Is the fuel-injection cleaning sold by many independent garages and dealerships a sound investment in your vehicle, or a marginally beneficial service pushed on consumers to fatten profits?
Fuel-injection service is part of a bigger trend in automotive maintenance that includes such procedures as flushes for crankcases, power-steering pumps and cooling systems, as well as for differentials and other lubricated parts.
How are you supposed to react when a service advisor tells you that your throttle body needs to be cleaned at a cost of $80? Or that your intake manifold is so dirty that it is causing performance loss and poor fuel economy?
Alice Cassidy, owner of a 1997 Ford Escort, has received mailed solicitations for a fuel-injection cleaning at the routine three-month visit to her garage. But the car has only 17,590 miles on it.
"Does it really improve a car's performance?" Cassidy wonders.
Before you shell out a dollar on any of this stuff, it would be useful to know something about fluid changes and the cost of these exotic flushes.
If you read your owner's manual carefully--something most motorists never do--you will probably find no recommendation or even a mention of a power-steering flush or fuel-injection service or any of those other expensive cleanings.
Generally, auto makers are trying to design mechanical systems that require far less maintenance, not more. That has given rise to 100,000-mile tuneup intervals on many new models, elimination of transmission fluid changes and far less frequent oil changes.
So auto makers are telling owners they don't need to spend as much to take care of their cars and trucks. But some dealerships are saying almost the opposite: that you need more than ever to flush out dirty fluids frequently or run the risk of major repair bills.
It would be nice if General Motors or Honda said in huge letters in their owner's manuals: "Don't flush out the fluid in your power-steering pump because, if it were important, we would tell you ourselves." If they did that, however, every dealership and garage would be up in arms.
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It's not hard to see why. A fuel-injection cleaning typically costs $69, justified mostly by the roughly one hour of labor charged for the service. In fact, it takes less than an hour for a mechanic to perform the service. That makes for a nice profit.
