fuel injector cleaning?

Hi, I live in So. Cal. and have a 2002 Civic with 45K miles. Took my car to
a Honda dealership for routine maintence service and they recommended
cleaning the fuel injectors, throttle body, and chamber. I said no thanks.
Does it really need to be cleaned or are they trying to sell me something I
don't need?

 

They are items that may need done someday but you will know when. Dealers
seem to take every service problem they see and try to sell to every
customer that comes in. I would associate those problems with cars closer to
100k....

 

Probably not the fuel injectors - regular fuel additives or just good
gasoline will do that. The throttle body? Maybe - they can get deposits that
will make idle get funky. However, if your idle is okay now it is an easy
DIY job with a can of carburetor cleaner. Once the idle gets bad small
passages can close off and require some real work. (My turbo Volvo gets that
way a lot from breathing its own oil mist and crankcase vapors - it doesn't
have a conventional PCV system to bypass the throttle plate.)

Mike

 

That depends. At 45,000 miles it may be premature for these services, but it
is not uncommon to need it at this mileage. It all depends on the gas you
use and even on your driving. Does your car have any running problems such
as rough idle, poor mileage or poor acceleration? If your answer is yes to
any of these symptoms, then maybe you do need a cleaning. But Honda doesn't
recommend an injector cleaning. What they do recommend is a Throttle Plate
Cleaner and a Top Engine Cleaner. Honda has the proper chemicals for these
cleanings and I would suggest that if you do these services that you be sure
that they only use those recommended cleaning products and they are used
correctly with the proper tools to run through your engine. This way you can
be sure no harmful products are dumped in to your engine and actually cause
other problems down the road. Good luck,
Howard

 

I've got 123k on my 96 accord with no fuel injection cleanings ever or any
additive added to the tank. I don't have any driveability problems and my
mileage hasn't changed since new.

 

That's interesting. Here the dealers don't recommend injector cleanings at
all (unless your performance drops off noticeably).

Brian