Thread: DIY Cleaning Fuel Injectors?

I've discussed cleaning injectors with a few people, one a member on here, and it is possible and is pretty easy to remove the injectors, but with the cost of a replacement used injector being so low, there isn't a lot of need to clean them. If it something you wanted to do as a hobby and enjoyed it, you could probably get set up and clean them for people, but I have no idea if it would be worth your time. I think the most useful part of messing with injectors would be a flow testing station.

I have gotten good results having them cleaned. In addition to the ultrasonic cleaning, you get new pintle caps, o-rings and internal filters. My results here. Cost was $20 each.

Originally Posted by Burbman

I have gotten good results having them cleaned. In addition to the ultrasonic cleaning, you get new pintle caps, o-rings and internal filters. My results here. Cost was $20 each.

I would never pay more than half the price of new for cleaning old. All the o-rings and accessories come with the new. I noticed in the thread you were talking about that, the shiny science-fiction type terms they used to charge people all that much, but I feel that cleaning is cleaning and can be done by yourself in a good weekend.
I may do it if the whole thing is $40-75.

Originally Posted by SgtMarshal

I've discussed cleaning injectors with a few people, one a member on here, and it is possible and is pretty easy to remove the injectors, but with the cost of a replacement used injector being so low, there isn't a lot of need to clean them. If it something you wanted to do as a hobby and enjoyed it, you could probably get set up and clean them for people, but I have no idea if it would be worth your time. I think the most useful part of messing with injectors would be a flow testing station.

I totally agree that replacing with new is a good option, but replacing all with no solid diagnosis is like throwing cash away ($150-200 online OEM value, much more dealer prices).
I'm thinking about building a liquid level comparison kind of device that compares the levels of what all the injectors spill when given short and fast pulses alternatively. Then clean the different ones if applicable (saves $30-50 each) and/or replace only the bad ones.
The whole setup should be next to free and it's meant to be preventative and to lengthen the lifetime of injectors and enhance mileage and performance. I think it's something to do once a year or every 50K miles.

The Bosch OE are $48 on Rock Auto, AC Delco are $80, you can get remans for $28, but the remanufacturing process is the same as the ASNU cleaning process. Either way, having them cleaned locally for $20 is still a good value IMHO.

This car has 103k miles now, I don't know the history of Seafoam/Techron usage by the PO, but experts generally say that no amount of on-car cleaning can match the ASNU process.

It's your nickel, I was just passing along my experience/results.

you can often find a set of used injectors on here very inexpensively. I've sold a couple sets for 20 dollars, and have heard of several other people doing the same thing. it is not difficult to diagnoses a faulty injector, I have a neighbor who had a bad misfire, the check engine code pinpointed the injector, we replaced it, and fixed the misfire.

Originally Posted by SgtMarshal

you can often find a set of used injectors on here very inexpensively. I've sold a couple sets for 20 dollars, and have heard of several other people doing the same thing. it is not difficult to diagnoses a faulty injector, I have a neighbor who had a bad misfire, the check engine code pinpointed the injector, we replaced it, and fixed the misfire.

The only misfire that ever happened to me was when my ignition module died and cost me a fortune to replace. That's how big a deal a misfire for me is. I'm very far away from that and don't have any real problem or codes.
I'm talking about a preventative thing to do once a year or so, just like flushing the coolant system or cleaning the tbi, ...etc..