DangBruhY

I went to Pep Boys the other day getting a new battery. I was talking to this guy and he was telling me about this system that they use that cleans out the fuel lines, injectors, and I think he said pistons or something. Does anyone know anything about this? It's about $60-70 for the service and I wanted to know if it's worth it, or if they just throw some fuel injector cleaner in the fuel tank and act like they did all kinds of work.

TimoneX

Nah it's much better than just injector cleaner in the tank. When I worked at the Oldsmobuick dealer in GR the drivability guys used a Motorvac fuel system cleaning machine. It's more accurately described as a fuel system flush...similar to what you'd do with your cooling system. The machine is connected to your fuel system in such a way that it becomes the fuel source. When started it pressurizes the system to whatever the tech determines appropriate and flushes a fuel & detergent mixture through the entire system for several minutes. It's quite effective at cleaning out the entire fuel system. This is about all I know about it because I was an alignment & brake tech so I had my own toys to play with. You can ask whomever you're going with what kind of setup they have prior to service.

DangBruhY

Thanks, I would appreciate that. I have a friend who has an older truck and he said it worked pretty good for him. I'm just wanting to make sure it's not some BS stuff they are scamming for money. Like when you get your brakes serviced. Sometimes they don't even change anything, just dust them off. *cough*Midas*cough* They do other stuff, but I'm not going to get into it now.

TimoneX

Yeah my mother stopped at Midas once cuz she couldn't get my lazy brother to fix her exhaust which was leaking. He's a state and ASE certified mechanic as well as myself...just kinda lazy. Anyway Midas did a "courtesy" brake inspection unbidden and told her she needed to replace almost every part of her braking system on 3 wheels, the estimate was close to $1200. This was less than 30 days after I had replaced the front discs, turned the backs, replaced all 4 pads, and bled the entire system. Her brakes were perfect when she drove into Midas, and they were perfect when she got home w/o Midas doing anything to them. The next day my bro and I took the estimate they gave her, and confronted the manager, who of course claimed we had just replaced everything. We filed a complaint with the DMV. I guess that's one way to drum up business. Trying to take advantage of people that don't know anything about cars is pathetic. This guy was so good my mother nearly allowed him to do everything he recommended...she was terrified. If she didn't have kids that know an automotive repair scam a mile away she'd have been just another victim that day.

Sorry for the rant bro.

tilt

My understanding is the stuff that costs ~70$ is just a more concentrated version of the over the shelf injector cleaner stuff and they service it directly through the fuel line instead of diluting it in the gas tank.

Ive done it once before on my maxima @150k. You could see it was doing something because gray/black smoke was just bellowing out for about 5 mins. Apparently it is all the carbon built up shooting out the exhaust. I noticed a slight increase in gas milage ~+2mpg.

I've read that some people have ruined their catalytic converters from all the carbon shooting through the exhaust. So you may want to keep that in mind. Personally, I feel as long as you keep up with your fuel filter (mine was never replaced thanks to the previous owner) and use quality, name-brand gas you shouldnt ever have to do it.

DangBruhY

I heard today that you can now buy those kits at the store and do it yourself. I don't know if the stuff that is run through your lines is as potient as the stuff that the shops use.

I have 150K miles on the car and about 55K on the JDM B16. The fuel filter has never been changed. I've been debating if I should get an OEM filter or AEM filter. I guess I've been contiplating it for years. hehehe

goforbroke

I work at Pep Boys and I fuel system clean up you are talking about I believe is called "Run Rite." It is most benefical with cars that have alot of miles on them. If you take care of your fuel system on the regular like stp fuel system cleaner and ect. I really wouldn't worry about it. It is a more advanced fuel system cleaner then the over the shelf self, don't get me wrong it is a good maintenance service. Its funny though we had this car on the emission machine that was running like pooh and it Co2 were to high. Then mentioned to the customer about the "Run Rite" product and he said throw it in and what do you know the car passed the test on the emission machine on the next run.

DangBruhY

I keep hearing good things about it. I think I deffidently need to change my fuel filter though. I'm going to change that and make an appointment at Pep Boys to get that Run Rite thing done.

Thanks for all the info people.