best fuel injector cleaner

What is a Fuel Injection System?

The fuel injection system of your car or truck is responsible for delivering gas to the engine. This is exactly why it’s so important to keep your system clean using fuel injector cleaner. Like most other equipment, your car parts work well when they’ve been properly cleaned.

Often what happens it that over time, combusted carbon can build up in the lines and parts of the system, causing issues with injection. You may notice over time when you use your vehicle that either your fuel consumption increases, or your idling isn’t as smooth. and this is the most probably reason why. This is when it’s time to clean your fuel, and combustion chamber.

Keeping each fuel injector of your engine (as well as the lines, carburetors, and all the other parts) clean and free of oil buildup is crucial, and using engine additives like these injector cleaners is the best way to do that. Finding a good additive that works is the first step to keeping your car functioning well, at proper fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.

Without a clean fuel system, Your car engine may not run as smoothly, produce as much horsepower, and you won’t get nearly as good of gas mileage due to improper fuel injection. The best fuel injector cleaners and other fuel additives we mention here are the easiest and fastest way to get yourself back to a clean engine, injectors, carburetors, and more convenient than rolling into the shop. If your fuel economy drops, your idle starts to change, or your engine starts to act funny, you want to use fuel injector cleaner as the first step and see if that helps before you make the trip to the mechanic. These products are a cheap fix to clean your fuel lines, and with a huge payoff.

What is Fuel Injector Cleaner?

Fuel system cleaner, or fuel injector cleaner, are fuel additives that help maintain your engine and fuel lines clean, and working at peak performance and economy. The best fuel injector cleaners are unique mixtures of various compounds – specific to each brand – that help clear out carbon deposits, lubricate the inner workings, plus giving you improved fuel economy and performance. You want your car at its best don’t you?

In other words, fuel injector cleaners are a cheap, and easy way to have your car or truck functioning at its optimal.

One thing to watch out for: the best fuel injector cleaners contain the chemical “P.E.A.” – an advanced chemical that work hard to dissolve the crud and buildup in your lines and engine. You want to make sure you pick products with P.E.A. in it. In this guide, we give you a few options to check out and then we’ll help you understand how these fuel injector additives should be used so that you get the most from them. (1

The Best Fuel Injector Cleaner of 2020

1. Lucas Complete Fuel Injector Cleaner

lucas bulk bottle

  • Cleans, lubricates and maintains entire fuel system
  • Gasoline or diesel engines
  • Realistic size and quantity for multiple treatments
  • Keeps engine, all valve parts like new
  • Built-in stabilizer reducing problems at startup
  • Popular with mechanics
  • Top rating for keeping fuel injectors clean
  • Fantastic reviews from users

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Lucas Fuel Additive is the best fuel injector cleaner for those of you who are looking to save a few bucks by buying in bulk. Lucas additives will effectively flush out the deposits from your fuel injectors, fuel lines, restoring your fuel economy, power and overall performance of your vehicle. The only downside is that you have to store this one gallon jug, but if you have the space, it shouldn’t be an issue. There’s enough in there to treat 400 gallons of fuel so you should be covered for a while, and at a fraction of the cost of smaller treatments. This product gets to work fast, cleaning out each and every fuel injector in your engine. Lucas is designed for use with gasoline or diesel engines.

Lucas’ fuel injector cleaner is not only the best bang for your buck, but it also works to improve the operation of your vehicles intake valves, and its lifespan. This is the best performer and it can end up saving you a ton of money for future maintenance and it’s no wonder it’s most buyers’ first pick. Most combustion chambers fill up with deposits and gunk, so every fuel injector can’t operate optimally. Lucas brand fuel injector cleaner wipes it clean and gives you back your want to drive – giving back performance, plus fuel economy.

In the Seafoam vs Lucas additives debate, Lucas fuel treatment wins almost every time. It’s just as strong, goes to work after just one or two runs, and is still cheaper than a single run of Seafoam. Lucas consistently achieves a high rating in any review. for While not all vehicles need to be cleaned regularly if you’ve got a car you use that’s more than a few years old we highly recommend pouring this in with every couple tanks to help your truck functioning smoothly and like new. Doing it when you change your oil is well timed. This is overall one of the best fuel injector cleaners you can grab for your vehicle, considering performance, price and reviews.

Check out the latest price of Lucas Complete Fuel Cleaner>>

2. Chevron Techron Plus Concentrate

chevron plus fuel injector cleaner

  • Very aggressive cleaning action
  • Removes water and moisture from engine
  • “Tune-up in a bottle”
  • Knocks loose grime and gunk inside system
  • Trusted product in Chevron/Techron Concentrate
  • For us with gasoline engines
  • Good for 20 gallons of fuel

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It should come as no surprise to see Chevron Techron Concentrate make the top of our list. The company that first patented the very additive that’s now found in all of the best fuel system cleaning solutions should definitely be one of your first choice. Techron Concentrate Plus is one of the best fuel injector cleaners for clients to need a strong product to breathe new life into an older automobile. This is one of those products that’s also recommended by most manufacturers. If you’re starting to have serious troubles with your vehicle, Techron Plus is the heavy muscle you want. We had an old mid-size Honda SUV that was approaching 19 years old. The car was new to us, but we’re pretty sure that it had never had the injectors cleaned. When accelerating from a stop, the car had very jerky movement and felt as if it was lacking power. We figured even one bottle is going to help, and damn this stuff works. We ran two bottles through. The first bottle of Chevron Plus helped smooth out the idle, but didn’t really help with the acceleration much. After pouring in a second bottle though, the vehicle’s performance drastically improved.

This brand of fuel injector additive is one of the most aggressive injector cleaning complete formulas on the market, and is best suited to vehicles with fuel systems that are starting to have performance issues. Bottom line, it just works. Our car was older, and also had throttle body injection. Although not as eco friendly, this older type of fuel injection can really take a lot more abuse than modern vehicles. Most modern vehicles have fuel injectors that inject straight into the cylinders. For these cars, your injectors really have to be functioning well. With this in mind, we recommend Techron Plus for an older model with serious problems, or any modern car/truck that hasn’t been properly cleaned at regular intervals. With this fuel injector treatment, you’ll want to add one bottle per 1/4 tank of gas or less. This gets the additive cleaning the engine as fast as possible. This is for use with gas engines only. It’s still one of the top picks that directly impacts a number of areas in your car – so expect the benefits to pay off immediately.

This is the brand name fuel system cleaner, and you are going to pay a premium for it. But, the positive reviews alone are worth it. While it can be a godsend for any vehicle that is experiencing problems if you’re just looking for something you can run through at regular intervals you might be better off with a cheaper solution.  Regardless, this is one of the best fuel injector cleaners you can buy. The results speak for themselves, especially on injectors of a well used car.

Check out the latest price of Chevron with Techron on Amazon>>

3. Red Line Complete

red line fuel cleaner

  • Best bang for buck product
  • Highest concentration of PEA/ml
  • Deep cleans entire fuel system, injectors, intake valves
  • Cylinder oil additive included
  • Improved acceleration and idling of engine
  • Improved fuel economy and engine performance
  • Cuts back harmful emissions, startup problems
  • Gasoline engines only
  • Trusted by garage owners

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Red Line is the best fuel injector cleaner to use for regular, complete maintenance. It has the highest concentration of P.E.A. per volumetric unit than other option on the market. Additionally, it contains a few additives such as cylinder lube oil which can help your engine operating smoothly by proper fuel injection. The combustion chambers in your engine gets gummed up with carbon, and other byproducts, that when there, the fuel injector can’t operate optimally. Cleaning that out is the secret to getting back to peak performance.

On older cars and trucks, adding a bit of cylinder oil is a good idea. Although you pay a little more for this option, anyone regularly putting fuel cleaner through their fuel tank will end up saving the time and also money required to oil their combustion chambers. In essence, you can look at this as a two in one solution in single bottle. For most, this is one of those products that will be a top fuel injector cleaner for them because it serves multiple purposes. In other words, Red Line fuel injector cleaner is great for one time use, or for regular maintenance for gasoline fuel systems. When you use it regularly, it goes to work better every time – but again, only for gas engines.

Another nice thing about this cleaner is that it’s designed to be used with a full tank of gas, and often. You just pop the gas cap and run the bottle through the tank. With lots of options you add the mixture to a nearly empty gasoline tank and idle your engine for a while to run some gas through. With this one, you pour the recommended amount into your near-empty tank of gas right before you fill up and the pump. When filling the tank, the cleaner is mixed up with the gas and gets to work cleaning your engine continually. With this Red Line injector cleaner, just pour it in and let it do its work.

This product is definitely designed to be used at regular intervals. They often recommend every 3000 miles, although you could easily go with leaving it to 5000 miles. Because of its aggressive composition, this is our sure pick for the best fuel injector cleaner on the market for a vehicle with neglected fuel injectors. Plus, the reviews speak for themselves, this product just works well.

Check out the latest price of Red Line>>

4. BG 44K Fuel System Cleaner

44K cleaner bottle

  • Conditions, cleans and lubricates internal system
  • Improved acceleration, gas mileage
  • Removes gasoline byproducts by cleaning out engine lines
  • Trusted by most mechanics’ reviews
  • Reduces harmful emissions in well used cars, other problems
  • Only for gasoline burning engines
  • One bottle good for 20+ gallons of fuel
  • Works well with use of full tank

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BG 44K fuel system cleaner is the secret weapon of lots of mechanics. Surprisingly, it’s not always available locally. But if you dig around online you’ll find it, and we’re willing to put money on the fact that you’ll find a few jugs on your favorite mechanic’s shelf. Most people consider BG44k to one of the best fuel injector cleaners as it is extremely potent and designed to clean your fuel injectors that are on the brink of failure. It’s not always available at every gas station, but it’s often available for a great price on Amazon.

This package above is an all-in-one fuel injector cleaning formula deal where you can have three cans plus a funnel to pour it out easily. When your fuel injection isn’t occurring right, you’ll know it, and this is another fairly aggressive additive that is suitable for cleaning lots of combustion chamber gunk out with just one usage. BG 44K is the fuel injector cleaner for consumers with rough, poorly operating gasoline engines that needs a deep clean. Unlike the Red Line, BG44K fuel treatment isn’t something you necessarily have to use all the time. Simply run a can of fuel cleaner through your tank if you’re having any problems with your fuel system, then move on to a cheaper option if you’re looking to regularly maintain a clean engine, intake valves and the rest of your system.

Many consumers have noticed that their engine run like new: more smoothly and makes more power after using this cleaner, thanks to a cleaner combustion chamber and intake valves. Often even modern models can also see an improvement in fuel economy.

One key thing that you need to know is that this cleaner is not suitable for diesel vehicles or LPG fired engines. It needs to be added to a a full tank of gas, but this complete formulation can foul diesel fuel. This is one of those products that is strictly for gasoline engines, so have that in mind.

Check the latest price of BG44K>>

5. Liqui Moly Fuel Injection Cleaner

liqui moly injector cleaner

  • Aggressively cleans combustion chamber
  • Smooths out idle of car engine, other problems
  • Great for older vehicles with problems, and neglected systems
  • Reduces issues at ignition, cleans injectors
  • Clears out carbon build up in lines
  • Not for diesel running cars or trucks, just gas
  • Trusted German engineered product
  • Cuts back on harmful emissions from vehicle

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Not all fuel system cleaners are created equal, and Liqui Moly injection cleaner is a good example of that. Quality made in Germany, by a company known for its premium oil and lube products, and fuel injector cleaners, so it’s no wonder this is one of the top quality products you can grab for getting back to your vehicle’s optimal fuel injection.

The secret to Liqui Moly’s great cleaning action is a unique additive of Molybdenum disulfide. It’s an impressive lubricator for your internal components and fuel system. It’s a great product to first clean out carbon, gunk and grime, and then follow up with lubrication. When a fuel line gets partially clogged it stops your cars ability to generate power. The key to maintaining your entire fuel system is to maintain the internal components clean, often using a product like this. Ideally for best results, you may want to use this cleaner when you’re at less than 1/4 tank of gas. This is also one of the products you’ll want to use a couple times to get the most out of it – you don’t just brush your teeth one time, do you?

Almost every user of Liqui Moly reports an improved idle, greater fuel economy, and also sometimes increased acceleration and power. It’s a highly recommended for cleaning out the carbon from old vehicles or neglected systems, due to its aggressive cleaning action, plus superior lubrication. But, have in mind you may need a couple of treatments to notice the difference. All in all, this is definitely one of the best injection cleaners available on the market to keep your rig humming like new.

Check the latest price of Liqui Moly>>

6. Gumout High Mileage Fuel System Cleaner

gumout fuel system cleaner

  • Fights ethanol and water corrosion
  • Prevents further buildups in engine
  • Conditions the upper cylinders of high mileage vehicles
  • Improves performance and gas mileage after one bottle
  • Popular among car enthusiasts
  • Works well to reduce emissions
  • Good for around 20 gallons of fuel

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Gumout’s high mileage fuel system cleaner is no joke and will solve a lot of your engine problems. With large amounts of P.E.A., Gumout’s specialized complete formula gets to work fast, and also, the effects last for months. Users report great results:  improved mileages and reduced emissions after just a single treatment. This happens as a result of carbon deposits in the fuel system and combustion chambers being removed, allowing proper fuel injection from the fuel injectors. Remember, a fuel injector is the key to proper function in the engine. The single easiest and fastest way to improve your fuel economy is to use this product. In short, it works well – need we say much more?

Many people who used this 6 ounce size motor additive from Gumout also reported an increase in acceleration and horsepower from their cars. You don’t realize how much stuff a combustion engine leaves behind, especially after 10+ years of operation. For just a few bucks you can give your car the tune up it needs with a single bottle of cleaning action. A fuel line can get even partially clogged and the use of a product like Gumout can give you back your cars power.

Fuel additives like fuel injector cleaners sometimes are scoffed at by some folks. However, this is just another example of a product that consistently improves fuel efficiency, cleans out and also lubricates the combustion chambers and also works to get each fuel injector go back to working at it’s optimal. It’s just one of those additives that works, and gets your engine power back to like new.

Remember, for most vehicles, especially a well used car, you’ll need a couple of treatments. But all in all, Gumout’s one of the highest concentrations of PolyEtherAmine, most aggressive fuel system cleaners you can find. Just ensure you buy the high mileage version, it’s got better cleaning power. Gumout is the best fuel injector cleaner available on the market for old, maintenance neglected vehicles and injectors.

Check the Current Price of Gumout >>

7. Royal Purple Fuel Additive

royal purple bottle

  • Good value product, great results
  • Best results from repeated applications
  • Difference noticed after one bottle, for 20 gallons
  • Improves idle and fuel mileage, other problems
  • Decreases emissions from car
  • Popular choice among budget buyers
  • Works well with repeated use, every 3000 miles
  • Decreases fuel consumption of car

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Royal Purple is another brand of fuel injector cleaners that produces quality and trusted auto oils, lubricants and additives. Their fuel line treatments are no exception, and as a result has a deserved spot on our list. Their mixture has a good amount of P.E.A., making it a fairly concentrated injector cleaner, so you can trust it’s actually working well on your car engine and parts, and you’re not just wasting your time and money. This is one of the most affordable treatments available as well, although like with the others, you may need more than one bottle to get the desired effect.

The low price is mainly due to how it’s meant to be used – it’s not completely hands free maintenance. It doesn’t have that ultra-aggressive chemical composition that’s designed to remove years of deposits. Instead, this is something that you add the tank every so often to help maintain a properly functioning engine operating well. Royal Purple is a popular fuel treatment for engines in areas where the fuel quality is low, as it provides an improvement in engine’s ability to run smoothly and also increase your engine performance. Alternatively, this is a great choice to use after you’ve cleaned your engine with one of the more aggressive options to remove buildup. For an older well used car with filthy injectors, you’ll definitely need a few treatments.

Despite it’s affordable price, Royal Purple is a great product and has also been highly reviewed by many people who found it worked very well. This is the best fuel injector on the market for maintaining your fuel system without breaking the bank. It works well, and that’s all you should care about.

Check the latest price of Royal Purple>>

How to Use Fuel Injector Cleaners: 

  1. Choose the correct type of fuel injector cleaner for your engine and system: The majority of fuel injector cleaners work with all fuel (gasoline, diesel, ethanol etc.) but some don’t and might cause even more problems with your injectors if you use it. Just make sure you check the label and also confirm it’s going to be the right fit for your vehicle.
  2. Use the correct amount of injector cleaner: This should be clearly laid out on the label. In general for most injectors, 1 or 2 bottles is enough for most systems, but if you have a larger gas tank you may need more.
  3. Ensure your fuel level is low for best results: It’s best to use your fuel injector cleaner with less fuel in the system, so that the ratio of cleaner to fuel is higher, providing more contact with the injectors.
  4. Pour the cleaner straight into your tank: Just like you were filling it with gas, pop the lid off and drain the contents of the bottle into the fuel tank. Please ensure your vehicle is off, though I hope that goes without saying.
  5. Fill the entire fuel tank with fuel: Now that you’ve got the injector cleaner into the system, go fill up so that you’ve got lots of fuel circulating it around and around in the engine and through the injectors.
  6. Empty the fuel tank by going for a nice drive: It’s usually recommended to do some highway driving after a fuel system cleaning application. It keeps the pressure of your fuel system higher, resulting in great cleaning action. It also helps to have your vehicle running at slightly higher RPMs during this cleaning drive, so don’t be afraid to accelerate a little faster than usually. This forces the injectors to really circulate the formula.
  7. Repeat every 3000 miles: The best performing vehicle is one that is pre-emptively maintained, which includes injectors. The best way to ensure your fuel injectors are clean? Cleaning them! You don’t just sweep the floors in your house once and they’re good forever, the deposits build up and so it’s important to frequently flush out the injectors, and the rest of the engine.

How does the Best Fuel Injector Cleaner Work?

In your typical gasoline engine (99.9% of vehicles on the road), fuel injectors squirt liquid fuel which is then burned. When you burn anything, you’re not transforming the solid matter into energy (if you could, you’d solve the majority of problems on Earth), however, rather releasing stored energy in the fuel along with whatever byproducts are released in the engine. (2)

combustion inside cylinder

 

Gasoline burns in engines, most of it is released as a fuel byproducts, venting emissions out of your exhaust pipe. But, the combustion process is never perfect, and also, not all of your gasoline is released in gas-form as exhaust. Think of this like a campfire: The large majority of your wood produces fire and smoke (energy and fuel), but you’re left with the coals (leftover solids). Plus, this is essentially what happens inside your engine: as gasoline produces “fire” (energy) and exhaust (gasoline byproduct) it still leaves behind solid fuel deposits inside your engine and fuel injectors. This is what fuel injector cleaning is intended for: to remove these deposits from your fuel injectors. In essence, it’s a cleaning product for not only your injectors, but also your combustion chambers.

clogged with carbon deposits

The fuel deposits build up on the internal components of your engine (including the fuel injectors), reducing the fuel flow necessary for a properly functioning engineEnd result is loss of power. Engines function from a using an optimal mixture of gasoline and air to produce an engine-specific combustion chambers reaction and the fuel deposits can mess with that perfect fuel balance. As they build up in your fuel injectors (over the years) can cause a variety of problems including: reduced fuel mileage, rough idling, smoke, and reduced power. You can think of this like what happens when the arteries of someone with atherosclerosis. Eating too much fatty foods builds up in your arteries forming plaques which reduce blood flow and also cause less-than-optimal performance. So, we need to get in there and clean it out! (2)

comparing clean cylinder heads vs dirty ones

The deposits in your car, however, are almost entirely carbon-based, and if we’re getting chemically technical, carboxyl compounds, and as a result can be quite difficult to remove. Thankfully, there is a chemical that is specifically designed to dissolve these carboxyl deposits, and its name is polyetheramine, or PEA for short. While there are several different solvents and chemicals in fuel injector cleaner, PEA is hands down the most powerful and also effective at removing fuel deposits. PEA is also known by the name Techron, a mixture patented by Chevron. We won’t get into the chemistry of it, but basically PEA dissolves the fuel deposits, allowing them to be “washed” away safely by your fuel system. And now we’ve reached the truth about fuel injectors. (3)

If your fuel additive does not contain any (or enough) PEA, it likely won’t do anything for your fuel injectors.

*Quick Note: This is why Chevron advertises its gasoline as having this chemical since it can help the maintenance of your injector due to the presence of PEA. But, the chemical in the gasoline is in very small amounts and if you’ve never done it, your vehicle could probably benefit from some cleaner. 

What You Should Look For in a Fuel System Cleaner

We now know that the most active ingredient in fuel system cleaner is polyetheramine (PEA). Some brands of fuel injector cleaner fuel the misconception (sorry for the pun) that these concentrated cleaners work on your fuel injectors, since they don’t include PEA in their recipes, or at least not enough to be active, instead filling their bottles with alcohols, kerosene or other fillers. Without PEA, this isn’t really an effective fuel treatment and you won’t see much difference to your fuel economy or any other engine trait. To help you find the right one, we’ve put together a quick comparison of the top choices on the market. We’ll show you which are the strongest, which are the safest, and which can most effectively maintain your fuel injectors spick and span. It’s great not to need to continue doing this all the time as well, so that’s why you want one that’s high quality with lots of poletheramine.

PEA-free fuel injector cleaner products aren’t totally bunk. In some cases where you have an old, filthy engine, running a few bottles through before you run a PEA cleaner can help remove the big bulky chunks of combustion deposits from your cylinders and fuel injectors. But for most consumers, this is unnecessary. Alcohol based fuel injector cleaners for fuel injectors are often used with old vehicles that barely run, and these types of repairs should be carried out by a certified mechanic. Most consumers are simply looking to keep their fuel injectors operating well, or troubleshoot moderate performance issues. If your car still runs, you want PEA fuel injector cleaners. At the end of the day, you want to make your car optimally, and it’s just always better to buy one with PEA.

When it’s time to use your fuel injector cleaner, you most typically just pour the entire jug of concentrated fuel injector cleaner down an almost entirely empty gasoline tank. It’s also recommended by some people to treat with fuel cleaner every oil change, which is likely a little overkill. For a ~$10 fuel cleaner treatment every other oil change, though, you can potentially extend the fuel consumption and lifespan of your fuel injectors.(4)

We’ve given you a rough idea of what to look for in a fuel injector cleaner, however, there is still quite a lot of difference between specific brands. Up next, we’ll be going through and showing you our favorite fuel injector cleaners. We’ll go through each product one by one and show you what it has to offer. After, we’ll help you select the one that’s right for you and your fuel injectors.

How Many Types of Fuel Injector Cleaners Are There?

Fuel injectors have been around for quite some time, and over the years this technology has changed dramatically. Usually, most manufacturers make engines with 6 fuel injectors, for better performance. But again, because technology changes over time, not all fuel injectors are alike. To understand the different types of fuel injectors out there, check out our detailed writeup on the topic.

Can I use These Fuel System Cleaners on Diesel Engines?

No! Diesel engines have different fuel injectors as well as a unique combustion chamber. There are fuel injector cleaners made specifically for diesel, however the type of product in this review are not specifically for use with diesel fuel. You may want to make sure you find one that is for diesel use before you ruin your entire fuel system! Better safe than sorry.

How to Diagnose Clogged Fuel Injectors

If your car is totally undriveable, it’s possible that you may have another more serious issue. We wrote up a diagnostic guide to help you identify the issue, so be sure to check it out if you believe that your fuel delivery system is fully clogged or if it’s possibly just a single fuel injector not working at full potential. If you’ve just noticed that your fuel consumption has significantly increased, it might just be time to use some fuel injector cleaner products and see if that remedies the problem.

Are Fuel Injector Cleaners Good for Preventative Maintenance?

The Jury is still out on this topic for these injector cleaners. Some people believe that fuel injector cleaner is an essential maintenance item that shouldn’t be skipped. Others think that these cleaners are a waste of money. After all, if you may not have a major problem, then why spend the money? Most folks notice their fuel consumption increase over time, and fuel injection cleaners is the cheapest and quickest way to fix that.

Here’s the thing: in a perfect world, your fuel injectors should NEVER get dirty. If a car is driven every day and maintained properly, these things are designed to work for the life of your car. But there has been a lot of changes and improvements to injector fuel flow. Summer and winter fuel is different, and these may be all around different fuel formulations that were out when the car was designed. Ethanol based fuel in particular can cause problems with other fuel injectors.

But there is an if: and it’s a pretty big one. Sometimes, we don’t operate under ideal circumstances. And also, there are lots of scenarios that manufacturers don’t account for.

For example, fuel goes bad. If you park your car for a couple months while you’re on a top or simply not using it, the gasoline will degrade and can cause issues within your engines combustion chambers. Additionally, fuel stations occasionally have contaminants introduces into their fuel tanks. These contaminants can build up and start to reduce the performance of your engine. And that’s where a fuel injector cleaner product can swoop in and save the day.

Finally, there is the possibility of contaminants being introduced from within the cylinder through the fuel injectors. High mileage vehicles will have carbon deposits – a normal byproduct of combustion. Forgetting to change your oil regularly can also cause these issues. If this buildup touches your injectors, you’ll start to have problems.

Fuel additives such as fuel injector cleaner are designed to address and mitigate these risks. Personally, we put a bottle in every oil change. But we aren’t rolling around in brand new cars either. On high mileage vehicles that have been sitting, we might run one once a month. On newer vehicles, we’ll throw a bottle in anytime we know that the car has been sitting for a while, or if we’ve had less than perfect maintenance habits.

Some people like to wait until there is a problem. But if the problem is serious, it could cost you $1200 at a mechanic instead of $15 using one of the best fuel injector cleaners on this list.

What’s the Best Fuel System Cleaner to Fix Dead Fuel Injectors?

While these products have helped lots of consumers improve the fuel delivery of their vehicles, there is still a limit to what they can do. Years of neglecting to clean your fuel injectors will eventually lead to a engine that just doesn’t have power. Once you get to this point, or amount of commercially available chemicals can help you. Often, your engine will require a complete rebuild by a professional.

Fuel injector cleaner should be used before your fuel injectors and valves gets to that point. Just like regular oil changes, cleaning your fuel injectors is essential when it comes to getting a long life out of your engine..

Do you use a different product for cleaning your fuel injectors and valves? There are more products out there that work, these are just our favorites. Always read the reviews and see if PEA is an active ingredient, and drop us a comment and let us know the best fuel injector cleaner in your opinion!

Resources:

  1. Cole, C. (2018, July 14). Should I Use Fuel Injector Cleaner? ” AutoGuide.com News. Retrieved December 20, 2019, from https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/04/should-i-use-fuel-injector-cleaner-.html.
  2. Energy Effeciancy, O. O. (2013, November 22). Internal Combustion Engine Basics. Retrieved December 20, 2019, from https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/internal-combustion-engine-basics.
  3. Cruodace, M. C. (1989, April 22). US4844717A – Fuel composition and method for control of engine octane requirements. Retrieved December 20, 2019, from https://patents.google.com/patent/US4844717A/en.
  4. Cole, C. (2018, November 21). Is Carbon Buildup a Problem With Direct-Injection Engines? ” AutoGuide.com News. Retrieved December 20, 2019, from https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2015/01/is-carbon-buildup-a-problem-with-direct-injection-engines-.html.
  5. Mon, S. S. (2019, September 10). Chemicals used in professional fuel injector cleaning machines. Retrieved December 20, 2019, from http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5209113/chemicals-used-in-professional-fuel-injector-cleaning-machines.

 

James Kennedy