I retired 5 years ago from working in a garage doing maintenance on a fleet of 200 cars for a very large automotive parts manufacturer, I never put a fuel additive in any of the fleet. It's your money although if It's not required maintenance for normal driving I would not waste my money.

Motoretro

 

I own a 2.4, 95K on it. Never used an additive. My wife mostly drove on reg even though I told her to use premium. Only time you will notice the difference is when you need all of the power, for passing and such. But NO it does not need a system cleaning at 31K. At about that same milage our dealer tried to talk my wife into "winterizing" her transmission by changing out the fluid.!!

 

I have a 2010 SS and the owners manual (common to all models) indicates that the only fuel additive authorized by GM is their product. It's a bit pricey, but it isn't needed all that much. The manual recommends every other oil change IF you are not using TOP TIER detergent fuel. Note that the top tier fuel suppliers have additives that GM approves (BMW & Honda also recommend these fuels). Check out their website at www.toptiergas.com and see which stations GM recommends. In the beginning I DID NOT use top tier gas exclusively and was developing some driveability problems. I tried the GM additive "GM Fuel System Treatment PLUS" according to the instructions on the bottle and the driveability issues went away after 1 tank of treated gas. I stick with Top Tier gas stations now. I feel that Chevron gas with Techron gave me the best performance. I would like to use Sunoco or HESS, but they are not on the approved listing.

 

Oh, has any body mentioned the difference between "DEALER recommended" and "MANUFACTURER recommended"? The dealer only wants your money after the sale, The manufacturer already has it and would like you to be happy at the "end of life" of the product.

Like I said earlier, the DEALER recommends a power steering fluid flush at 30K. For the uninitiated, the HHR has electric not hydraulic power steering. Many people have paid to have the job done, just search this forum. The DEALER also recommended that I have a BG trans flush at 30K, The MANUFACTURER recommends NO automatic transmission service ever required. BG is not a GM sanctioned provider, by the way. Just sayin'.

 

The only servicing for fuel at that milage is a Fuel Filter. UNLESS you have had some horrible conditions or the fuel was badly contaminated there should not be a reason you need a fuel injector servicing for which I would any good shop that run BG machines.

Most times a good fuel with an occasional injector cleaner dumped in is quite often all you need.

 

I thought the fuel filter on these was part of the pump and not serviceable.......

 

Let me say I was speaking in general, this car has not hit the milage req for me to even look. MOST factory pumps have a filter sock located on it and inline filter but with the HHR it maybe different.

So my apology on any mis info.

*** I did go an research and noticed it was a common occurance on most vehicles 2004 or newer. Everything owned up until this one has been older so go fig but essentially the design has not changed for the in-tank set up. GM must have felt it was over kill and due to poor service interval and putting strain on the pump due to poor flow and killing the pump or reducing performance or milage.

 

The filter on the HHR is in the tank and considered a lifetime filter.

Not sure what the heck that means.

How do you determine what's a lifetime ?????

 

When the filter is dead.... that's it's lifetime.


Seriously though, GM is relying on the quality of the gas and your gas stations tank filtration. All the more reason to buy quality fuel at every fill up, and not go for cheap.

 

This is what I was refering to, this is what I deal with on most of my cars in the past. the pump is inside, sealed and sock at the bottom.