Do injector cleaners work?

For an F4Phantom fighter aircraft, I'd have thought 22l/100k was great.

If you mean a diesel 4WD, you can get your injectors cleaned, checked and pressures etc all reset for about $750 (+ or - a heap). That ought to be cheaper than replacement.

The problem with cleaners, as it has been put to me by a bloke who does the cleaning, is that it can wreck seals in the diesel fuel pump.

If you mean petrol - its a few years since I had a petrol engine but I stuck cleaner in every fourth or fifth tankful and it improved it. "Injector specialists" have a system of pumping cleaner through injectors that are badly clogged and that seems to work real well.

There are about 500 folk on this site who have more expertise than I dream of, so I look forward to their comments, but I know that getting my diesel injectors done by an expert, and following his advice to only use major brand fuels has given me 150,000 km and they are still in good nick.

Hope that helps
Max

Depends, if you have never used anything like that then get a good quality one from Shell Or BP etc or from your Dealer and give it a try, lot's cheaper than a injector overhaul.

Could also be other things causing the excessive fuel consumption too, blocked air cleaners can do it too.

Diesel of Petrol?

Try putting through two or three tanks of premium unleaded and then one tank for every five or so. That's what my mechaninc recomended on my old car and it seemed to work well.

Just a thought. Is the engine coming up to operating temperature if not it could be running in cold start mode.

How old is the car?

Had an XR8 which had the injectors taken out for professional cleaning. They discovered they were stuffed and weren't producing the right spray patern, hence higher fuel consumption (no not because it was a V8).

Had them all (yes all 8) replaced and it was a different car.

Don't waste your time with home spun suggestions that will eventually lead you to a professional injector service. If you do, make sure they take them out and check the spray pattern (if the garage is any good they will) so you know if they are stuffed as well.

Wizard

G'day F4Phantom,

Simple answer is yes! In fact you will find that all gasoline in Australia will have some level of detergency additives included. This is typically included at a "keep clean rate" at ~ 115 ptb (that pounds per thousand barrels - refinery speak), with premium fuels typically higher concentration. In the US, the use of additives is legislated. This follows the port injector tip deposit issues faced in the early to mid 80s. Sames additives also assist in controlling intake valve, combustion chamber and other upper cylinder deposit issues.

I've seen some amazing results on the effectiveness of additives in cleaning up dirty injectors. The "clean-up" dosage rate is usually much higher and you should see results after 1-2 tank fulls.

My experience comes from working with additive and fuel companies on gasoline direct injector deposits. I can't comment on the myriad of aftermarket additives; however most will have their origin from the larger additive firms. I've done a lot of work with Oronite and their additive is available locally through Caltex.
Techron

Good luck,
Regards,
Hugh

Yes they work, no doubt. I have used Nulon injector cleaner in a petrol vehicle that had been sitting for a while, it made the car a different , smoother beast. Injectors are a complicated animal and it's fair to say cleaners are for basic cleaning and preventative maintenance, they won't fix a crook injector. A crook injector could only need a new nozzle because it's not atomising properley. If your engine is overfueling it could be because the injectors are not atomising and are not spraying an even fine mist of fuel and are spitting droplets etc, if your rig has done plenty of miles then it's easy to have the injectors removed and sent away for testing. I just did this in my boat and the difference in performance was amazing.

Thanks heaps guys, the car is a 90 model 6 cylinder with 270 clicks. i am not scared of k's tho and has been looked after. I think i will investigate the cost of reco ones or having them professionally cleaned.

i'm sure i replied to this earlier??????? what happened
anyway it was along the lines of don't bother
try burning some of the "injector cleaners" watch how much carbon is produced. turns one small problem in to a bigger one