How often do you clean fuel injectors and how?

[Justin J]

I know most people would just dump sea foam or the like to the fuel tank.

Has anyone performed a DEDICATED cleaning? Such as by taking out the fuel injectors. How often do you do that? Are they dirty or clogged or leaking?

Thanks!

 

[J_C]

I never do it. I might if a vehicle had been sitting around unused and the gas turned to varnish. Otherwise, any gas station selling top tier or equivalent fuel should keep them clean enough from the detergent pack in it. If in doubt I would put a double strength dose of Techron fuel system cleaner in the tank and run it a few dozen+ miles.

Why are you asking? If you suspect a problem, I'd look at whether there are misfires, or difficulty starting in very cold weather but the battery is strong and cranking the engine fast still, yet you have newer plugs and wires in it, and even then, I'd pull the plugs and look at them, whether any cylinder's plugs look washed clean from unburnt fuel.

 

[94Eddie]

I know most people would just dump sea foam or the like to the fuel tank.

Has anyone performed a DEDICATED cleaning? Such as by taking out the fuel injectors. How often do you do that? Are they dirty or clogged or leaking?

I have owned fuel injected vehicles since 1987. In all this time I have never pulled the fuel injectors to clean them. I have never had one go bad on me. Any fuel related problems I have had has been the result of a bad fuel pump, a clogged fuel filter or a bad pressure regulator. I have had issues where I thought it was a fuel problem and it turned out to be an ignition issue. Once it was a bad coil. Another time it was a corroded distributor cap. Just lately with my 2010 Mountaineer it was excessively worn spark plugs that wouldn't reliably ignite the fuel in the cylinder on cold starts. It would either flood out or take a long time cranking to start the engine. I new set of spark plugs solved the problem completely.

Anything can happen but the odds of having a bad injector on an engine that hasn't been sitting for years is rare in my experience. There are plenty of YouTube videos covering the topic of cleaning injectors. Everything from DIY methods to using a dedicated machine to clean and flow test them at the same time.

 

[Josh P]

I've never pulled fuel injectors to clean them. When the engine needs a summer's eve treatment, I mix 10% acetone with the gas and some marvel mystery oil. Same treatment works great in a diesel. Looks like tracer rounds coming out the exhaust stacks with the engine brake on.

 

[Justin J]

Thank you all! I asked because of this issue: Help - Car occasionally won’t start until I give a little bit of gas when hot

LEAKY fuel injectors are the suspect now, after some extensive research on this issue!

I’ll do a injector cleaning without taking them out first and see if it helps. Eventually I’ll take them out and do a deep cleaning. I wish I had done it last time when I changed the valve cover seals.