I became interested in this stuff in the past year and added it to both my maxima and my infiniti a couple of times now. I noticed that when i am driving on the tank w/ the techron that i added, the car has a significant increase in its "get up and go" feeling to it. This eventually goes away after a couple thousand miles so I am considering adding it more frequently, but before I do this I would like to know more about why this stuff works the way it does. I am really curious as to why I notice the effect immediately after I add this stuff to my gas, if anyone knows ?? Thanks!

 

I recently bought a bottle of it and haven't used it yet. There was a thread on fuel injector cleaners/additives last week where Techron was discussed. I question whether or not you can feel a significant immediate improvement when using it. And if this were the case then obviously it has removed some deposits that were adversely affecting the performance of your engine.

 

Placebo effect.

 

Nissan actually tells you not to use it. In all honesty, I used the exact product in question on my 2000 Max and vowed never to do it again. Maybe it was just me, but I really felt like I did no good and only harm to the engine. Sorry, if you really want to clean the fuel injectors, youre gonna have to put some elbow grease into it, not just a 10 dollar bottle of juice.

 

How do you know it harmed your engine? How do you put elbow grease into fuel injectors?


Where I'm from the stealerships are all putting in a two-step additive (BG02) once a year or every 15,000 miles - one is a cleaner and the other is a moisture remover.

 

Im no scientist, so Im not even going to attept to explain any data related to this. All I know is the little book you got with your car says dont do it. (now granted it also says not to put in any aftermarket apps, but who the hell listened to that?!?!?) Anyway, after I used it once, the car just seemed like I had lost a cylinder or something. It was very strange. Trust me, if you really needed it and it really worked (well) then everyone would be saying that its a must and you should do it every time you change your oil, or something along those lines. Gas is expensive enough guys! Just dont get the quickie mart brand and youll be alright.

 

I also felt cautious before using it, and read a little about them on forums and found out that most people do not recommend putting in fuel injector cleaners (or other types of additives for that matter), except for the one made by BG, and a little less so for Chevron w/ Techron. BG is used in a lot of dealerships, but is very $$ ($20). As far as Chevron, a dilute amount is of Techron is regular additive in Chevron gasoline. These are the things I read, I then tried the Techron, and I have felt a difference in the car's performance, although i noticed that it does last a limited period of time. I dunno, some people may have different experiences but this how it was for both my cars. But this is also why i want to know whether the effect is from "cleaning" the engine, or because of some combustible substance (i'm just making this up, I am not a chemist or mechanic) that makes the engine run stronger.

 

What about putting in an ounce or two of Chevron Techron with every fillup?

 

Pointless.....the concentration is too low to do anything.


Personally, I put a bottle of Techron in my tank right before each oil change. Even the cleanest gasoline has dirt in it, and if you clean your fuel system on a regular basis, you shouldn't have a problem. Its when you buy a car w/ 150k and the previous owner used Acme Gasoline and never had his injectors cleaned that using an additive may cause a nightmare, IMHO.

 

Mizeree, so do you also experience the "boost" in power that I mentioned? Maybe not because you add the Techron so often that your engine is always performing optimally and you have no basis to compare it to?

 

No, I don't really notice anything. I'm sure the bottle of Techron you pour into your tank has octane boosters of some sort in it, but I've never experienced a dramatic increase in performance after 1 treatment.

 

Just for everyone's information, here's the chevron rep's response to my email:

"Thank you for your inquiry. It has been forwarded to us here at ChevronTexaco Fuels Technical Service. Techron concentrate and ProGard products does not boost octane or contain octane boosting chemicals; however, it may decrease the octane appetite of some vehicles by removing heavy combustion chamber deposits and thereby enable the use of a lower octane grade. Heavy combustion chamber deposits normally build up over thousands of miles of regular driving, however, so we would not normally expect your car to have large amounts of combustion chamber deposits with 3000 regular miles between Techron applications."

So I guess the "boost" i experienced after adding the Techron might be from a whole crap load of deposits that were just sitting there waiting to be removed.

 

Have you guys checked out Chevron's Web page. Its has a a lot of interesting info on it: http://www.chevron.com/prodserv/fuels/techrongas/

 

so is it a yes to do or not to do? Or a maybe once in a while thing??

 

I've personally felt a noticeable difference, so I'm going to put it in every 10k miles or so before i change my oil. It also doesn't seem to be harmful, as it is normally present in Chevron gas.

 

is there any other ways to clean the fuel injectors other than adding additives or fluids?

 

There are other ways to clean fuel injectors, but they are more labor intensive. There are concentrated cleaners that come in a pressurized can. You hook the can to the car's fuel rail using an adapter and a hose. This is the way mechanics used to clean injectors at a shop. I am not sure if they still do it this way because I haven't heard a lot of talk about it lately. Another way is to remove all your injectors and ship them to a specialized shop where they will clean, inspect and flow test each one. This last method is a little overkill.

There are probably more ways also...
Gears

 

Can't you just take the car to a Jiffy Lube or looby-loo or whatever they're called in the US and they hook it up to a machine and do it for you at much less cost than the stealership?

The only thing that has ever been used in my car is two different times the stealer put in a two-step product called BG02 - one being a cleaner, the other being a moisture remover.

I have bought Chevron Techron fuel injector cleaner (not the fuel system cleaner) that I intend to use before the next oil change as it will be a year since the BG02 was put in. I don't see the need to use Seafoam at this time because my car has less than 58K on it and runs perfectly.

 

Likely placebo to notice any gain right off the bat, but it's the only additive I use every once in a while. I've used BG, but it's too expensive As mentioned, a LOT of dealerships use BG44k. I know my local nissan and jag dealers did. The manual does indeed say no additives, and in general I agree that most of them are garbage, or worse. However, the majority of mechanics I asked on a thread a while ago seemed to endorse some injector cleaners. In regards to techron, it's just a more concentrated version of the cleaner they put in their own gas, so I'm quite sure it's safe.

 

Remove them and send them off to be sonically cleaned and flow tested. Costs about $15-30 per injector though.

 

If Techron was harmful to Nissans (or any car for that matter) it wouldn't be in Chevron's gas. Nissan would tell you not to use their gas and a whole group of cars would never use Chevron, Chevron wouldn't have that.

I think the manual says no additives because there are about 400 different things you can buy to put in your car, Nissan doesn't care to take the time to test all of these and some of them could cause more harm than good. For Nissan, by design they make their cars to be reliable without adding untested aftermarket stuff. If you put some snake oil in there that causes an issue, they don't want to be fixing something under warranty that might have caused unusual wear. Like the whole Slick 50 debacle, where the Briggs and Stratton company found that it actually can cause more wear.

I run Chevron 93 with Techron in my car all the time and have never had anything but good performance and at almost 75k it runs like a top. If I had to take a guess, the Techron that you buy at the store, added to a full tank of non Chevron gas, would be diluted to the same potency as filling up with Chevron gas. And since Chevron gas isn't blacklisted by Nissan, I think you'll be quite alright.

 

I've bought a bottle of Techron and will use it before my next oil change as I have mentioned above, but it has to be stronger than what you buy at the pumps or who in their right mind would shell out the money it costs?

 

Probably because it's what it will sell for. It's like all of those PTFE products on the market years ago, you had Slick 50 going for 30 bucks and some off brand with the exact same stuff for $8.99 and Slick 50 sold millions of that Junk at that price. Why the heck do people shell out $30 to $40 for that ZMAX crap that is nothing more than colored mineral spirits?

 

This is the way to do it -- and what I do. I worked for Amoco for 35 years before I retired (and the company taken was over by BP). Amoco put Techron in its gasoline. It is substantially better than Gum Out -- which I think Nissan recommended not using. I use a bottle of Techron in my Max on a fill-up just before an oil change. The use of Techron has a slight tendency to increase the viscosity of the motor oil in your car -- so use it just before changing oil.

 

i used that outlaw octane booster......car seems to run better with it. although 91 octane is what they sell here on post. its 2.35 a gallon. i could get 93-94 octane, but its like 2.65 a gal off post.

anyways, yes, i swear the car runs better with that crap in the tank.

jim

 

I bought my 98 SE 5spd from a old lady with about 80k miles. Im guessing the fuel system was never cleaned and I added injection cleaner and that was a nightmare, it clogged my injectors. After that I was having multiple cylinder misfires and the car would not start on its own. It took me a while to figure out the problem and when I used starter fluid through the intake the car would start. I added more injection cleaner and then i pulled the injectors out to see if the misfiring would move. Then on its own it just stopped and has been fine ever since.

 

What's an old lady doing with a 5-speed, lol! Gotta give her credit.