I was reading my manual when I got my 1999 Nissan Maxima GLE, it says not to use fuel injector solvents. My Dad swears by this stuff called Lucus Fuel Injector cleaner, which he says isn't a solvant. Should I use a fuel injector cleaner or not?

 

I use Gumout Complete every 3k miles. Never have any problems.

 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction everyone. I was pretty concerned about this.

 

Every single fuel injector cleaner on the market is a solvent by definition. It'd be kind of hard to clean deposits without breaking them down and dissolving them. The only question is how harsh the solvent is. In general, the more effective solvents are harsher on the softer parts of your fuel system (seals, hoses, etc.). They are also fairly harsh on your engine oil, although that generally isn't a problem unless you use them a lot between oil changes.

It is possible, however, for an effective cleaner to be okay on soft parts. The catch is that it'll be expensive.

If there is a best-overall fuel system cleaner, it's LubeControl's FP60.

BG 44K is fairly popular and is more powerful than almost anything commercially available, but will be more harmful to soft parts.

If you're not using either of those, use Amsoil PI, Red Line SI-1/SI-2 (same product in different quantities), or Chevron Techron.

 

My Dad uses Chevron Techron AND Lucas on my car. He uses Lucas before an oil change and he uses Techron all the other times that he uses it. I found that Lucas makes my car run rougher when it is in the car. I'm wondering if that is something I should concerned about and my Dad says that is how Lucas works.

 

I use Chevron Techron, but will be looking into FC60 now

 

I've been using FC60 for a couple years now, good stuff, so is LC20.

 

Maybe I should check out FC60 then.

 

M2$. I use BG product. It will definitely clean the s--t out. I use Valvoline synthetic oil, recommended by a BG rep. http://www.bgprod.com/home.html
My Mileage: intown 21-23, highway 26-28. 1996 GLE with 130K.

 

dog ****, this stuff is fake and does not work, and if it did then u got bigger problems to deal with, use a good quality (shell / sunoco ) 91 and u'll be fine for a long time to come

 

which product are you refering to, and what do you have to base your information on?

 

did u ever smell this stuff when you opened the bottle ? im referring to all the fuel injector cleaners that ive tried.

once i smelled pure acetone or at least i think so. and i have never seen any positive results from using them. not even once

 

B-12........

 

Okay, so I will ask again, what are you basing your information on? YOU don't like the way it smells, and YOU have not noticed a difference, therefore it is all crap. Way to prove your point, very scientific. I will agree that not all fuel injector cleaners are good, however to apply a blanket statement like you have is just ignorant. A good fuel injector cleaner can provide benefits that have been PROVEN, ie injectors actually tested before AND after, not just seat of the pants 'well I didn't notice anything'. Dyson labs, one of the world leaders in machine fluid analysis, recommends using fuel injector cleaners. Are you saying you know more than they do? If so, I would like to see your test data.

 

when i first bought my old 1991 240sx back in 1999, id had like 110k and didnt accelerate smoothly. also the idle was a little jumpy. this was when i first tried fuel system cleaner. i used techron fuel system cleaner it made a huge difference. power delivery was smooth and it idled alot better. probably got better milage too.

however that car was old and the previous owner probably didnt take care of it well. also gas back then wasnt as regulated as it is now for emissions. (all gas not has to have a required amount of detergent set by the state for deposit preventions)

when i got my max in 2001, accel and idle were fine. i used a bottle on techron anyway just because i had great results last time, it made no noticeable difference. i still use it once a year because half of the tiem i fill up at discount gas places that dont add extra detergent to gasoline.

it should be known that gasoline is homogenous and chevron, exxon, and all the other gas companies use the same storage stations to hold their gas(its all mixed together when it gets to storage). chevron sell gas that was refined at an exxon/mobile refinery and vice versa. all modern automitve gas is refined and has enough detergent to meet emissions and deposit standards so using cleaner every 3 months probably a bit much esp since it can be harmful to "soft parts" like others have said. esp in california where gas is even more regulated, its not so important to use cleaner that often.

 

i base my information on my personal experience with fuel injector cleaners in the past.

Look, i dont own a research lab and i have no clue what injectors this Dyson lab recommends. All i know is that from approximately the 10 different fuel injector cleaner manufacturers that i have tried on different cars that either i have owned or my parents have owned i was not able to tell the difference from before and after i put it in.

My theory is as simple as i have stated it to be, if ur injectors keep getting clogged every so often and u see that u need to use these cleaners to purge them (and u think they actually work) then u have bigger problems to worry about, and buying 5 dollar bottles off the counter is simply masking the problem

 

Way to highlight an important point: By and large, these additives are band-aids that really should only be used to correct a problem. Trying to use them preventively is hit-or-miss and may not be worth it.


The base gasolines are usually the same, yes. But there are still differences among brands because each company can add its own additive package at the dock.

 

I will try a bottle of techron before my next oil change.

 

Well then obviously none of your vehicles had problems that an injector cleaner would fix.

I also suspect you were "testing" some fairly generic commercial stuff. FP60, BG 44K, Techron, PI, and SI-1 are miles ahead.


Pretty much.

 

i had a friend use lucas and it messed and cloged everything up happened on his lexus he had and another one of my friends that had a mazda speed pretege so i wont even try it in my car

 

well some of the stuff i remember using is STP (various types), Slick 50, Wynn's, Motomaster (local brand) and they did nothing

maybe the pricier stuff works, i dont know-slick 50 was the most expensive stuff i tried and it was like $15 for a bottle, but i rather save my money for the quality shell V-power 91 gas instead. I kinda trust a those gas stations more than a bottle of unknown liquid.

 

Wow. You picked all the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.

Yes, there is a lot of stuff that works MUCH better.

 

If I recall correctly, Slick 50 has been sued in the past for false advertising.

 

Indeed it has.

 

really ? i did not know that.

either way, the brands that you guys mentioned are not sold here in toronto.

 

www.lubecontrol.com

 

Thanks for all the input everyone, it has been very insightful.

 

wtf is FC60? or LC20? i searched both google and autozone.com for these words and there were no hits. what does it stand for? can i buy it or do i have to order it?

 

Yikes. That should have been FP60. Sorry.

Above posts fixed...

 

aww crap. I bought 2 bottles of STP fuel inj. cleaner before reading this thread


is STP any good?

 

well I had bought a bottle of STP Wednesday. I used it and now the car doesn't take off, it jerks when the RPMS try to get higher. oh the engine light just came on also.

 

See, that concerned me, because my check engine light came on when my Dad put Lukas in my Prizm. Is it hesitating too or just jerking? First thing you can do if you haven't already is to try and run the gas out of your car. But you may have done this a while back, but I have no way of knowing lol.

 

stp is garbage in general.
my friend says that their injector cleaners are especially weak.

 

i used the stp stuff on my previous car and made it feel more responsive and I would use it once a year, but on my max it didn't do anything so I discontinued using it.

 

I assume we have 1 if not several Amsoil dealers on the forum? I am one myself, but their products only go in my Dakota that I autocross frequently. The Max has seen better days but she still gets regular 3k mile oil changes and various necessary maintenance. Tranny flush will be next.

 

watch out for the tranny flush. see the "can tranny flush be bad" thread.

 

I meant drain and replace...

 

I use acetone... since i had the car it had 140k it now has 264,000 miles and still running strong. The other day i was changing the plugs and they were so clean. From my personal experience acetone helps save gas and clean everything out. A lot of people tell me i am going to mess up my plastic parts... that is so much horse shi* because socked them in acetone for about 5 months and it looks normal to me.

 

Yeah I've heard that STP is kind of weak.

 

I'm no mechanic but recently my check engine light came on and it turned out to be a problem with the knock sensor and purge valve. The mechanic said that the purge valve was really dirty. I had both things replaced and the car is zippy again. Anyway, my guess is that all those times I had the dealer do throttle body and fuel injection cleanings, the crud has to go somewhere so it probably just gums up at some other place down the line. I've been using Shell 87 since gas went past $2.