Cleaning fuel jets every 2 years necessary?

May 24, 2009 22 Replies

My Prius dealer suggested I get my 2004 Prius jets cleaned as its been at least 2 years since they were last done..I cant see where in the service manual where this item needs doing at any milage or age of my vehicle. Any ideas plse folks? Should I tell him to forget the jets as its going cost almost $100 more for them alone to be cleaned.


Bottle of injector cleaner is probably all that they will put in ya tank.

If you're really concerned about keeping them in first class order you should be considering having them done at least every 3 to 6 months depending on your mileage, and I'd be wary of the dealer's 100 buck "cheapie" service as it's likely to be far from thorough.

-- Regards, Noddy.

Absolutely, to do it right it would cost at least $100 each:-)

Daryl

Why fool around? Replace with new.

Its a scam as far as I`m concerned ? Unless you use the cheapest low octane fuel you can buy its not really necessary.

I have had fuel injected cars since 1990 and the only thing I used was a small bottle of fuel injector cleaner once pr twice a year.

If your mileage and performance dont drop off you dont need that even.

However having said that ? I now use LUCAS fuel injector and carburator fuel treatment when I gas up

My `02 camry was idling a bit rough and my son told me to try it? I did and what a difference.

I thought it was just another additive scam like so many on the market today ?

My son in law has an `02 Plymouth Caravan and he was going to put new high tension wires on it and new spark plugs. (basically a minor tuneup ) as it was running rough.

I told him about the LUCAS treatment and he tried it and that was two years ago and he still hasnt done the tuneup thing and that vehicle is on the road every day.

My Camry now idles so nicely you can hardly hear it running and mileage and performance are at the peak.

AND NO~!!!!!!!!!! I DO NOT SELL OR HAVE ANY AFFILIATION WITH LUCAS .

I just know it WORKS~!! Ed

And on a Prius they's probably try to scrw him over by changing the brushes too........

It's crap spend another 9cpl and fill it with Shell V-Power(or PULP from a Shell branded non Coles servo), BP Ulimate or Caltex Vortex, these all have an injector cleaner do this every 3rd or 4th tank full

$100 is a bit more than Ford wanted for a bottle of injector cleaner

Kev

Asked the Toyota service guy about the jet cleaning today. He tells me they dont clean Prius jets ever! Talk about idiots at the desk. Lucky I asked again coz I wonder if they'd try to charge me anyway..hmmm

Just throw some injector cleaner into the fuel tank and ignore any supposed advice about maintaining injectors.

Seriously folks, 95+% of all EFI cars have never had their injectors cleaned/flushed or otherwise tweaked and manage to run perfectly well.... Any reasonably new car with sensitive injectors has a serious design flaw.

Cheaper still, buy some E10 fuel. The ethanol will be just as good at cleaning injectors as the usual 'dump it in the tank' liquids.

Just ask them to explain what they mean by 'jets'. There are no 'jets' in a EFI car, just injectors.

This is an odd reply to what you said previously

cleaning injectors as the usual 'dump it in the tank' liquids. Seriously folks, 95+% of all EFI cars have never had their injectors

$100 each sounds good. I'd spend my $100 on 2L of Smirnoff Vodka to keep away the swine flu... or influenza A, h1 n1 IIRC

Al

Ditto that. If you use E10 you're getting injector cleaner with every fillup.

All that happens when they clean the injectors is a pressure pak can of solvent??, is connected to the fuel line and this solvent goes through the system and that costs heaps. Not worth the effort or money, after market sales gimmick.

On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:24:38 +1000, Charles blathered on in:

OK, some thoughts on this wouldn't go astray. Given that the injectors of a bosch pattern EFI car are positioned in the incoming air stream so as to have the atomised spray 'join' the incoming air which BTW is presumably filtered already.

And given that the PCV systems in use actually put their output into the system WITH heaps of that self same incoming air, and that getting "dirt" into the crankcase of an engine is in itself relatively difficult - in point of fact it would need to be deliberately introduced, else be the by-product of atrocious maintenence practices...

And given that the fuel itself is provided by the OilCos essentially 'clean' - under pain of having their arses exposed by a comtaimiation debacle.

And given that all EFI vehicles get quite reasonable filtering systems stock standard.

And given that the petrol and for that matter ethanol (is)/are (a) cleaning agent(s) anyway,

How the f*ck do injectors get 'dirty' anyway? I can understand 'worn', but not dirty.

Additionally recentlly I had reason to remove a fuel tank from my machine that had to that point travelled 350,000Kms over a period of 9 years. there was not even a hint of dirt (or any patriculate matter) or 'water' in the bottom of the (plastic) tank. Nothing. Not a zot. F*ck all, even.

Discuss:-)

They generally don't, at least not on the inside anyway. However they're usually positioned close enough to the inlet valve to allow carbon "blow back" to form on the nozzle, and in some cases this can be bad enoug to affect the spray pattern after a while.

Does that mean there's any benefit in "sonic cleaning" or any other process where the injectors need to be removed from the engine and run through some "Dr. Zooks magical elixir" machine at some ridiculous price that gets close to actually buying new injectors?

Of course not.

On the other hand, there are some that need nothing more than periodic removal and cleaning the tips with some solvent and an old toothbrush to restore them to as new condition.

I've seen some cars hold a fair amount of rubbish in the bottoms of their tanks, and some of it has looked like mud, but very little of it (if any) seems to find it's way to the injectors.

-- Regards, Noddy.

To do it properly the injectors need to be removed then cleaned and tested on a proper machine.

Daryl

Jets?!!? F*ck me; I thought they were a petrol/electric hybrid. How come they're so slow then?

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