svidas

My wife had her 2010 RX350 into the dealer. One of the billed items was for a fuel injector flush. Scam? I have heard of cleaners but not a "flush."

charley95

I have never had injector cleaning on any of my cars. I always buy quality gas and never buy from the cut rate stations. Some dealers have the motto of "sell sell sell" whether the customer needs it or not. You should never have issues if you buy quality fuel.

Clutchless

If you have a lot of miles, and being a 2010, you may fit that category, a fuel injector flush may be beneficial. Especially if it also flushes out the intake system to remove carbon deposits from the intake valves and manifold. Carbon and other deposits builds up on all vehicles over time and mileage no matter what gas is used. Injectors get sticky and have reduced flow. Carbon on the intake valves absorbs gas, interferes with combustion and reduces performance and mileage. The flush should improve your engine performance, throttle response and mileage. It should feel smoother at idle afterward. I recall getting this done on a Honda with 90,000 miles and it transformed the car so it felt like when it was new. I do not think you were scammed. How much did they charge?

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

These flushes can be helpful even if you use top tier gas. On my Lexus GS400 (~160k miles), I did an injector flow test before and after the flush and there was an improvement. MInd you the car has always seen Chevron premium fuel all it's life.

ericsan13

Is a flush something you can do yourself using something like this?


Or do you need a shop to do it?

Clutchless

Yes, that is a great product. It will give you just about the same cleaning as if a shop did it. Granted some shops use a vacuum or pressure system to clean out the injectors, but those are pricy. Many use a system like this or one with a drip that works like an IV in the hospital to drip cleaner into a vacuum fitting on the throttle body or intake manifold.
I have been doing my own for years after watching a shop do one of my vehicles. I use a system like this that I bought. The one shown in this link was apparently home built, and works like an IV line.
http://www.srtforums.com/forums/f41/...ng-kit-498493/

This QMI kit has a similar drip bottle design http://www.qmimo.com/3-qmi-3-step-fu...-cleaning-kit/

The trick is to take 15 minutes to slowly drip the cleaner into the engine.

charley95

i have never had a fuel related issue in any of my fuel injected cars through the years. Performance has always been good with all of them. If people think cleaners are the answer to performance issues i guess thats ok but, I still think it's a sales ploy from the dealers. Cut rate stations fuel can cause issues in the long term. All gas comes from the same tanks, it's the additives that the higher end stations use that improves the quality.

svidas

The dealer charged $170 which seems high.

Clutchless

A little high for a dealer, I think the usual is around $150 for them. Several years ago I paid $75 for it at an independent gas station, quick lube place and watched them do it on my Explorer. They used the drip method I linked above, which prompted me to get my own...I usually drip BMW fuel system cleaner concentrate which you dilute with gas, or Redline fuel system cleaner.