fuel injector cleaners?
 

My car has been driving great and I was on the interstate this week cruising at 65 and the car did a slight kickback like I lost some power. It seems to be down on power and when I get on the throttle it feels like it is working harder to get up to speed. It is like you can feel it in the steering wheel when you are giving it throttle. I had just filled up with a tank of 93 octane at Amoco and did drive 17 miles before this happened. I was told by my mechanic to try some BG in tank fuel injection cleaner. I don't know if that is what is wrong and I have heard of problems when using some fuel cleaners. Any thoughts?

Try a can of Seafoam on a full tank of gas and maybe change the fuel filter once that runs through.

The car only has 51,000 miles on it. I was just wondering about fuel injection cleaners and what everyone did.

In that case, I use Seafoam.

Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change your fuel filter. They're like 7 dollars and it only takes a few minutes. Best to do it like once a year.

I just changed the fuel filter like 5 months.

Get it BG serviced, most dealerships can do this.

That is what the mechanic was telling me at the dealer. He said for me to try some of the in tank BG first because it was like 10.00. I wondered if anyone used this stuff on a regular basis.

I try to run fuel injector cleaner every other tank. Is the car throwing any codes? It can being throwing codes that do not immediately illuminate the SES light.

I don't know about if there is any codes. I don't have a check engine light on. I guess the mechanic should have checked it with his scanner. He was real busy and just thought I had a tank of bad gas.

Id try seafoaming it first if i where you. Give it a shot!

I use Redline fuel system cleaner. I use some with every fill-up to maintain proper injector flow. It's safe for continual use, I use a ratio of 1/5 ounce per 1 gallon of gas. Works great.

I've used BG. You'll see 44K on the bottle before you see the BG. It's good stuff, but it's more like $20 bucks a bottle. My ex uses it in his car every other tank of gas.

Also read my thread in this section. It's Another Problem. See if your car has any of the symptoms my car has. It took my car 3 days for the SES light to come on.

My problem is just a loss of power. It is not as peppy and takes more effort on the pedal to go as fast. You can feel a slight surging in and out when you are going slow with your foot off the gas. Idles fine. It sounds like I have an air leak because the car is making a whirling noise when I rev it up. I am going to go over everything under the hood to see if something is loose or maybe a hose. I had the intake off the car 6 months ago so maybe the stuff is not tight.

what happens if you try to floor it, or give it alot of gas? does it hesitate and feel like sluggish? kinda julting? if it does, then you might have a bad cylinder coil, have your spark plugs and cylinder coils checked out. I had the same problem on my car around 60k miles...I changed out all my cylider coils just b/c its better to do them all at once, not that expensive if you do it yourself. And as for the fuel injector cleaner, it is VERY recommended to use it the same time you change your oil, that way you keep track of how often you put it in. Doing it too often isnt good. I have always used Lucas, or Lucus, fuel injector cleaner, dont know how its spelled but thats what it is. Every 3000 miles along with the oil change. And about the gas tank issue, it is also possible you might have gotten some water in your gas (bad gas) and there is treatment to buy for that, ask any local automotive store for it (discount, autozone etc.) Just poor it into your gas tank. I've had that happen before too. That could be another thing to try in case you havnt solved any of the problems yet. But actually what happend to me, I had problems like you are saying with my car, and I tried all those things, but found out it was the cylinder coils and they go bad after about 70k miles, but mine went out early i guess. Not a big deal, but just thought I'd let you know and see if that helps.

Depends on what you use. Redline recommends regular use of their cleaner, in small doses. 1/3-1/6 ounce of cleaner per gallon of gas in every tank. That's what I do, works great.

It goes when you give it gas but it just feels like it is trying harder to go as quick as before. I am on a new tank of gas now. I am going to have to take a look at several things next week during christmas break. I believe the coils could be tested each but it idles as before so no problem there. I just felt like a loss of power at one point and it hasn't been right since. It doesn't jolt or anthing. I am watching my battery and alt. because the pos cable had white powder on it after I thoroughly cleaned every sq. in. when a new battery was installed a few weeks ago. I haven't determined if the battery is leaking because it is not real obvious if it is. I cleaned it all up again and am watching it.

As far as the 44K I use it pretty regularly. I pour a fuel bottle i nat about 1/4 tank than drive to the gas station and fillup. It is only about 4 miles away. I use the induction kits and MOA for the oil. I have had great results w/the BG line of products. The 44K runs about $4 and the kits run about $30. The MOA I get free when I buy a 44K and and induction kit.

A co-worker had a recent problem like yours stated. We cleaned the MAF and it run lots better. He is running an K&N filter. Just a thought.

What is in the kit? How do you use the induction kit? Is there something to clean the maf with? I heard you have to be careful with these. I am using a K&N too. It is not a new filter. Is the 44K the fuel injection cleaner? Where do you get your stuff from? They charge 100.00 at the dealer to do the full service fuel injection cleaning with the machine.

I agree with the maf being dirty. Get some CRC maf cleaner at Pep Boys or if you can't find it then some rubbing alcohol and q-tips. Just be extremely careful.

Who else sells the CRC maf cleaner? We don't have a pep boys.

You can use any non-chlorinated clearner. We used electronics cleaner on his. Just make sure it does not leave a residue. It should be labeled on the can. Autozone, Advance or O-reily's should have it. I believe any brank will do.

I buy my stuff directly from the BG distributer that delivers it to my dealer. The kit has 2 cans of induction cleaner. I put it in the canister that hooks to the fuel rail, attach shop air to it, crank car and unplug the fuel fuse/relay to make teh car run only on the kit. The other can is a TB cleared that I spray into the TB to clean it and the intake. The the 44K is seperate. There are several kits that BK makes or the distributer puts together.

I use Chevron with Techron in it. Love it. Read some reports on it and it's one of the best injector cleaners out there.

if your loosing power and feels sluggish, eithers either your spark plugs, cylinder coils, or maybe fuel injectors or bad fuel. but sounds like it wasnt bad fuel so have the spark plugs and cylinder coils checked. And it doesnt matter if your in idle or not, that has nothing to do with it. when you give your car gas, it is not firing correctly so your loosing power and the source of the fire comes from the cylinder coils and spark plugs. 90% of the time if your losing power, you could have maybe just 1 coil bad. or maybe your spark plugs are carroding. you gotta check those things often. If it were my car, I would probably just replace all the cylinder coils b/c its inexpensive and it doesnt hurt to change them after as many miles as you have. And check the spark plugs, maybe replace those too its up to you. And then I'd do like what other ppl were saying, testing your fuel injectors and filters etc.

I can hear an air leak sound when I rev the car. I think it might be that. I would think the coils would last longer than 52,000 miles. The plugs are suppose to last 100,000 miles supposely according to GM. The plugs look hard to get to. I am going to start with the air noise and see what I can find. I have another vehicle that wore me out trying to figure out what was wrong with it. I still haven't figured it out and I swapped alot of stuff and money. Hopefully it is just something small that is holding it back some. I believe the coils can be tested in ohms.

Chevygirl, what motor do you have, I don't think you mentioned that anywhere?

If the motor is an LS1, then you have 8 coils. The only way that all 8 coils would be inexpensive is if you steel them.

Replacing all the ignition coils at 52,000 miles just because the motor feels down on power makes no sense. I'd be scanning for cylinder specific misfires and DTCs first, then ohm test each coil to see if one is significantly different than the others.

I would have to agree with this as well...

My brother was having a hard time with this same problem...

He was down on power and the car would kinda skip out or sputter at times...felt sluggish.

He cleaned his MAF REALLY well (But be careful,those thin wires are delicate!) and the hesitation stopped and the car felt much more "punchy" if you will...very responsive.

I believe the K&N filter was mentioned not because of it being dirty but more so because the oil (if over oiled or over time) can dirty your MAF sensor..

Beyond that you should check the cheapest things first of course...

Fuel filter

Check for vacuum leaks along the air intake tubing...etc...

Plugs/wires (if not the problem and yours are old,just think of it as maintenance)

Check fuel pressure (These cars seem to be notorious for failing fuel pumps!)

Check for codes

And please...if you find the answer to your problem,post up about what is was.Spread the knowledge for members having the same problems in the future! ;)

Good luck!

Where on the intake would there do a leak? Mine has clamps on them. Do those sometimes come loose? I do know how to check ohms. My car seems better since now I am on the new tank of gas. Still a little off. I hope I can figure out this air noise I am hearing. The car does not miss at idle at all. I have no codes on the scanner. What is the safest method to cleaning the maf sensor? My K&N is not new so it is not soaked in oil but I can see how that makes a difference.

you really dont need any injector cleaners. i bet you need to change your plugs/fuel filter.

I like using the BG 44k. We seel it at my work and use it in our services. From what Iv seen it works great :)

Do they clean the maf sensor when they do the fuel and air induction service at the dealer? I found the first clamp from the front on the air induction was not tight. I tightened all the way until it will not turn anymore. With a hose you can hear a slight different air noise at the tbi on one side. I didn't find any hose problems leaking. I can clean the maf next but I was not sure if I should take the whole air intake apart to get to it. The two middle clamps are turned down where I can't get to them.

Is it the wires on the maf sensor that can get messed up if you are not careful cleaning it? I just didn't want to mess anything up.

The BG service is excellent (used it myself) but the intank deal by itself is insufficient to clean, but good to maintain or accompany the real cleaning. The real cleaning is when the shop disconnects your fuel line and runs the car off the cleaner/gas mixture. It smokes like a seafoam treatment. Do that and change your fuel filter once a year. If you use Chevron or a cleaner preventatively, you can prolong the interval on the cleaning. Do the filter once a year.

Clean/change your air filter. MAF may or may not need cleaning at that mileage.

It's unlikely your plugs need changing at that mileage. Almost certainly doesn't need coil(s). If it did, you'd get codes, especially on the coils. Factory Delco plugs should go 100k+ with decent maintenance. Coils go a long ass time generally. The ignition system on these cars is very good. Most misfires are fuel related on our cars.

At that mileage the only thing you SHOULD need is a fuel filter (should be on AT LEAST the second or third one) and injector service. Anything else is an actual problem that needs to be fixed. An injector cleaning CAN fix a problem sometimes, like a sticky injector, so you can try that first since you need it anyway. Sometimes you have to do it to see if it fixes it. A good tech/service consultant should tell you that.

A combination induction and fuel system cleaning, like BG's, will not really clean the MAF. The cleaner is injected directly at two places - into the fuel system and directly onto the TB. A quality, thorough service (actually two) by a reputable shop will run around $200-250. The induction and fuel system services are separate, though many shops sell them as one.

A cleaning MAY fix your problem, and many times will, but they shouldn't sell it that way, IMO. Be wary if they tell you something vastly different. Sometimes you have to perform the fix to see if it fixes it, dirty injectors fall into this category. At that mileage, you have a high chance that they are dirty but a fairly slim chance that any are actually bad. It happens, but not really often.

Well guys it seems I got some bad gas. I am still going to get the BG fuel injection service done just for maintenance. Thanks guys!