of defense for the TB?

Yes, an air filter that regularly gets changed with it is dirty is the best start. I also on the 99 Durango have 30,000 mile tune ups as to why every 2 years roughly it gets a tune up. I agree with your assessment that the auto in the video you watched was a high mileage with neglect as I have traditional carbon build up but never gunk. 

I usually run the auto and race the motor as I spay into the throttle body and clean everything up shinny new like before changing the plugs, points, rotor cap, plugs etc. Once all cleaned up, cool down and replace everything then off to fill up the tank with Techron and the baby is good for a while.

[Suaviloquent]

The thing is detergents as a whole have been steadily reduced over the years as engines have become more themerally efficient and get closer to complete combustion. 

 

[trinacriabob]

On 7/23/2018 at 11:03 PM, Suaviloquent said:

The thing is detergents as a whole have been steadily reduced over the years as engines have become more themerally efficient and get closer to complete combustion. 

 

You're probably right.  I still prefer to stick to a conservative regimen of fuel, fuel injector treatment, and engine oil. 

I also like to put the newish RED Fram air filter in the car (a minor upcharge).  I'm stuck with AC Delco engine oil because that's what GM dealerships use (it's made for them by Mobil).  However, when the car hopefully hits 100,000 miles, I plan to switch to Castrol GTX.

I still think Shell and Chevron/Texaco are the best fuels available to most Americans.  To me, it's cheap insurance.