40K 2002 Camry - fuel injection cleaning and misc service question.

What kind or make did you use ?

well I tell you what I did, I had an engine service light come on and a dealer, out of town, told me I had dirty injectors. I called a friend of mine who is a Toyota mechanic and he told me to put a container of injector cleaner in the tank. That was 20,000 miles ago and it has been fine ever since. The reason I called him is they wanted 120 dollars to clean the injectors. My opinion is that it is a rip off. As for cleaning the throttle body all they do is spray it with a cleaner.

message

If you shop at Walmart you can get fuel injector cleaner for about .

I have never had a problem with injectors using this method. mred

If I remember it well the $80 oil change in the dealer (Toyota of North Hollywood) includes other services, have you tried asking them about the express lube service. I don't use sythetic oil in my engine. To be honest LA's oil change price is better that what I currently have now in NJ. I'm thinking with the short distance my car travels a long oil life will last more than a year in my engine, and I prefer changing my oil twice a year.

Once in a while, I use the higher octane and more expensive fuel brands that claim to have injection cleaners in them.

Higher octane fuel just creates more carbon deposits. Don't use it. The advice that you should occasionally use premium is pure nonsense. You should NEVER use premium gas in an engine made for regular gas, except in an emergency.

And the cleaners that are in premium gas? They're in regular gas too!

When they ask you to use their premium blend in their advertising, claiming that it contains "good" additives ... they're not lying. But they conveniently forget to tell you that their regular gas is no different in that respect.

As for the OP's story about a $120 charge to clean the injectors ... not surprising. I heard about a $400 charge for that, way back in 1989. Rip off.

Regular use of Tier-1 gas, like Chevron or ConocoPhillips then you won't need to clean the injectors. But if you must use a bottle of Chevron Techron from Costco. They sell 4 for ~$10. Use a bottle every

Throttle body and fuel injection clean just means the tech sprays the throttle body with cleaner and dump a can of injector cleaner into the tank. Cost them about $4 and that's retail price.

Toyota's crankcase capacity and filter are not designed for extended drain intervals. You can use synthetics but still have to change at the specified interval. In 2004 Toyota reduced the normal service interval from 7500 miles to 5000 because of sludge concerns in their engines.

Synthetics help fight sludge, but you should still keep the interval because again the crankcase capacity and filter are not designed for extended drain intervals.

I highly recommend Purolator PureOne or Bosch filters. I personally avoid Toyota filters shipped from Thailand. These came all the way across the ocean, got trucked around the US, sold at a discount, and still made Toyota more money than USA-sourced filters.

True. Government mandates that all gas need to contain fuel injector detergents to help fight varnish build up that plug injectors. So there is little need for injector cleaners with today's gas, especially if you use Tier-1.

But if people must, ~$10 for 4 bottles of Chevron Techron at Costco is an excellent deal. A bottle every 10,000 miles should do.

Changing the fuel filter (when equipped in the engine bay) may be a better bet. I do that myself every 24,000 miles.

On Jul 25, 11:28 am, "Alfred Einstein" wrote: [snip]

Thank you all for the advice.

FD