Whether to use fuel injector cleaner and how often

[dderolph]

Got a 91 Accord with 220K miles on it. It seems to benefit from having fuel injector cleaner added to a tank of gas every so often. I suspect many car owners never do this, especially if they usually do not keep cars when they get over, say, 100K miles on them.

What's your experience with this, and your practice?

[chris0276]

Originally Posted by dderolph

Got a 91 Accord with 220K miles on it. It seems to benefit from having fuel injector cleaner added to a tank of gas every so often. I suspect many car owners never do this, especially if they usually do not keep cars when they get over, say, 100K miles on them.

What's your experience with this, and your practice?

Rule of thumb is, use one bottle of complete fuel system cleaner, every time you change your oil, which sould be about 3,000 miles or so. On newer cars, it should be every other oil change. Don't just get the fuel injector cleaner, get the complete fuel system cleaner. It will benefit your car a lot more, since you've got 220K miles on it. I've only got 20K miles but I do use complete fuel system cleaner every other oil change. With the price of gas today, you should do everything you can to save gas.

[dderolph]

Thanks for your response. I gather, by "complete fuel system cleaner", you mean the super-strength stuff, right?

As far as frequency, I'm a little skeptical of the need to do this with every oil change. I'm more inclined to periodically check my gas mileage and use that as an indicator of how often this should be done.

I agree with you about saving gas. It's easy to neglect some of the simple things that anyone can do to keep a vehicle running at the most efficient level, such as air filters, tire inflation, and spark plugs.

[chris0276]

A good fuel system cleaner is around $5 or $6. There really isn't a difference between brands, they all do the same thing. I use to buy the one's from the 99 cent store and would use it on my old car. It worked pretty well. But it's not as strong, that's why you would have to buy several of those.

[dderolph]

I was just in an auto parts store this evening and looked at the different products. I guess I had never paid much attention to the fuel system cleaners. They are priced as as you said. I'll give it a try. Thanks.