my dealer is "strongly recommending" they clean the fuel injectors on my 2004 Prius... with 39,000 miles on it. Cost: $230.00. I see nothing in maintenance skeds or owners manual about this. Dealer is normally quite reputable but can't help thinking this is a money grab. Do injectors need to be cleaned, under normal conditions? Would appreciate comments from dealers as well as owners. Thanks!
I have never cleaned the fuel injectors on any vehicle I have owned. Maybe once a year or so I might throw in a bottle of Techron. Buddy of mine, a consulting electrical engineer who does a lot of RF Profiling for cell phone BST's, easily puts 50,000 miles a year on his pickup He had a 2002 Chevy Silvorado with 120,000 miles on it by 2004. He keeps meticulous records (Fuel, maintenance, etc) and thought it would be a good idea to have the injectors "professionally" cleaned by a shop. Paid $200. He compared the driveability before and after: no difference. He compared the fuel economy: still averaged 14 mpg, no difference Now, perhaps it would be a good idea to clean the throttle body, and mass air flow sensor. It's best to remove the MAF first. There are dedicated cleaners for TB's and MAF's. I have to clean the MAF on my FJ every spring and fall. It results in a noticeable improvement in driveability and fuel economy. YMMV If your Prius is running fine, don't touch it. Just continue routine maintenance I would consider changing the CVT fluid though
As you astutely sense, shops often "strongly recommend" stuff that lines their pockets. You are wise to verify with the maintenance schedule before committing to this or anything else they might strongly recommend in the future. The owner community (through PriusChat, for example) is probably a better resource for guidance on maintenance and repairs than many dealers, unfortunately for those dealers and their unwitting victims. Stories of a $300 15K mile generic maintenance package that includes unneeded (or on the Prius, even impossible) items are common. I do agree with Jayman that a CVT fluid change should be considered at some point, although some might suggest it's a little early for you at this point. (I did mine at 60K miles.) That's one item the maintenance schedule doesn't include and that the dealer won't typically recommend. There even are reports of dealers refusing to do it. But the collective owner experience suggests it's appropriate. Do a good search on transaxle fluid change for more.
Warning: There have been several reports here on PC of early catalyst failures paired with a previous fuel injector cleaning performed by the dealer. If they are not patient and perform the cleaning correctly, they can overheat and damage the cat. I would not allow them to do this service on my car unless I were having problems that could be proven to be related to partially clogged injectors. Even then, I would probably be very cautious about whether they could do this properly without damaging the cat.
If the car is running smooth and power is normal, no they don't need cleaning. Personally I wouldn't trust anyone with that service anyway, if done with chemicals. I would say a 200k service might include removing, testing, cleaning and replacing the injectors as necessary, as preventative maintenance. I have replaced a couple injectors myself on another car, but the failure was strictly electrical within the injector, and the car was twenty years old. Replaced them with used junk yard injectors that tested right for ohms, car was fine again. Don't fix it if it ain't broke, like above, is the short version.
Not sure how much Toyota injectors are, but for GM corporate brands, especially the V8's, one has a wide assortment of performance aftermarket injectors. The friend I mentioned, we looked into it afterwards and discovered for just $60 more, he could have replaced all 8 injectors with Accel performance injectors. When the truck had around 190,000 miles on it, he gave it to his oldest son. The son actually DID replace the injectos, as at that point there was a slight misfire at idle that changing the plugs and wires (The Vortec engines of that vintage use a short coil wire to each plug) did not help The new Accel injectors allowed it to run smooth again.
not worth it. The vehicles are designed to run 1,000x cleaner than before. The fuel you are burning is 1,000x cleaner than before.
Just went through that drill myself at my dealer. Its a good,better,best plan with the top plan being $399 includes "fuel injection cleaning" and analysis of brake fluid for contaminants. I said nope.... BUT, you are probably due for a throttle body cleaning. To check just pull the air cleaner lid off by releasing the clips, pull out the air filter element, and by turning the throttle body butterfly by hand on the pass side of the tb to open the thottle body flap peer done the throat of the TB with a flashlight. If you see any soot anywhere down there you can clean it quite easily. Search my back posts as I have a complete disertation on how to do it easily and safely. And I would think about changing th CVT fluid also not because of the miles but how old the car is. It has the original fluid in it. That fluid's been in there almost 7 years. Its pretty cheap to change it out. Good Luck!
