Fuel Injector Cleaning
 

I was just wondering....does anyone know how often you should have your fuel injectors cleaned? Also, does anyone know how much that would cost at a shop or dealer? I know putting additives in your gas can help prevent this, but my HHR has many miles I did not put on, and I'm sure the guy before me never put additives in...and I'm also more concerned about my Lumina, since it has 140k miles.

Thanks for the input!

You would need to rebuild them. There is no reason to clean them and additives that say they clean them are a waste of money. If they ain't broke.....:D

FWIW: I add a cleaner to my gasoline once a year. Been doing that since I was a young pup. But just in my injected rides, not my carbed bikes.

I use Lucas fuel treatment / UCL / cleaner at each fillup. 3 Oz / 10 gal. It is not intended as a remedial cleaner, but more so to supplement the detergency that may or may not be in your gas, depending on what brand you use. It also adds lubricity that has been pretty much stripped from modern gasoline. It is not solvent based, and will not fix clogged injectors. It's really a prophylactic measure. A gallon jug lasts me forever and gets the cost down very low.

For clogged injectors, short of pulling them off the car and having them professionally cleaned, backflushed, and tested at $15-30 each, adding a nice dose of toluene to a tankful is far more effective than most overpriced and ineffective solvent based fuel system cleaners. You also get a nice octane boost. It will not harm a modern fuel system, but it will remove paint, and it's highly toxic. Use with caution.

I would try a bottle of techron. It is around $7-13 a bottle but it works. Exgf had a olds alereo with bad clogged injectors I assumed. It would almost die when you would stop at red light and was fouling up one spark plug. It cleaned and cleared it up no problems since. just added bottle to somewhat empty tank add 12 gallons of gas.

My dealer "suggested" injection cleaning on my next visit. I have 54K miles on my '06. I don't know that I'll do it.

Unless you have already diagnosed a problem with fouled injectors "rebuilding" or, more properly, off-car, ultrasonic cleaning is not necessary.

I'll add that the idea of "rebuilding" injectors is a bit of a scam as fuel injectors in HHR engines cannot be field-serviced. They can be cleaned off the engine, but if "rebuild" to you, means disassemble, replace worn parts then reassemble, it can't be done.

As for pour-in additives for enhancing the "cleaning" action of gasoline, the detergent based injector cleaners are, by far, the best choice. Unfortunately, they're also the more expensive than the more common, solvent-based injector cleaners.

Examples of good detergent-based cleaners are:
Red Line Complete Fuel System Cleaner
Chevron Techron
Lucas Injector Cleaner

I've used the Red Line product for well over a decade. The "maintenance" dose is 4-oz for every 10 gallons of gas at every third-or-fourth fill-up.

The "shock treatment" is good in cases where you believe your injectors have a slight or modest level of fouling. Use three bottles of Red Line CFSC, one-bottle per tankful of gas for three fill-ups in a row.

:smile: Whatever the dealer wants for cleaning the injectors you can be sure it's way too much! They were trying to talk me into having it done at 15,000 Miles!! They said it was "Suggested" it should be done!!:roll: The owners manual "Suggests" 60,000 miles. That seems more reasonable, if even necessary then?

Injector cleaning is neither recommended nor even listed in the HHR Owner's Manual.

There are several ways to insure the injectors in your Ecotec 2.0, 2.2 or 2.4 stay clean enough for the engine to operate properly without having to pay a service shop for some type of on- or off-engine injector "cleaning" procedure.

1) Generally, use "top tier" gasoline. You don't have to use it all the time, but one out of three tankfuls might be a good idea.

2) If you decide to use lower priced, lower quality gasolines, use a detergent-based, pour-in injector cleaner on an occasional basis. A good schedule is 4-oz per 10 gallons of gas at every 3rd or 4th fill-up.

I've used procedure #2 for nearly 20 years with all my fuel-injected engines. The product I use is Red Line Complete Fuel System Cleaner. Several times in those near 20 years, I've removed sets of injectors from engines for inspection and flow testing. Each time, the injectors have appeared in near-new condition as far as discoloring, deposits or fouling and they flow as good or, in some cases, even slightly better than new injectors.

I have an 09 flexifuel and I think I remember reading in the flexifuels manual to not use any injector cleaners or additives.